Maybe Sony should have read this piece first:
" The effort required to enforce copyright is approaching infinity.
" Encryption, the Industry counters: we will be so clever that we'll
only distribute a product that can be unlocked and used by the
customer, by the miracle of the cipher, a secret code.
"The Internet was built for maximum survivability in a nuclear war.
It's everywhere, and growing exponentially. How's the hell is
Entertainment business going to keep up with that? And copyright all
you want. The Internet doesn't care; if it can be digitized and loaded
onto a networked computer, it will be everywhere, soon. The cyborg
guarantees it. Go ahead - sick your lawyers on a few dozen
downloaders. It's just a finger in the dyke; a thousand new holes will
appear every day. Squared.
"Comparisons of the Internet to a military cyborg really aren't
hyperbole. The grim history is that Internet was originally built as a
cybernetic military command-and-control infrastructure for
coordinating, among other things, the launch of nuclear missiles.
Researchers at the Department of Defense figured out that virtual
communication circuits on a network beat the heck out of literal,
point-to-point circuits of dedicated wiring. This scheme of virtual
circuits brought with it the prospect the military could build a
control system that could fix itself instantaneously if it sustained
damage.
"Damage, as in, nuclear damage. When a segment of the network
was compromised -- as in, "Oh, heck -- they just nuked Denver" -- the
system could re-configure these virtual circuits on-the-fly -- with
computers and routers instead of work crews with pliers, wire and
soldering guns -- and the messages would still get through, right now.
Simply, the Net interpreted sudden silences in any of its network
nodes as damage, and routed around it.
"That is the Prime Directive, core message, and DNA of the Internet,
all in one: If you can't get a message through one channel, route
around it -- invisibly, silently, relentlessly -- until you make the
connection.
"And here's the commercially grizzly implication of that Prime
Directive no entertainment executive has, as of yet, been able to
understand: The Internet interprets commercial interest, censorship or
virtual toll-booths of any kind as damage. And routes around them.
Invisibly, automatically, instantaneously."
Quoted from http://www.thomasscoville.com/Tinseltown_Burning.pdf
"Why downloading isn't wrong, copyright is dead and Hollywood is in decline."
alonzo_heem@yahoo.com