Joe Thomas <jthomas@pawpaw.mitre.org>
I don't see how enforcement of copyright will be possible under crypto-anarchy any more than taxation will be. If one person pays for a posting, what's to keep him from sharing it anonymously with whomever he wants? Is there any way that crypto-anarcy won't bring the death of "intellectual property"?
This subject has interested me for a long time and I've posted on it to the list a long time ago. There was a recent article by someone in CUD (I forget who) that closely reflects my own thinking. Since this is kind of a borderline relevant list topic, I won't include it here, I'll just give the reference:
Computer underground Digest Wed Sep 29 1993 Volume 5 : Issue 76 ISSN 1004-042X
File 2--the Cyberspatial Copyright
The author talks about using digital cash and a sort of shareware system, and also makes reference to the idea of hypertext links that charge tolls when traversed, all based on the idea of digital cash. There are numerous CUD FTP sites, but see e.g. ftp.eff.org:/pub/cud/cud/cud5.76.z note: if you retrieve the file without the .z suffix the system will automatically decompress on the fly. Also, this is not the first time I've seen a reference to the Xanadu system. It must be pretty influential but I haven't gotten around to reading about it yet. Anyway, precise reference: AUTHOR(s): Nelson, Theodor Holm. TITLE(s): Literary machines : the report on, and of, Project Xanadu concerning word processing, electronic publishing, hypertext, thinkertoys, tomorrow's intellectual revolution, and certain other topics including knowledge, education and freedom / Theodor Holm Nelson. Ed. 87.1. Swarthmore, Pa. : Theodor H. Nelson, 1987. 1 v. (various pagings) : ill. ; 22 cm. Includes bibliographical references. OTHER ENTRIES: Word processing (Office practice) Microcomputers Programming. Electronic publishing. Self-publishing Data processing. Project Xanadu. Finally, I have a lot of collections of postings from mailing lists on the subject, e.g. related to an article in Wired by M. Chrichton ``The Death of the Media'', but will not dig them out without a sufficient incentive <g>