Subject: Re: RFC3271 and independance of "cyberspace"

From: "John Stracke" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 1 May 2002 13:15:43 -0400

(Second thoughts on the same message.)

>Which of the following two options is more likely to feed starving
>children in Africa:
>
>  1) the Africans produce millions of pieces of valuable IPR
>
>  2) we take Steamboat Willie away from Disney, making it valueless
>     to everybody

In the long run? #2.  As John Gilmore has pointed out, we are approaching 
an age when nanotech will mean that any material object can be copied as 
easily as we can currently copy digital information.  When that day comes, 
the only thing stopping us from ending poverty will be copyright--and, 
arguably, if we have the power to end poverty, then we have the moral 
obligation to do so.  This means that we have to hold the line on 
copyright *today*; the current battle is being fought by publishers of 
movies and music, but it will have repercussions on tomorrow's publishers 
of food and buildings.

(He tells it better, but right now I can't get through to his Website to 
find the article.)

/===========================================================\
|John Stracke                    |Principal Engineer        |
[email-masked]   |Incentive Systems, Inc.   |
|http://www.incentivesystems.com |My opinions are my own.   |
|===========================================================|
|Sleep is for wimps--healthy, well-adjusted wimps, but wimps|
|nonetheless.                                               |
\===========================================================/

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From: "Eric A. Hall" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 01 May 2002 13:43:58 -0500

John Stracke wrote:

> As John Gilmore has pointed out, we are approaching an age when
> nanotech will mean that any material object can be copied as
> easily as we can currently copy digital information.

This discussion is leaving the realm of ~modifications to RFCs. However,
there are two comments on this:

 1) The benefits of nanotech are promising but speculative, while the
    issues with IPR are current and real.

 2) Assuming that the promise of nanotech is realized, issues with IPR
    will be the least of our worries. Issues with physical property and
    cash currency will drive any subsequent IPR issues. For example
    do we even need to have real estate in a world where production is
    not bounded? Do we need companies to provide physical goods? Do we
    need cash currency? How do we pay people to re-run fiber when a
    train derails if we don't have cash, or if cash has no value, or
    if there is no physical property to acquire? Would anybody do it
    without pay? Would we want the quality of no-pay work that we
got?         No, IPR will be the least of our problems.

As stated, this is OT.

-- 
Eric A. Hall                                        http://www.ehsco.com/
Internet Core Protocols          http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/coreprot/