[Opensim-dev] Thoughts....

[dan miller]

(Note: I have not had my morning hot chocolate)

[brian wolfe, after some articulate exposition:]

> I think that eventually DRM and this whole idea of "intellectual
> ownership" will fade away just as Prohibition has. Most places will go
> for the open model because that is what society thrives on.
> 
> A few will retain the DRM model and will stay small isolated islands of
> like minded individuals. They are most welcome to have this mini
> society. I however will not be amongst them because I value the
> creativity that art sparks in everyone when it is allowed to flow
> freely.

I think that's a rather naive belief.  My assumption is that there will be
share-the-art, creative-commons oriented artists (Radiohead?  tho note they
played the commercial game long enough to build a little nest-egg..)

There will also be corporate media moguls, Britney Spears, and things like
fashion and architecture where the art/commerce divide is much more towards
the commercial side.  I believe there is a place for some sort of
permissions system; I'm just technically savvy enough to know that it is
unenforceable in the long term.  

I am not one of those anti-DRM zealots who believes that it is morally wrong
to try to sell media with protection.  I believe strongly in IP (except
where it's protected by bullshit laws enacted by lobbyists that don't accept
reasonable fair use rights and perpetuate never-ending protection).

If an artist chooses to try to sell you his/her work in some DRM'd form that
you dislike, I say you reject that artist's work.  Let the marketplace
decide.  Stick to content creators whose philosophy is sympatico with your
own.

So I come down on the side of letting the technology support DRM,
permissions, watermarks and anything anyone can think of and implement
sanely.  But none of this will matter unless we foster a culture of trust
between producers and consumers of media.  We're getting to a point where
potentially every consumer is also at least a micro-producer (mix tapes for
your friends?)  The old model of huge, monolithic information source and
millions of mindless couch potatoes is going out the window -- and this
medium is helping that along (Avatars are representations of each
individual's expression -- and are therefore a production!)

Think of the bright side: we are developing what is arguably going to be a
medium with the potential to subsume all that came before it.  We have a
chance to 'do it right'.  I don't mean technically -- I mean culturally. 
Free-the-bits types have to realize that commercial, market-driven business
is essential to success.  My-bits-are-mine types have to realize that some
people will not accept being treated like potential criminals.  Why can't we
all just get along?

-danx0r