From kragen@dnaco.net Sun Sep 27 10:29:08 1998 Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1998 10:29:07 -0400 (EDT) From: Kragen To: schneier@counterpane.com Subject: Re: The Street Performer Protocol Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Status: O X-Status: In your paper on the Street Performer Protocol, section 3 contains a paragraph titled "Advertisements", in which you say: > If these servers are free, and are set up to do downloads of this > content very quickly, then they may earn quite a bit of money, since > most users will prefer getting the content for free from the fastest > place, and won't mind seeing a few ads. Copyright enforcement is used, > then, only against other sites that download content and try to resell > it. I am not convinced that this is a viable option. It falls in the category of "require big bucks to publish" schemes, wherein the technical means to make something available to large numbers of people cost lots of money to buy or use. This prevents copyright infringement by making infringers into large targets that are easy and effective to attack. Several recent copy protection schemes (e.g. making DAT recorders capable of recording without marking the tape as a 'copy' cost ten times what commercial DAT recorders cost, making DVD players only able to play discs in one 'zone') also fall into this category. As I see it, there are two problems with this approach. The first one is that I am not convinced that restricting the ability to publish, with laws and equipment-manufacturing cartels, is a good thing for society as a whole. The other problem is that it is vulnerable to technical advances. For example, a file tranfer protocol that allowed dozens or hundreds of people on 14.4kbps phone lines to act as a single virtual fileserver with availability and bandwidth comparable to that of a centrally-managed server co-located at MAE-West -- which may not be possible -- or widespread deployment of cable modems, which is certainly possible -- would render this an ineffective way to get paid. Hundreds of fourteen-year-old kids around the world could mirror, making copyright enforcement ineffective. Kragen -- Kragen Sitaker The sages do not believe that making no mistakes is a blessing. They believe, rather, that the great virtue of man lies in his ability to correct his mistakes and continually make a new man of himself. -- Wang Yang-Ming