[cc-licenses] ParaDist Questions

Terry Hancock hancock at anansispaceworks.com
Mon Dec 4 07:43:49 EST 2006


Benj. Mako Hill wrote:
> None of the usual suspects have yet responded to the analogy James and I
> made between DRM and other technological barriers to modification in our
> essay. I think it's instructive so I'd love the response from
> drew/Rob/Greg/Terry/whoever.

Yes, I've been offline for about a week, and am just catching up on this
discussion. :-)

> In the essay, we used the example of a mobile phone but I think I can do
> better here:
> 
>   Let's say that there is a popular piece music under a permissive
>   CC license. Now let suppose that a manufacturer of electronic
>   greeting cards and small musical snow-globes wants to use that
>   piece of music as part of their cards and music boxes. Neither
>   devices have the ability to modify the music or even to copy it
>   off.

This is a nice example, thanks.

> First, is this a violation of the current anti-TPM language?

IMHO: no it is not.

The device is simply not capable of being downloaded in the normal way.
This is not a restriction artificially imposed as a TPM, it's just a
property of the device. The "platform owner" (the printer) has the same
problem if he wants to download from it that I do. Furthermore, I can,
with the same ease as the platform owner, capture the music from the
device (e.g. by recording it), and put it into another greeting card
chip using the same kind of fab hardware that he uses.

This is actually almost identical to a printed or other "offline" work,
and there is CC license FAQ entry dedicated to the proper handling of CC
licenses for offline works.

> It seems to
> me that it probably is. If you think that is not, I'd love to hear why
> you think that technical restriction is fundamentally different between
> a greeting card and DRM. The key difference seems to be intentionality,
> but the license doesn't talk about that and probably shouldn't.

I do think you are not recognizing the difference between a
"technological protection measure" which has a special status under law
(i.e. under the DMCA in the US or similar laws enacted outside the US),
and the mere fact of something being technically difficult or impossible
(but without any legal backing).

I agree that it is a poor situation, but in fact, "TPM" is itself
*defined* by "intentionality", so it's necessary that we acknowledge that.

> If so, why is DRM different?

Because the law grants it special status.

And understanding that is *critical* to understanding the whole issue.
If there were no laws like the DMCA, then this would be largely a non-issue.

Cheers,
Terry

-- 
Terry Hancock (hancock at AnansiSpaceworks.com)
Anansi Spaceworks http://www.AnansiSpaceworks.com




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