Are you an IP criminal

Are you an IP criminal? ³Free Software, Free Society´ and ³Free Culture´

Karl Castleton
Adjunct Faculty and Researcher at Pacific Northwest National Laboratories

IMHO
‡ All the statements in this presentation are my personal interpretations of these two works. If you feel something stated is incorrect or misleading please feel free to counter my opinion. ‡ Questions and comments are of course welcome during the presentation.

³Free Culture´ and ³Free Software, Free Society´
‡ Free Software, Free Society: Selected essays of Richard M. Stallman
± Programmer ± Started the GNU Not Unix (GNU) project ± One of the first to see and do something about freedom in software

‡ Free Culture
± by Lawrence Lessig ± Attorney ± Argued before supreme court issues of public domain

Which of these acts are illegal?
‡ Download music you did not pay for ‡ Playing a ³cracked´ version of a game, cracking a game, describing how to crack a game in an educational setting ‡ Writing a search engine that allows you to find files on another system (only files that are made available by other users) similar to searching for items on the H: drive or F:\public_html
± Who committed a crime, A The poster, B The downloader, C the programmer of the software?

Which of these acts are illegal?
‡ Making a photocopy of a family portrait ‡ Making a best of audio cassette of your favorite songs from vinyl ‡ Making a best of music CD of old audio cassette ‡ What about ripping music from a CD and then making a best of CD ‡ Making a backup of a vinyl to audio, audio to CD, CD to CD ‡ Forwarding an email ‡ Describing weaknesses in an encryption algorithm or the mathematics behind it ‡ Summarizing or reviewing another persons work without their permission ‡ Copying a page from a book or magazine

The punitive cost of copyright infringement
‡ $150,000 per incidence
± By the way a doctor cutting off the wrong limb is about $250,000 (couple songs or the leg you choose)

‡ Ignorance is not a defense ‡ RIAA tends to ask ³how much do you have?´ when they believe you are in violation ‡ Short answer. There is an instance where all the above examples are illegal
± Subtle issues make up the difference ± almost all are tied to getting permission of someone (possibly unknown)

You have all probably violated copyright.
‡ The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) removed some rights you used to have
± Backups ± Sampling for fair use ± Breaking encryption or discussing breaking encryption is against the DMCA

‡ Why such differences
± Pirates, thieves, and malcontents

‡ Don¶t do anything creative unless you have a lawyer clear the rights
± Forbes has a recent article implying photographs of Apollo 11 crew are owned by Bill Gates (via Corbis).

First: Free Software, Free Society
‡ A collection of essays (that have been modified through time) written by Richard Stallman
± Should be read by any computer scientist so they understand what the software society was in the early days of computers ± Almost everyone my age or younger have not experienced this except in the seemingly ³dark´ corners of software
‡ Shareware and freeware BBS

± Realize that world today is not as it was.
‡ No Non-Disclosure Agreements

First: Free Software, Free Society
‡ Stallman is a zealous supporter of free software.
± Not free as in ³free beer´, ³free as in freedom´ ± Able to choose applications and developers from anywhere ± Patches could come from the most reliable source ± Does not imply there is no business model
‡ just different than insuring you are the only one who can make copies (copyright)

First: Free Software, Free Society
‡ Before copyright had real teeth (more about this later) Stallman help to create a license which takes the power of copyright and reverses its intent.
± anyone can freely copy and reuse as long as improvements are equally unfettered ± once free always free or you violate copyright ± some refer to this as copyleft ± simply brilliant ± add teeth to copyright and copyleft gets stronger

Second: Free Culture
‡ A single work that describes historical meaning of ³property´ and extends it to ³intellectual property´ and recent copyright law changes
± For example ³property´ rights used to extend from the center of the planet to the edge of the universe. ± Now rights are limited to really the surface of the planet.

Second: Free Culture
‡ A change was needed when the U.S. wanted to fly planes over farm land
± the definition of property did not fit the needs of the big guy the meaning of property was changed ± big pockets won over individual rights

‡ Armstrong invented FM for RCA but RCA owned rights to AM frequencies
± RCA buried and fought Armstrong and delayed his FM patent taking force ± His widow finally won the case ± RCA would not trample creative work of others would they?

Second: Free Culture
‡ Leaders in the old technology have an incentive to keep new technologies down ‡ Deepest pockets usually win ‡ Leaders tend to use certain verbs to label the other side
± piracy, theft, law breaking, malicious act ± historically one pirate is another privateer ± Why is Hollywood on the west coast? ± Was Rosa Parks a law breaker.

Second: Free Culture
‡ Before anyone begins to think illegal music downloads is civil disobedience remember
± Rosa Parks was a elderly black woman on a bus ± Downloading thousands of songs you did not pay for is not moral high ground ± Also Rosa Parks did break the law and was prepared for the consequences
‡ A sign of belief the law needed to be changed not to entertain herself or brag to others

Some Quotes from riaa.org
‡ ³The principle that work one creates belongs to the creator and should be controlled by the creator is as timeless as it is global. Likewise, for centuries, new inventions, from the printing press to the Internet, have threatened that principle. For centuries, advocates have resolutely defended it. The RIAA is just such an advocate today.´ ‡ ³The Recording Industry Association of America is the trade group that represents the companies and people making creative works in the recording industry. The RIAA works to protect intellectual property rights worldwide and the First Amendment rights of artists.´ ‡ This inspires some questions
± Does RCA or the artist own the work? ± Is describing flaws in encryption algorithms freedom of speech?

An act of civil disobedience?

Forbes March 1, 2004 ³Image: Who owns the right to put a famous photo on a web site? Chances are it¶s a famous rich guy named Bill Gates´ by Bruce Upbin, implied that this image was owned by B Gates and a company needed $18,000 for this and other photos and still negotiate the publicity rights from the crew. The NASA site says this is free but you need to still negotiate publicity rights

Second: Free Culture
‡ Your rights have changed and now you have to higher a lawyer to do almost any creative process
± What is in the public domain (i.e. it can be used to inspire new works) and what do you need to get permission for?
‡ Used to be marked with copyright and the date ‡ Lasted for a few years (around 25 years) and material was in the public domain now (95) ‡ Derivative works permitted ‡ Parody permitted ‡ Fair use included items like making backups, and sampling

Second: Free Culture
‡ Lessig argued before the supreme court that law named for Sonny Bono that extended copyright again was unconstitutional because (pg 228)
± Section 8; Clause 8: To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries; ± Every time copyright is about to expire (for Mickey Mouse) congress has extended it ± Trying to insure Robert Frost poems go into public domain

Second: Free Culture
‡ Lessig lost his argument as Jack Valenti (former head of the MPAA sat in the family and friends section of the court room) ‡ Remember some of the Disney classics (derived from public domain)
± Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi, Song of the South, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Robin Hood, Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, Mulan, Sleeping Beauty, 101 Dalmations, The Sword in the Stone, The Jungle Book and the latest Treasure Planet (a derivative of Treasure Island produced in 2003.

‡ Why is Hollywood on the west coast?

What is the target
‡ Not the music pirates, or the hackers ‡ The target is the public domain
± You cannot sell the public domain (except to charge the for transmission or duplication) but you cannot claim anything for the authorship

‡ For example how much is a copy of H.G. Wells ³War of the Worlds´? The text is in the public domain. So why is there a copy on the shelf at Borders? Why is it so much cheaper than a recent publication of Stephen King? ‡ You simply cannot charge too much for works that are publicly available. ‡ It would be far more profitable if all works were owned by someone. ‡ You could even have a business clearing rights for people who wanted to create new material. Read the Forbes Image article.

What you may be feeling
‡ This does not seem American.
± Remember the property example, permission needs to be granted before you take any step

‡ I am afraid to do almost anything that using something else. ‡ How can I be free of this worry? ‡ I feel like the RIAA, MPAA and the FBI may be watching over me and I do not who to be more afraid of. ‡ How can I be creative (use the material and ideas around me to create new ideas)?

What you can do (anyone).
‡ First realize that these laws maybe (IMHO are) unjust but they are the law ‡ But Richard Stallman¶s cleverness is a key ‡ How can I take copyright law ($150,000 per violation) and insure my creative works are free ‡ How can I insure the materials I use are free and unfettered

What you can do (anyone).
‡ Creativecommons.org:
± Creative Commons is devoted to expanding the range of creative work available for others to build upon and share. ± A licensing approach to revive the public domain

‡ Ibiblio.org
± The public¶s library and digital archive ± Materials are cleared for use in your materials ± Materials that individuals want to be in the public domain stored and organized

What you can do (anyone).
‡ WikiPedia.org
± Wikimedia is a non-profit organization that provides computing and network resources to create and distribute free content. Since we do not plan ever to have advertisements, and since we will never charge authors to write or readers to read our online content, we rely on donations to keep us going. ± Try searching for ³Ordinary Differential Equations´ and you will be pleased with the depth of the information.

What you can do (anyone).
‡ Contribute to the Creative Commons, Public Domain, or WikiPedia make the information free, get paid to educate, get paid to consult (or assist in its use)
± You care about attribution, not secrecy

‡ Don¶t get paid for making copies of something you have developed (other than to fundraise or cover cost of materials)
± Secrecy is more important than dissemination

What you can do (anyone).
‡ FSF.org
± Free Software Foundation the main location with legislative actions that are about to be taken that you should let your representatives know should be apposed
‡ For instance see about the INDUCE Act

‡ EFF.org
± Electronic Frontier Foundation the main legal team for the FSF and anyone who believes current copyright laws are injuring them

What can I do (computer science).
‡ Write truly free software
± Let others take the source, modify it, and use it for their own purposes ± Don¶t let it be made secret so you have to be suspicious of your colleagues ± Read through the GNU General Public License or GNU Lesser General Public License ± You will be the first they call for any change because you are the ³best´ for the job

What can I do (computer science)
‡ Be very reluctant to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement
± I have ± Stallman quit MIT over this issue ± It pollutes your thoughts with ideas that someone thinks are very valuable ± I get royalties from software written at PNNL and by all rights my software is popular (not like Microsoft) put in its field. I can usually go to Taco Bell once with the check ± It cost $200.00 to discuss the inner workings of that software with someone.
‡ Even though concepts came from my head

What can I do (computer science)
‡ Realize the reason SCO is targeting Linux and not GNU (see GrokLaw.net for all details)
± What most people call Linux is really GNU/Linux
‡ If you are ever around Stallman make sure to call it GNU/Linux

± Most of the tools are GNU tools like GCC (written by Stallman) and others ± The core system is the Linux kernel written by (Linus Torvalds) ± GNU has had clear attribution requirements for source code ± Linus did not have as clear of attribution ± SCO targeted Linux because it is work for them to demonstrate that all of Linux if free ± One of SCO¶s largest clients is Microsoft (buying UNIX?)

What can I do (mathematician and statistics)
‡ Don¶t let your science be polluted by a gold rush mentality about copyright
± What did Bill Gates invent? Why is he rich? What classic Computer Science or Math problem did he solve? ± Consider contributing your work to an open environment ± Realize that many peer reviewed journals are not available to the general public
‡ A high fee is paid for access to the article for colleges public libraries do not have access

± A ³Ramanujan´ in middle America could occur because of greed of publishers

What can I do (mathematician and statistics)
‡ Plos.org
± Public Library of Science is starting a peer reviewed journal for Biology and Medicine ± You could start something similar for mathematics (it might already exist)

‡ Some institutions require that works performed by students are required to be released publicly
± This would in turn force the work to remain in the public and therefore the student would have the right to that material always

‡ Other institutions lock the students results in a IP vault to not loose their value

What can I do (everyone)
‡ Realize none of these steps above require you to wait for anything or anyone.
± That is the genius of copyleft you can act now

‡ A longer term answer is to VOTE ± This is not a partisan issue
‡ Both sides of the isle take money from those that have it, and they then vote to take the rights of the ones who do not

‡ Read with healthy skepticism about hackers, illegal music downloads, and IP criminals of any sort
± It can simply be the leaders in today industry trying to maintain position more than real criminals

Thanks
‡ Thanks to everyone that discussed this topic with me. Chief amongst them are
± Dr. MacEvoy, Dr. Ektare, Dan Stadelman

‡ Post Script
± Believe in open processes. America was not founded on secrecy of ideas, in fact the authors of the constitution explicitly wanted to insure progress, by not allowing that to happen