Erstellt am: 17. 2. 2009 - 12:41 Uhr
Today's webtip: Blackouts and Bandits
The last couple of days have been rather interesting.
In New Zealand they have recently passed what some are calling the worlds harshest copyright law. The final results are that anyone even accused of copyright infringement will be cut off from their internet access. In other words, guilt upon accusation.
Something we seem to see more and more of lately.
Closer to home, Facebook has caused a bit of an uproar as people slowly become aware of changes to their terms of service. Changes that would appear to give Facebook perpetual rights to the use AND monetization of the content you create and post to their site.
To be fair, they have stated that the changes were only made to bring the Terms of Service in line with the way their system functions, and the nature of copyright law. That is probably true, but anyone who has seen the ads for products featuring the facebook profiles of their friends will probably find it a bit distasteful nonetheless.
So. What do these two things have in common?
Well, to begin with, they both highlight just how intertwined regional justice systems have become, and how far removed from the democratic process they really are.
In the case of the New Zealand law, the legislation was written up specifically to meet the standards of various international trade agreements. WIPO treaties are pretty much outside of what most people could recognize as a democratic process, but they are frequently the justification for countries to make changes to their laws in order to be compliant. Remember the DMCA? That has also been called "WIPO Treaty Implementing Legislation".
So what does that have to do with Facebook?
Well, according to Facebook's new terms of service, they maintain the right to use the content you created in perpetuity. Forever. It was the removal of a little clause that basically only let them use it until to you close your account that had people fuming. Not because they plan on using it to make oodles of cash once you are a famous pop star, but because they can't just up and delete the stuff that might be laying around in other people inboxes or on their walls, or in various other online archives associated with the service. In other words, the technology made them do it.
Of course, it still sort of sounds like they are reserving the right to do whatever they want with whatever you post. They say they wont. Now.
Tomorrow?
In both situations we see the immediate effects decisions made elsewhere can have on you, the end user. Or the creator, because face it, we are now ALL copyright holders. And each of us are also in some way copyright infringers. It's the nature of the net. The technology demands that copies be made. It's the nature of US copyright law that makes it necessary for Facebook to cover it's ass with over-reaching terms of service, the same nature that is both a result and cause of WIPO treaties that end up creating laws in other countries.
The copyrights of Big Media need to be protected, and their abillity to have access rights to YOUR copyrighted material needs to be maintained. Or, at least, that's what it feels like.
And that brings us to the final thing these two stories have in common.
They show that you can't do jack.
You can turn your icon black, send a few links, try to shake up your friends, and maybe educate or at least awake a few other individuals to the issues that are waiting to gobble us all up, but in the end, that's it. The fight against the European and Canadian DMCA and the various software patent campaigns have shown that in the end, the industry can wait you out. We might be able to hold them off for one round, maybe even score the odd win or two, but they will just keep coming back for more. They have deeper pockets and a more unified front than the end user (I think they used to be called citizens) does.
For now at least.
Maybe things will change, and the whole social networking thing will eventually give us some truly effective means for organizing and educating, maybe even for some kind of participation in global scale politics.
Until then, I'll just have to settle for being one of the Men in Black (was that phrase trademarked?)
Facebook:
The Post that Kicked Things Off