[governance] [WSIS CS-Plenary] Re: [A2k] Re: [Wsis-pct] IP Justice Comment to IGF on Top Policy Issues for Athens

[Milton Mueller]

Peter Eckersley wrote:
> I can't deny that they have legal rights.  

Peter: 
As I understand his argument, Taran Rampersand isn't saying that content creators are asking for a legal monopoly. He's asking you why you consider it inherently immoral or illegitmate for people to build their own (digital) fences around content they create in order to retain some ability to be compensated for it. That's the whole point about DRM. It doesn't have to rely on legally enforced rights. 

Of course, the DMCA law in the US and other laws take it way too far. But let's discuss the principle at stake.

Suppose I write a poem or an article or a piece of research, put it online on a password-protected site and won't let you see it unless you pay me money, whereby I give you a password to access the content. 

Is that wrong? Forget about DRM for a moment, focus on the princple: Do creators of content have any right to withhold or exclude it in order to gain compensation? 




_______________________________________________
governance mailing list
governance at lists.cpsr.org
https://ssl.cpsr.org/mailman/listinfo/governance