[dgc.chat] Fwd: [NEC] #2.12: The RIAA Succeeds Where the CypherPunks Failed
Steve Schear
s.schear at comcast.net
Wed Dec 17 21:57:40 PST 2003
At 12:39 PM 12/17/2003, Patrick Chkoreff on the dgcchat at lists wrote:
>Well, Clay Shirky has done it again, writing a very insightful article
>on the current digital scene, this time on the unintended but
>beneficial consequences of RIAA's crackdown on file sharing.
>
>Here is one particularly telling excerpt:
>
>>Note that the broadening adoption of encryption is not because users
>>have become libertarians, but because they have become criminals; to a
>>first approximation, every PC owner under the age of 35 is now a > felon.
http://www.shirky.com/writings/riaa_encryption.html
I'm not sure if Clay ever hung out on the cypherpunks list. None of this
comes as a surprise. Most knew early on that widespread adoption of crypto
would require a killer app and that cypherpunks were not delivering these
apps because one could not predict what they would be. They would surely
not be PGP and other encrypted email nor digital cash unless and until
there was a small but lucrative market that could be addressed by such
technology or a large market with broad citizen support. That file sharing
could be it was also recognized a long time ago on the cypherpunks list.
The really interesting aspect of this is what it portends for the
future. If, as Clay suggests, the current situation is like Prohibition
from citizen perspective can we expect a similar repeal of government
surveillance? If not, what will happen as large numbers of citizens adopt
P2P systems that not only flaunt copyright law but communications more dear
to those in power?
steve
"For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law
of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open
secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely
connected with this." -- Albert Einstein, "My First Impression of the
U.S.A.", 1921
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