IP: Re:: THEY GOT TO BE KIDDING -- Skip DVD ads go to jail?

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> Date: Sat, 04 Mar 2000 11:54:44 -0800
> From: Ed Gerck <egerck () nma com>
> To: farber () cis upenn edu
> CC: ip-sub-1 () majordomo pobox com
> Subject: Re: IP: THEY GOT TO BE KIDDING -- Skip DVD ads go to jail?
>
> Dave:
>
> Your readers may now see how valuable your list is --
> at least we are allowed to skip it ;-))
>
> In spite of Disney may say, we may agree that live in a society which
> accepts many truths and many ways of knowing, with a growing emphasis on
> local discourse.  The way to accomodate this in a society that is also
> valuing 'being together' is to provide for unification without integration,
> is to value diversity and take it into account -- rather to iron it out in the
> good name of interoperation or security.  There is actually no alternative --
> either we  attempt to follow the current hierarchic models that
> have no justification to control but some form of might, or we can
> model the real-world and see that there is redundancy, there is
> self-reliance, there is indeed control but it depends on how you measure
> it, not because someone tells you so.
>
> How to measure it is the question here. How can we deal with incomplete
> information -- how can the user have the lattitude s/he needs without
> infringing the lattitude that Disney needs?  How can we base our
> decisions on incomplete data -- how can we send incomplete data that
> makes sense?
>
> IMO, first, by recognizing that data is per force incomplete, relative  -- and
> that there is no one that can 'restore order' any more.  'Adult supervision'
> is a fallacy -- as any teenager from the MTV generation can tell you, and
> this is perhaps the bridge we can find also to those segments that still
> remain alienated to a large extent to what is being controlled here -- the
> essential freedom of privacy.  And we see this also in the current 'solution'
> being socially engineered to prevent DDoS attacks. But, as Ben Franklin
> might say today, those that are willing to forfeit privacy in the name
> of security, deserve neither.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Ed Gerck
>
> Dave Farber wrote:
>
> > > Date: Sat, 4 Mar 2000 07:56:20 -0800 (PST)
> > > From: "Carl M. Kadie" <kadie () eff org>
> > > To: farber () cis upenn edu
> > > Subject: Skip DVD ads go to jail?
> > >
> > > Dave,
> > >
> > > C|Net reports that the new Disney Tarzan DVD does not allow users to
> > > skip over 4 minutes of commercials.
> > >   http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-1563949.html
> > >
> > > Even worse, anyone who found aw way to skip over the commerials could
> > > be committing a federal offense. Even in their own home, with their
> > > own player, and a DVD that they bought.
> > >
> > > I asked a cyberlaw mailing list (cyberia-l) if it would it be a
> > > violation of Federal Law to circumvent Disney's use-restrictions.  The
> > > consensus is that, unless the judges change their minds, a
> > > commercial-skipping DVD player could violate the Digital Millennium
> > > Copyright Act.  (See http://www.eff.org for more on the legal cases.)
> > >
> > > - Carl
> > > p.s. Feel free to forward this.
> > >
> > > Carl Kadie -- I do not represent EFF or my employer; this is just me.
> > >  =Email: kadie () eff org =
> > >  =URL: <http://www.eff.org/CAF/> =