Interesting People mailing list archives
Update of Kindle book removal
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sat, 18 Jul 2009 20:05:54 -0400
one wonders whether or a libel suit successfully prosecuted in the United Kingdom will eventually cause companies to reach around the world to delete the offending statements. This is clearly unacceptable. The rewriting of history does remind one of 1984.
Dave Begin forwarded message: From: Jonathan Zittrain <zittrain () law harvard edu> Date: July 18, 2009 12:12:55 PM EDT To: dave () farber net Subject: Update of Kindle book removal For IP, if you like --I've blogged about the situation at <http://futureoftheinternet.org/orwellian-indeed >. I think we'll see lots more cases like this as our products are transformed into services -- the purchase of a book is no longer the transfer of an object but the beginning of a long-term relationship with a vendor, putatively governed by a license.
Not only will regulators be tempted to require retraction of contraband content -- acting directly, or through the mechanisms of a court order arising from a lawsuit -- but the content need not be an entire book, video, or song. An offending passage could be excised or altered if found to infringe copyright, defame someone, or otherwise be illegal. Libraries' copies would be similarly affected -- and this is actually a natural outgrowth of the idea that courts can issue injunctions, after a successful trial, against offending material.
The same is true of technologies. In the ongoing case of TiVo v. EchoStar, <http://yupnet.org/zittrain/archives/14#7>, EchoStar's DVRs were found to be infringing TiVo's patents. Not only did EchoStar owe tens of millions of dollars to TiVo, but TiVo persuaded the judge to order EchoStar to remotely kill its DVRs. (The order currently is the subject of a contempt proceeding.)
While this might seem a matter of course to the law, it's a sea change for us and for our technology. Going from product to service requires us to think through new protections against too-easy government enforcement and intrusion, and perhaps to build those protections into technology as well as law. I've got more thoughts at <http://yupnet.org/zittrain/archives/14#35 >.
Best, JZ Jonathan Zittrain Professor of Law Harvard Law School | Harvard Kennedy School of Government Co-Founder, Berkman Center for Internet & Society <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu> ------------------------------------------- Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
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