[Opensim-dev] Thoughts....

[dan miller]

> I am not looking for a closed environment, so much as I am concerned about
> Intellectual Property Rights.  A great many content creators will be just
> as
> concerned when the metaverse concept begins to gain momentum in the more
> mainstream circles.  I love the idea of a multiverse, but how does one
> ensure their content does not get ripped off by some hack snooping through
> locally stored assets?  I don't like the idea that content I create could
> end up being stolen and resold/redistributed without license.

The issue of IP protection is of course an old one; this is a new medium, so
the issue comes up yet again.  I'm old enough to have been through several
rounds of this.  Here's a brief recap:


Analog tech, 1970's - 80's:

Threat: cassette recording.  Music industry response: ban the technology;
arrest perpetrators; etc. & so on.

Final result: $.10 per blank cassette "copying royalty", helps record execs
with their Xmas bonuses.  Anyone can copy anything whenever they want;
records keep selling.

Threat: VHS/betamax.  Movie industry response: ban the technology, arrest
perpetrators, yada yada

Final result: anyone can copy a movie.  Stars still get paid, Hollywood
doesn't close up shop

Digital Tech, 1st wave -- 80's - early 90's:

Threat: digital copying of music CD's using DAT (digital tape). Music
industry response: ban the technology, arrest perpetrators blah blah

Final result: DAT tapes have a copy bit thingie which is trivially bypassed,
but never catch on anyway except for production because it's a silly,
expensive medium.  Music industry somehow survives.

Threat: software piracy.  Software industry response: heavy copy protection,
arrest perpetrators (I was at a meeting where a founder of a software
company seriously asked if anyone knew how to hire a hitman to 'take out'
some people who had distributed maybe a dozen copies of his program)

Final result: copy-protected programs go the way of the dinosaur by
mid-90's, because they're a pain in the ass, and most people who would pay
for software do.  Somehow, in spite of the grave threat, Bill Gates
continues to get richer and richer right up to the present.

Digitial Tech, Internet age - 90's - present

Threat: MP3, network distribution of pirated music.  Industry response: ban
the technology, sue everyone in sight, arrest people, etc.

Final result: music industry slowly learns that not only is digital
distribution the way things must go, but that DRM is in fact doomed. 
Somehow, Britney Spears still makes enough money to spend $200K a month on
Lattes.

Threat: Divx, video rips, bittorrent, Tivo.  Industry response: ban the
technology, sue everyone (this is getting repetitive...)

Final result (still in progress, but obvious): all media will be digital;
none of it will be DRM'ed; but most people will end up paying for the
content anyway.  The movie studios will not go broke.

I think the point is obvious: copying is a fact of life, and it's something
that impacts every medium of expression.  Attempting to control it through
protection and DRM-like schemes is bound to fail, because people want to own
the information they buy, free and clear.  They don't appreciate being
treated like criminals.

There are things we can do to promote healthy, acceptible attitudes towards
IP.  Authentication, signatures, watermarks, databases of content
provenance, etc.  We should do those things and get them into opensim.  We
should also promote a culture of fairness to creators; the history I've
outlined has too often set up a narrative of content creators (well, really
the distributors) as faceless evil empires, and the content consumers as
lawless pirates.  The fact that this new medium is less intermediated so far
-- you often transact directly with the creator -- should help in this
regard.  After all the smoke clears, in my mind copying someone's content
without their permission (with some caveats for fair use) is simply not
morally defensible.  But the final deterrent cannot be technical -- it has
to be moral and social.  We need to foster a culture of responsibility,
transparency, and accountability.  That's where we should focus our efforts.

Frankly I'm more worried about the metaverse getting stunk up with spam like
email and usenet, than with the issue of IP rights.  The key is to make it
possible to see who is doing what -- including unauthorised copying.  It
should simply be uncool to show up at a party wearing something you stole --
like going to the Oscars with a fake designer dress.  This is a social
medium; it should be possible to make what burnman is worried about socially
unacceptable.  I doubt it's possible in any scalable way to make it
technically impossible, as history has shown.

Just my 2c
-danx0r