The Mouse Police must never sleep.
Hey! Let’s dabble in something that may well be illegal, soon. Ready? Type this into your handy text editor:
10 INPUT A$
20 PRINT A$
That, my friends, is a piece of software capable of reproducing copyrighted works in digital form. When I upload this page to the web, I’ll be distributing it for free—a civil offense under the Hollings-Disney act, and quite possibly a criminal offense as well. Wasn’t that fun?
This, perhaps, is the most compelling (and most easily sound-bitten) reason to stop the Hollings-Disney act (call a spade a spade, by God: it’s not Hollings-Feinstein; it’s not the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act, an Orwellian doublespeak phrase if I ever heard one; it’s Hollings-Disney—the damn thing practically has mouse ears stamped all over it), but it’s far from the only reason. And the CBDTPA (and the DMCA—remember that one?) is far from the only thing to get in an uproar about. The world of “intellectual property”—which, mind you, is nothing less than speech and thought—is about to get very, very ugly, and these laws and proposed laws are, I’m afraid, little more than the tip of the iceberg.
(Of course, I “stole” the BASIC example from this handy little rant by Declan McCullagh, thereby compounding my crime. See how easy it is to become a thief?)
There is an uproar, at least. It’s nearly impossible to surf the web these days without running into wry, disgusted, alarmed, horrified or just plain furious commentary on the unbelievable scope of the Hollings-Disney Act, and the unmitigated gall of the Disney Five who’ve signed on to sponsor it. The best of these is doubtless Dan Gillmor’s fiery op-ed on our “Bleak Future,” but there’s also the Guardian reminding us of how maybe it’s a sign the Communists won the Cold War after all (one might also point out that the steps Cuba has taken are if more draconian than Hollings-Disney also more likely to be successful); Kevin Kelly’s excellent piece in the New York Times magazine reminding us that what Hollings-Disney is trying to protect isn’t creativity or art but a goddamn business model; Declan McCullagh (again) in Wired, pointing out the unthinkable threat to art, creativity and code at greater length; a Salon piece by Damien Cave, pondering the practicality of the whole idea of unbreakable copy protection in an age of information (back when Hollings-Disney was known as the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act, before it got its creepy Orwellian make-over)—heck. The only piece in favor of this insanity is one in which Michael Eisner, Disney’s CEO, summons forth the ghost of “internet pioneer” Abraham Lincoln. Eisner was drawn to Lincoln, no doubt, because the Great Emancipator also had a habit of smashing reporters who said things he didn’t agree with and trampling on the First Amendment rights of inconvenient presses. —Of course, Lincoln was fighting a war; then, I suppose Eisner thinks he is, too. (The reporter in question is still getting her licks in, thankfully enough.)
So speak out! Do it now! Don’t trust in the statistics that point out that the tech industry brings in 600 billion bucks, while Hollywood accounts for a measly 35 billion; keep in mind that it’s Hollywood, and the music industry, and potentially publishers, media conglomerates, game companies—anyone, that is, who makes a buck off buying or selling art, entertainment and information. (Except, oddly enough, the writers and artists and musicians themselves. The ones who actually do the creative work. —Funny, that.) Also: remember that the tech industry is slow to avail themselves of Congress and politicians, for a variety of reasons—whether it’s that the computer sector has been a frontier for so long, or that it’s dominated by libertarians whose political naïveté sometimes makes pie-in-the-sky progressives look Machiavellian by comparison, it’s true: geeks are out of their league when it comes to world-class schmoozing.
So: write letters. Fax blast. Kick up a ruckus. Here’s a letter I cribbed from shamelessly in composing my own (more theft!), and here’s the handy dandy list of senators, and how to contact them. Let the EFF help you comment to the Senate on the future of digital media distribution, and while you’re there, give them some money.
But: note how the EFF Action Alert points out the possible incremental implementation of Hollings-Disney, even if the act never passes the Senate. (Scroll down to the “Incremental CBDTPA” header.) It’s not enough to stop this act and then go back to sleep. We’ve got to stop it, and the next one, and the next one, and the next… (I’m not so sure I want to go so far as to call for the elimination of the idea of intellectual “property,” but given the abuse copyright is taking in the name of the bottom line, it’s a tempting thought. —Warning: though that particular page is perfectly safe for work, the rest of the site isn’t, really.)
But closer to home, and far more likely: we must insist upon a recognition of the Fair Use rights we all have, and we must insist on their protection. The Consumer Technology Bill of Rights proposed by DigitalConsumer.org is a good start—no matter that I’d rather be called a “citizen” than a “consumer.” Still. Send their fax and make your wishes known. Now. And don’t stop. Boycott Disney, yes, and let them know you’re doing it, and why. Stop buying major label albums. Vote with your dollars, yes—but it’s far more important to speak up, loudly, defiantly, and often.
Whether we like it or not, we’ve all—all of us who write, who read, who make art and take it in, all of us who don’t have a corporation and an assault team of lawyers at our beck and call—we’ve all been drafted into the Mouse Police.
And the Mouse Police never sleeps.
(Or did I “steal” that from Jethro Tull? Oy.)
Commenting is closed for this article.
