I was talking with Kevin Carson about the problems with the “contractual” model of IP “that so many people grab at in desperation” (for more on this see here and here). Carson said:
As Cory Doctorow put it, a computer is a machine for copying bits. If you put a cultural artifact into bits, it’s going to get copied. And anybody whose business model depends on stopping people from copying bits is f*cked, plain and simple. As horrifyingly accurate a prediction as Stallman’s “Right to Read” is of the copyfascists ideal world, I think it’s about as plausible a threat as Khrushchev’s plan to catch up with the West by 1970.
As Cory Doctorow put it, a computer is a machine for copying bits. If you put a cultural artifact into bits, it’s going to get copied. And anybody whose business model depends on stopping people from copying bits is f*cked, plain and simple. As horrifyingly accurate a prediction as Stallman’s “Right to Read” is of the copyfascists ideal world, I think it’s about as plausible a threat as Khrushchev’s plan to catch up with the West by 1970.
