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cc-bizcom - Re: [Cc-bizcom] Why market-forces can't correct DRM

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Subject: A discussion of hybrid open source and proprietary licensing models.

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  • From: Marshall Van Alstyne <marshall AT MIT.EDU>
  • To: cc-bizcom <cc-bizcom AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Cc-bizcom] Why market-forces can't correct DRM
  • Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2004 19:46:26 -0400

Whoa, here's a guy who bought a system capable of recording to one format only to have the rights to do so revoked at a later point!

There are probably at least two different kinds of recourse.

1) If the hardware product was advertised as having a specific functionality only to have that functionality revoked later, this is potentially actionable under contract law. I'd want to read the fine print but an argument can certainly be made that he paid for one product then got another. I suspect, however, that it's a larger problem of monopoly content where the provider, in this case HBO not the HW recording box, reserves the right to change formats -- a nasty problem of bad behavior on the part of monopolists!.

2) In a broader sense, there is a great market style solution used by the GPL. One of the cleverest clauses, IMHO, is Clause 9 that gives users the right to use the existing contract or any future contract on their code. This prevents rights from being withdrawn.

This does highlight an interesting subtlety. New *content* can later be released under a *new* license so that existing rights in the stock of prior content and the tools to run them don't apply.

So, we might want to consider licenses that apply a clause 9 to future content as well as the tools themselves. This might say something to the effect that users would have the right to play new content on existing applications. At the same time, it probably shouldn't obligate providers to provide every backward compatible format (this could retard development of better formats). Rather, it would simply allow users to do this on their own if they wished, specifically eliminating lots of the problems with the DMCA.

MVA

At 07:22 AM 10/25/2004, Rob Myers wrote:
"What purchase-decision can he make or avoid in order to signal to the market that this kind of restrictiveness is unduly harsh and he won't pay for it any longer?"

http://www.boingboing.net/2004/10/24/why_marketforces_can.html

- Rob.
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