Lesson 28: Copyright, DRM, Remix & File-sharing II
Aims: as for 27.
1) Brief presentations from prep work.
2) DRM. What is DRM and what should we make of it? One of your presentations will have begun the discussion about DRM. Here are four excellent articles (and one linked-to-site) which your teacher may incorporate into the lesson:
5 short arguments against DRM, Kevin Marks (2005)
Copy Protection Is a Crime, David Weinberger (2003)
Fair but Wrong, David Weinberger (2007)
apophenia: remix culture and fair use: a new study, danah boyd (2008) >> Recut, Reframe, Recycle
A recent example of revolt over DRM occurred last year on Digg. (What's Digg? "Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by our users. You won’t find editors at Digg — we’re here to provide a place where people can collectively determine the value of content and we’re changing the way people consume information online.")
Digg the Blog » Digg This: 09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0 is a famous example of successful web rebellion against DRM. Wikipedia (entry for Digg):
AACS encryption key controversyOn May 1, 2007 an article appeared on Digg’s homepage that contained the encryption key for the AACS digital rights management protection of HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc. Then Digg, "acting on the advice of its lawyers", removed posting submissions about the secret number from its database and banned several users for submitting it. The removals were seen by many Digg users as a capitulation to corporate interests and an assault on free speech. A statement by Jay Adelson attributed the article’s take-down to an attempt to comply with cease and desist letters from the Advanced Access Content System consortium and cited Digg’s Terms of Use as justification for taking down the article.
Although some users defended Digg's actions, as a whole the community staged a wide-spread revolt with numerous articles and comments being made using the encryption key. The scope of the user response was so great that one of the Digg users referred to it as a "digital Boston Tea Party". The response was also directly responsible for Digg reversing the policy and stating:
But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you’ve made it clear. You’d rather see Digg go own fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be. There's more information about this rebellion and its background in Wikipedia here.
Finally, the Free Software Foundation has just posted this: Don't give Microsoft the remote control.
3) Here's another angle on how ideas about copyright are developing. Flickr: The Commons is an example of crowd-sourcing at work: "in June of 2007, we began our first collaboration with a civic institution to facilitate giving people a voice in describing the content of a publicly-held photography collection, The Library of Congress. The pilot project we created together launched on January 16, 2008. (More info on the pilot.) The key goals of The Commons are to firstly give you a taste of the hidden treasures in the world's public photography archives, and secondly to show how your input and knowledge can help make these collections even richer."
Photos are appearing with the new rights statement, "no known copyright restrictions?": it is a requirement for participation in the program that institutions may rightly claim "no known copyright restrictions" on the content they share. The new rights statement runs:
Participating institutions may have various reasons for determining that “no known copyright restrictions” exist:
- The copyright is in the public domain because it has expired.
- The copyright was injected into the public domain for other reasons, such as failure to adhere to required formalities or conditions.
- The institution owns the copyright but is not interested in exercising control.
- The institution has legal rights sufficient to authorize others to use the work without restrictions.
Usage Rights on Photographs
Under “The Commons,” cultural institutions that have reasonably concluded that a photograph is free of copyright restrictions are invited to share photographs under a new usage guideline called “no known copyright restrictions.”
Photographs can be difficult to analyze under copyright law, not only because laws around the world differ with respect to scope and duration of protection, but because the photographs themselves often lack credit lines, dates and other identifying information. Libraries, museums and other cultural institutions have a great deal of experience with photographs because they frequently collect, preserve, document and study them in accordance with their nonprofit missions. However, in many instances, a cultural institution will not be the rights holder under copyright law. Therefore, it can neither grant permission to others who wish to use a photograph nor provide a guarantee that the photograph is in the public domain.
By using “no known copyright restrictions,” participating institutions are sharing the benefit of their research without providing an express or implied warranty to others who would like to use or reproduce the photograph. If you make use of a photo from The Commons, you are reminded to conduct an independent analysis of applicable law before proceeding with a particular new use.
Prep: games and virtual worlds. You'll be asked to work in groups/pairs or individually. Your prep is to create a 5 minute presentation each on either online games or virtual worlds …
Games
50 Greatest Game Innovations, BusinessWeek (2007)
Sharkrunners (from area/code)
Bloxorz (Clive Thompson)
Luis von Ahn:
Gwap
The ESP Game: Labeling the Web
Human Computation - Google Video
GTA: links
Google Video: History of Video Games
The History of Video Games | View timeline
LEGO.com Factory
The most influential Britons in America: 40-31 - Telegraph
Byron Review (pdf)
receiver: Matt Jones - The space to play
SPS top games:
BioShock — Wikipedia; Xbox360
GTA IV (Xbox 360, PS3) — Wikipedia
Halo Combat Evolved (aka Halo or Halo 1) (Xbox; x). Wikipedia: Halo: Combat Evolved.
Halo 3 (Xbox 360 only)
Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC, PSP) — Wikipedia
Smash Bros (Wii). Wikipedia: original Nintendo 64 game; series; Brawl (Wii)
Wii Sports — Wikipedia
GoldenEye 007 (N64)
Wikipedia: PlayStation 3; Wii; Xbox 360
Virtual Worlds
Wikipedia entry
IBM Research | IBM Virtual World Guidelines
Virtual Human Interaction Lab - Stanford University
Second Life
Pervasive Games
Future Boy: Google moves into virtual worlds - by combining satellite maps and 3-D software, Google Earth is turning into a virtual online playground
List of urban mobile games (2004)
IPerG - Integrated Project of Pervasive Games
Public IPerG Software
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