[Writer Post] Cory Doctorow, the Internet, and Playing Shenanigans
**Note** – some of the links lead to more indepth articles and more “technical” talk of what I mention here.
One of the best/strangest backhanded compliments I’ve ever received as a writer is to be told another writer didn’t want to read something of mine because they were about to write something similar or in the same type of universe and “didn’t want to be influenced”. That’s so a double-edged sword. In this case, I understood and was flattered – but to me, I hang out with and read other authors TO BE influenced. One such situation occurred earlier this week when my husband and I attended at Distinguished Speaker Series at UTA (University of Texas at Arlington) featuring Cory Doctorow.
If you have the opportunity to hear Cory Doctorow speak…do it. Don’t think about it – just GO (especially if it’s a free lecture like this one). You won’t be disappointed. And this lecture? Not about writing at all – because that’s only a fraction of what Cory Doctorow is/does. This lecture was for the School of Engineering and addressed the Internet, DRM, Policy, and the folly of regulation. He was there more for his contributions to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Boing Boing than his fiction work. But man, can this man speak. Seriously, I can only dream of being that coherent some days.
Though none of us have any solutions to ending piracy on the internet – most of us realized that 1) piracy is bad, and 2) SOPA/PIPA/ACTA are NOT the ways to fix it. The models those attempted laws were based on are dangerous and unworkable in this situation. And now even I, who had to be one of the least technical people attending the lecture, now have a firmer grip why they gave me the willies.
We all agree the Internet is a “good thing”. There have been studies – Doctorow mentioned one in England – that proves having access to the Internet leads to higher levels of knowledge, community participation, economic opportunity, and even better health and nutrition…just because they can research and learn through the Internet.
What was off on the bills that were introduced, is – as Doctorow explained – Collective Punishment (which is against the Geneva Convention). As we saw with Megaupload…when ONE person was accused of doing “Bad Things” on the internet and had the site shut down – it punished a whole lot of people who were using the site for “Good Things”. You’re telling a whole group of people because ONE person was naughty, everyone loses recess – except it’s much bigger than recess.
He also equated DRM (digital locks) to alchemy (which was BRILLIANT). When it comes to electronic media (books, tv, movies, music) – people don’t get the “magic” of internet and copyright and all that legal, mystical stuff that makes poor creative professionals heads go all ‘splody and make lawyers very wealthy. Alchemy had its place before science started explaining the magic. Well, now, we need to start taking the magic out of the Internet and electronic files and get on with the “science”.
I would love to see piracy gone. I would love more to see DRM gone. FOREVER. DRM is a “NOT GOOD” thing – why? It doesn’t protect authors/artists/musicians. It puts all the power in the hands of retailers like Amazon and B&N and Apple. They don’t own the CONTENT – they own the LOCK on the content and it’s completely illegal to break, undo, and share the keys to those locks. And it’s not right – and it’s not, as Doctorow pointed out in his lecture, the point of Copyright.
There is no workable solution at this juncture to wholesale regulations to the Internet. As other countries have discovered – putting websites on “bad” lists ends up with a whole lot of other sites being banned for spurious/personal reasons. National Firewalls have failed.
As Joss Whedon had Mr. Universe say in Serenity, “You can’t stop the signal, Mal.” We will all have to find ways of keeping the tool “Good” rather than “Bad”. Because “Playing Shenanigans” (which is the name of my next band) with things like getting around DNS and firewalls – not only brings the thieves and Bad Guys, it also provides ways to for Good Guys to catch up with those who wish us ill.
I’m rambling and probably mangling much of what Doctorow said. But if you want to know what he says – go listen to him, or read this. Or use the internet to educate yourself on the situation yourself. Because, as we’ve learned growing up with classic GI JOE, “Knowing is half the battle.”