| Play from beginning |
| 00:00:00 | Interview with Fred von Lohmann |
| 00:00:05 | The last 100 years have been
a story of resistance on |
| 00:00:10 | on the part of incumbents,
largely entertainment companies, |
| 00:00:14 | in their response
to new technologies. |
| 00:00:17 | You've seen literally since
the turn of the 20C |
| 00:00:21 | with the creating of the player piano,
over and over again, |
| 00:00:25 | new technologies creating
new media opportunities. |
| 00:00:28 | That disrupt existing
businesses being resisted |
| 00:00:32 | very powerfully by
those incumbents. |
| 00:00:34 | So you can start with the player piano,
which was really the Napster of 1906. |
| 00:00:40 | It really made life very difficult
for music industry - sheet music. |
| 00:00:45 | Songwriters who sold sheet
music largely to the public. |
| 00:00:49 | After that of course
there was the LP record |
| 00:00:53 | also part of that same story,
and then broadcast radio |
| 00:00:57 | which was also met with a
great deal of consternation |
| 00:01:00 | by the songwriters and music
publishers of the day. |
| 00:01:04 | Cable tv in the 70s was
viewed as a pirate medium, |
| 00:01:08 | all the tv networks felt
that taking their content |
| 00:01:11 | and putting it on cable
that ran to ppl's houses |
| 00:01:14 | was piracy pure and simple.
Huge amount of litigation around that. |
| 00:01:18 | The VCR, another
famous example, |
| 00:01:21 | when it was first introduced
by sony in mid 70s |
| 00:01:25 | there were law suits immediately
brought by the movie studios |
| 00:01:28 | who felt that who said that the VCR
was to the american movie industry |
| 00:01:33 | what the Boston Strangler
was to the woman alone. |
| 00:01:36 | And than after that, of course
we have seen additional examples: |
| 00:01:39 | The first mp3 player
by diamond Rio, |
| 00:01:43 | so the initial company -long before ipod-
they were met with law suit, |
| 00:01:48 | digital audio tape recorders,
they where introduced |
| 00:01:50 | late 80s, early 90s,
also sued initially. |
| 00:01:55 | And of course most recently
peer to peer filesharing software |
| 00:01:58 | many law suits filed there. |
| 00:02:01 | The new XM radio recordable
tape satellite, |
| 00:02:07 | that technology has
also been sued. |
| 00:02:09 | So really we see a
litany of resistance |
| 00:02:12 | resistance is the hallmark
of the incumbent |
| 00:02:16 | media industries response
to new technology. |
| 00:02:19 | ~Ironically, it's those
new technologies |
| 00:02:22 | which ultimately have enriched
those new industry. |
| 00:02:25 | Take the VCR for a good
example, the technology |
| 00:02:28 | which was called the boston
strangler for the movie industry, |
| 00:02:31 | turned out to be their biggest
money maker in history. |
| 00:02:34 | And throughout the 80, 90s
and to this day home video |
| 00:02:38 | - the market unlocked by the VCR - |
| 00:02:41 | has become the biggest source of
revenue for the whole business. |
| 00:02:46 | Well the legislative process in
the US surrounding copyright law |
| 00:02:51 | has had one recurring problem |
| 00:02:55 | and that is that the laws tend to
be made by lobbyists for lobbyists. |
| 00:02:59 | And so the question is
who can pay the lobbyists |
| 00:03:03 | and lawyers to bush congress year
in year out for new copyright laws. |
| 00:03:09 | Well, for the most part those
lobbyists have been employed |
| 00:03:11 | by the entertainment industries
- they're the one who have money |
| 00:03:15 | and interest to push in
washington for copyright laws. |
| 00:03:19 | So no surprise that laws get passed
are ones written by lobbyists |
| 00:03:24 | and in the interests of major
media companies of the day. |
| 00:03:27 | To the extent there's
been resistance |
| 00:03:29 | - the resistance has
really been in the form |
| 00:03:32 | of lobbyists hired by
the technology sector. |
| 00:03:35 | And that's a good thing for innovation
and in the long run for consumers, |
| 00:03:40 | but it's obviously not a perfect
solution because technology companies, |
| 00:03:44 | their interests aren't always
precisely aligned with consumers |
| 00:03:48 | So over the past 15 years of we've
seen lots of legislations, |
| 00:03:53 | some of which has been passed, all of
which has pushed for more copyright, |
| 00:03:59 | longer term, more protections,
very few exceptions, |
| 00:04:04 | the ratchet has been
a one way ratchet. |
| 00:04:09 | So another example
of legislation |
| 00:04:11 | which has been part of a one way
ratchet for more copyright |
| 00:04:15 | has been the digital
millenium copyright act. |
| 00:04:18 | Which basically
gave copyright owners |
| 00:04:20 | the ability to put technical
restrictions on their works, |
| 00:04:25 | what many people call DRM.
And if they've done so, |
| 00:04:28 | they get to dictate the terms |
| 00:04:31 | on which you're allowed
to use the work. |
| 00:04:35 | DRM faces some
fundamental problems. |
| 00:04:37 | It's never going to work at
stopping digital copying. |
| 00:04:41 | The basic problem was
laid out in a paper |
| 00:04:44 | that's come to be
known as the Darknet |
| 00:04:47 | written by 4 senior MS
security engineers 2002 |
| 00:04:51 | and they started
from a few premises |
| 00:04:53 | DRM is always gonna
be broken by someone |
| 00:04:57 | there's no DRM system
that's proof |
| 00:05:01 | against the efforts of a
PHD in computer science |
| 00:05:05 | and that's never
going to be |
| 00:05:07 | we've seen that
time and time again |
| 00:05:09 | DRM systems are
introduced and broken |
| 00:05:15 | when it comes to media content,
like popular movies |
| 00:05:19 | there always be a
motivation to break it |
| 00:05:22 | it's not to say that we can't use DRM
to protect your medical records |
| 00:05:27 | or your family photo albums, |
| 00:05:30 | perhaps there's a of lack of motivation
for anyone to try to break that |
| 00:05:34 | but when talking about
the latest Spiderman movie |
| 00:05:37 | there's no shortage of
motivation around the world |
| 00:05:39 | for smart computer hackers
to try to crack the DRM. |
| 00:05:43 | And so far and for the
foreseeable future |
| 00:05:46 | that's going to continue to
mean these systems get broken. |
| 00:05:49 | It's impossible to build
a foolproof system |
| 00:05:52 | and all the computer security
experts agree on that. |
| 00:05:55 | Second premise of the
Darknet argument is that |
| 00:06:00 | once a copy has been taken out
of its secure envelope |
| 00:06:03 | once some hacker has broken
it, at that point |
| 00:06:07 | those copies will be made available
through other channels |
| 00:06:11 | we have today the ability
to make copies |
| 00:06:14 | and distribute copies
inexpensively |
| 00:06:19 | since Napster if one copy
leaks out on the internet |
| 00:06:24 | very rapidly it's
available to everyone. |
| 00:06:26 | The thing to keep in mind is when
the person downloads the movie |
| 00:06:31 | from a torrent site or from Limewire
or some other P2P network, |
| 00:06:38 | or if the person gets a copy from
a friend on a blank CD or DVD, |
| 00:06:44 | there's no need for that
person to break the DRM, |
| 00:06:47 | the DRM is gone, only the
first person in the chain |
| 00:06:51 | needs to be able to break
the DRM and once one person |
| 00:06:55 | has extracted the content
from the "secure" envelope, |
| 00:06:59 | from that point forward the
content is freely accessible |
| 00:07:03 | for anyone who's able to run a filesharing
tool, make a copy on a hard drive |
| 00:07:10 | and of course many millions of
ppl are in that position. |
| 00:07:13 | So as long as we live in that
environment, an environment |
| 00:07:16 | where DRM can be broken
by someone somewhere |
| 00:07:20 | and a world where all of us
are connected by channels |
| 00:07:23 | that allow us to make and
distribute copies inexpensively, |
| 00:07:27 | DRM is really in a
hopeless quandary. |
| 00:07:29 | There is no way DRM is ever
going to make progress |
| 00:07:32 | against the ability to make
unauthorised digital copies. |
| 00:07:37 | It's simply a tool that's ill-suited
to that particular purpose, |
| 00:07:41 | and we've seen this time and
time again, if we look at DVDs, |
| 00:07:45 | obviously DVD encryption
was broken, |
| 00:07:47 | all the movies that were released
on DVD are now widely available |
| 00:07:51 | through unauthorised
sources on the internet; |
| 00:07:53 | the same is then true of CD copy protection,
that has been an utter failure |
| 00:07:57 | at stopping the distribution
of unauthorised music |
| 00:08:01 | even the new Blue Ray
and HDDVD formats |
| 00:08:05 | their DRM has been utterly
compromised as well, |
| 00:08:10 | literally every movie that's
released in these formats |
| 00:08:13 | is going up on unauthorised
bittorrent sites on a daily basis. |
| 00:08:18 | So it seems quite clear that
DRM is never going to stop |
| 00:08:22 | or even impede
unauthorised copying. |
| 00:08:25 | In fact the MS engineers
went one step further |
| 00:08:28 | and said not only does
it not do any good |
| 00:08:30 | but it actually harms
copyright owners |
| 00:08:33 | because DRM ends up making
the legitimate product, |
| 00:08:37 | the authorised product, less attractive
than the authorised product, |
| 00:08:42 | because for the consumer that goes
out and buys the DRM-encrypted copies, |
| 00:08:48 | actually lays out the
money to purchase it, |
| 00:08:50 | they find that the copy they
purchased is less useful... |
