Copyright Regime vs. Civil Liberties (OSCON'07 Keynote speech)

O'Reilly Net publishing ^ | Thursday, July 26 2007 | Rick Falkvinge

[JerseyHighlander]

Keynote

Copyright Regime vs. Civil Liberties

Rick Falkvinge

Date: Thursday, July 26

Time: 9:30am - 9:45am

Location: Portland Ballroom

Rick Falkvinge, the founder of the Swedish Pirate Party and the international politicized pirate movement, talks about the rise and success of pirates, and why pirates are necessary in today's politics. He'll also outline the next steps in the pirates' strategy to change global copyright laws.

The fight against copyright aggression tends to focus on economic aspects of the shift to a networked economy. Falkvinge explains how this conflict is much more important than that: the fight against the copyright regime is about the right to fundamental civil liberties -- down to the postal secret, whistleblower protection, freedom of the press, and the very right to an identity.

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[JerseyHighlander]

Thought this might be an interesting video to watch for Freepers. Note that Rick Falkvinge did a circuit of speeches, including Open Source Convention 2007, and Stanford University, and at the Google Campus, on this subject. He got grilled by attendees about much of the same arguments we have here on FR.

[JerseyHighlander]

There is now an audio recording of Rick Falkvinge's essentially identical talk at CyberSalon, Berkeley Hillside Club on July 29, including the following panel debate with questions and answers. A partial transcript of Rick's main points is also available.

Basically the same talk, but extended with more material about copyright and business history into a near hour-long presentation, was given at Google (video, including slideshow) and Stanford (photo with comments) on July 31.

[proxy_user]

Some people, when they see “O’Reilly”, think of books on Unix shell scripting with cute animals on the cover.

Others do not.

[Philly Nomad]

53 MBs and I’m going to have to download the flv codecs - but that won’t stop me from commenting.

Bittorrent, Kazza and other file sharing systems are nothing more than stealing. But then again, so is taping songs off the radio, making mix tapes, and having friends over for the MLB games.

People don’t want to steal, but they would rather steal than get ripped off. It’s one thing to be a thief, another to be a sucker.

When I was in Hong Kong, I would download Lost, House, South Park, sporting events and a few other shows because I couldn’t get them. But we would buy the Lost, House South Park, etc DVD packages when they came out because the price increase was worth the quality increase, in addition people should get paid for their work.

The Music Industry is different, because regardless of how many albums you download, you are not screwing over the artist as bad as the Major Labels have done for the last 100 years. This is just revenge of the peasants

If the Music industry is serious about combating piracy, they need to cut the price of a new CD to under 10 bucks. I would go into J&R when they would have some of their massive sales, drop $120 dollars and pick up 11 CD’s. Pick up three at 8, four at 9, 2 at 10, and because I felt like I was getting a bunch of great deals, I’d buy two CD’s at full price and one of them being a risk. Now I go into a record store, and there’s nothing under 15 dollars and that makes me much more reluctant to buy something from somebody I know I’m going to like - especially when i can get it for free.

[muawiyah]

Any CD over $2.00 is a ripoff. I’ll do without music rather than pay extortionate prices.

[Huck]

Any CD over $2.00 is a ripoff.

Yer completely insane. How many CDs have you produced? That's what I thought.

[muawiyah]

Maybe half a ton ~ how many have you produced?

There's no reason they can't be marketed for far lower prices. Besides, the musicians and music writers aren't getting all that much out of them, and yet modern technology should have eliminated the high production costs associated with vinyl records.

[proxy_user]

Yeah, unless you are actually producing vinyl records. They are $15-30 now.

[Philly Nomad]

actually muawiyah is partly insane, not completely.

In the free market, the actual cost of the product has little to do with the selling price, it has to do with the consumer’s desire.

If he’s not a music person, then he’s going to view any musical CD as overpriced. Music has no value for him.

Think if you were shopping for a new suit, the salesman shows you a $400 suit. The suit is made from the finest materials, a big name designer, well constructed, but you think it’s ugly as hell. Is the suit worth $400 to you? Of course not, you aren’t going to buy anything that makes you look ugly. The salesman says, for you a special price $200? Still going to buy nope. Exhaustedly, the salesman offers you the suit for $50. Would you buy the suit? Well Maybe, then again maybe not.

[muawiyah]

The customers "desires" do boost the price and the marketers take advantage of the desires.

At the same time the marketers of CDs have raised prices beyond the pricepoint set by the level of desire with the consequence that they lose sales.

To make up for lost income they thought they deserved they've boosted the prices even higher.

Interestingly enough the record clubs (BMG is a good example) do not accept "returns" on undeliverable CDs ~ they make arrangements with the post office to dump the stuff ~ so, if you want that $18 a copy Amy Winehouse album find out where the post office contract trash hauler tips and go there and wait. Beat the price spread every single time.

So, whatever the cost of the CDs, it's low enough that the biggest direct sale distributors would rather toss them away than get them back.

[PGalt]

Very interesting topic. Thanks for posting.

[zeugma]

Bittorrent, Kazza and other file sharing systems are nothing more than stealing.

News to me. I do a lot of downloading with bittorrent, and all of it is completely legal. I don't think there is another way to get Knoppix. 

[zeugma]

Interestingly enough the record clubs (BMG is a good example) do not accept "returns" on undeliverable CDs ~ they make arrangements with the post office to dump the stuff ~ so, if you want that $18 a copy Amy Winehouse album find out where the post office contract trash hauler tips and go there and wait. Beat the price spread every single time.

So, whatever the cost of the CDs, it's low enough that the biggest direct sale distributors would rather toss them away than get them back.

 Very interesting.
 

[Logophile]

People don’t want to steal, but they would rather steal than get ripped off. It’s one thing to be a thief, another to be a sucker.

If people really don't want to steal, they should not steal.

You are not getting "ripped off" when someone charges a price that is too high for your tastes. You always have the option of not buying. In contrast, the copyright holder is being ripped off when someone copies his work without paying for it.

The Music Industry is different, because regardless of how many albums you download, you are not screwing over the artist as bad as the Major Labels have done for the last 100 years. This is just revenge of the peasants

Let me get this straight: You believe that record companies should pay the artists more, so you are going to help the artists by paying them nothing. Is that right?

[DesScorp]

I’m an enthusiastic Open Source advocate, but not a member of the Free Software movement...there are big differences, as Richard Stallman will no doubt tell you. And a guy in a “Pirate Party” just needs his ass whipped. It’s like saying “join the Burglar’s Party....and we’ll tell you why we’re necessary in society”.

[tarheelswamprat]

Some people, when they see “O’Reilly”, think of books on Unix shell scripting with cute animals on the cover.

Others do not.

That would be those who know the difference between "sed and awk" and a "brain-dead squawk"...

[Philly Nomad]

Nope, Americans really don’t have sympathy for the Wicked.

If the producer of the arts were receiving a greater share of the 20 bucks per album, I’m betting less people would be stealing the work.