From: jonabbey@cs.utexas.edu (Jonathan David Abbey)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Copyright on USENET/Internet -- ASCP-type enforcement issues..
Date: 13 Sep 1992 03:17:44 -0500
Organization: CS Dept, University of Texas at Austin
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: tokio.cs.utexas.edu
Summary: Will the net survive? 8-)
Keywords: Digital Signature ASCP Copyright Doom Gloom Net-Armageddon

I realize that we just went through a really painful copyright
discussion here, but I see a rather different question that I'd like
to have addressed by the net.

To wit, a number of ftp sites carry copyrighted materials.  These
materials include text, audio, and, increasingly if not yet commonly,
digital video.  The ftp site sciences.sdsu.edu, for instance, has
about 150MB of copyrighted songs.  Given the sampling rate and sample
size and monochannel recording of the songs, this is easily equivalent
to a couple of CD's, if not more.  Right now I have Rush's YYZ playing
on my sparcstation via a simple ftp command - "get YYZ.au /dev/audio".
Now it's Kate Bush's experimentIV.

Now my question is, what is going to happen when ASCP (sp?) gets wind
of this sort of thing?  For those who are unfamiliar with the
organization, my understanding is that they are the company charged
with making sure that artists are paid for public performances of
their work.  They have tape recorders in radio markets recording
broadcasts.  They then have folks go over the tapes and prepare a bill
for royalty charges to the radio station.

ASCP has been known to go to the trouble of threatening legal action
against stores, for instance, that play music from the radio within
their store in sufficiently flagrant manner that it trips their
'public performance' warning bells.

It occurs to me that if someone were to sit their execs down at a
SparcStation, show them the 50 or 60 songs on this ftp archive, and
indicate that any workstation in the country with a modicum of disk
space could have a repository like this, and that they are available
from any other workstation in the country, well, I think they would be
somewhat disturbed by this.

The music industry has had a hand in restricting the ability of DAT
and DCC to make unlimited generations of perfect copies of material.
I have to wonder if they really appreciate the possibilities inherent
in digital communications. (Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer, now)

I have to confess a most evil temptation.  I don't dare do this for
fear of becoming a pariah like the net has never seen, but hear me
out: What _would_ be the results of going to ASCP and impressing upon
them the implications of the Internet as it stands?  Showing them how
very easy it is (Pink Floyd, Welcome To The Machine) to circumvent any
attempt to enforce copyright with the current Internet.  Telling them
that there are hundreds of thousands of machines capable of sending
and receiving these recordings.  Would they be satisfied with suing
the organization running sciences.scsu.edu?  Or would they go after
the Internet carriers as well?  Would they join EFF?  Would they have
any power whatsoever to impede what is already a gargantuan
institution? (WhiteSnake, Still of the Night) What kind of force could
the music industry bring to bear on congress in its deliberations on
NREN funding, etc.?  The FBI's attempt to have the communications
providers provide means to effect workable wiretapping could easily,
it seems, be duplicated by the music industry with regards to
government funded (or permitted) networking.

I can't see how Internet can become a truly ubiquitous commericial
service without the kind of digital signature / authorization system
outlined in the recent Scientific American article.  Internet can not
serve as the basis for the kind of information society I would like my
children to have and live within.  Would pointing out
sciences.scsu.edu (Lost Boys Soundtrack, Cry Little Sister) to the
folks at ASCP apply pressure to Internet that will force such changes
to occur sooner rather than later, so that the process will be sped
along?

The recent Scientific American article on digital signature systems
lays out an architecture that seems powerful enough to serve as the
foundation of an effective information society.

But to be effective, there really would have to be a requirement that
all persons connected to the net abide by said digital signature /
copyright authentication system, such that they will not be given
access to the network unless they are able to demonstrate that there
is the presence of (Pet Shop Boys, Opportunities) a copyright-honoring
mechanism in the system.  Even then, it will be easy to digitize a CD or
other music source and present it to the net as original material, or
to take copyrighted material from the net, run it through an ADC/DAC
pair and resubmit it likewise.

Does this imply that our stereos will have to speak the copyright
protocol and ADC's will be restricted materials? (Lost Boys, Beauty
Has Her Way)

It seems to me that without such a system, and without such
prohibitions on technology that gets around the system, there can be
NO way of supporting a true, generally networked information society.

(Dire Straits, My Parties) (B52's, Deadbeat Club) So, how do we get from
here to there?  Can Internet transition to an authenticated system?
Can we install routers that will refuse to route packets that aren't
digitally signed?  What kind of draconian laws will be required to
insure that people don't re-package data (going through an analog step
to shake the copyright tagging, if necessary) to avoid copyright?
Will we have to wait until all current systems become rust and the
technology to work with data outside of the copyright-protecting
system is not available to the public? (Enya, Orinoco Flow)

Is it simply an intractable problem in a free society?  

(The Cure, Lullaby)

 I would love to hear some good discussion on this.

(Information Society, What's On Your Mind <Pure Energy>)

As an aside, its very intersting doing a download directly into
/dev/audio -- audible netlag. 8-) Now what happens if I hook up a
radio and microphone to my sparcstation and broadcast a local radio
station to anyone interested on the Internet via ftp?  There is
already software available for the Sun that supports real time talk
over an IP network, using a microphone on each end.  Will the net
survive such abuse? 8-)  Sure, it's not like I'm downloading the
X distribution, but..

(Led Zeppelin, Stairway to Heaven)

Stop me before I use the Internet as my personal stereo again. 8-{




-- 
Jonathan Abbey                                 jonabbey@cs.utexas.edu
the university of texas at austin             "He's cleaning up his systems
computer science/math/psychology               to keep his nature pure" - Rush