Loreena McKennitt on C-32 and “user rights”
Loreena McKennitt has written an op-ed in the Winnipeg Free Press with her views on copyright. I have a lot of respect for her talent and her opinions on the matter, though her particular style of music hasn’t graced my library to date as I’ve paid my money to other artists so far. I must respectfully note that she doesn’t get it with piracy. As a computer professional, well versed in security, encryption and distribution, as well as the cost of piracy on the goods I produce I will say this.
TPM doesn’t get in the way of pirates. (TPM == DRM == Digital Locks == Hardware Locks) Pirates blow these systems wide open in a matter of weeks or less in most cases. For proof, look at the DeCSS for playing DVDs on Linux. The DVDs had at the time somewhat decent protection measures. They were circumvented in weeks. The DMCA in the United States (the copyright reform act south of the 49th) attempted to outlaw the breaking of locks as well. They did, and it had minimal to no effect on the pirating criminals, but did make it impossible for people to purchase a DVD and watch it on a free software operating system like Linux because the Linux OS does not have a licensed player that implements the decryption system legally. There is DeCSS and related products that remove the lock to play the disc, but according to the law, the use of that product, even to do what is considered by most people to be a normal, lawful act, that of playing and enjoying a DVD that you legally purchased, is illegal because they are not using a secondary system, being a DVD player, that was built according to the digital lock providing body.
Ms. McKennitt’s views are here at the link below. Have a read and please continue. I want a balanced presentation to you here.
Pirates are killing musicians, composers, lyricists, even popcorn vendors – Winnipeg Free Press
Unfortunately, there seems to be some linguistic nuance I can’t grasp that equates digital music piracy with decreased concert attendance. I really, REALLY don’t follow that logic. Pirates will break or avoid the lock, or pull a crappy recording via analog tech or using an “illegal” player (they are already breaking the copyright law that exists today by distributing illegal copies) and continue on their way. The fans and people that buy the music will be locked into whatever hardware gear the artist/label/publisher uses, and if the artist/label/publisher decides to change the hardware provider and TPM, under Ms. McKennitt’s view and under the C-32 wording as it exists, are out of luck and need to buy another copy of the same work to continue to enjoy the already-purchased work. This is the same work. You just went from needing a “Vendor/TPM provider A” unit to needing a “Vendor/TPM provider B” unit.
Apparently, that’s perfectly fine with Loreena McKennitt. I think most of us feel that is totally unfair and results in the consumer/fan/customer being held hostage to format shifts, as well as competing standards based not on merit but on arbitrary digital lock technology.
Note that none of this has anything to do with going to concerts. I used to enjoy going to concerts. Concerts used to cost about as much as a movie admission or two. Now it’s closer to about 8 or 9 of those admissions, even with the price increases. It’s not as easy a discretionary purchase. Most importantly, going to a concert is not always about the live listening experience. With large acts that are in stadiums, the sound quality if horrible anyway, and you get far better audio experience with a CD or DVD-Audio or digital high-quality playing in a quality sound system. The concerts are about a live performance and that, increasingly, is pretty marginal by artists or alternately so over the top and outrageous is has little relation to the act as the work portrays.
You want a great concert? I’d recommend Rush. Excellent music, but the overall experience, the alterations to the live performance, the interaction, that is great showmanship. Of course, that was a long time ago as their tickets have also gone through the roof.
You want to get people to the venue and buying the popcorn? Leave them some money after paying for the tickets to *buy* the popcorn. And look at not using Ticketmaster and other middlemen that add ridiculous sums of money to the cost to your fans’ enjoyment of your live work.
Finally, stating that fans have a license to listen is disrespectful to those that support her livelihood. The customers purchase a copy of the work, and they have the right to enjoy that copy for their own private enjoyment. To that point, the difference between the license concept and the copy concept is minimal. The issue is the idea that the control of how long I can enjoy that purchased copy or on what sort of equipment I can enjoy it is up to the copyright holder in the idea of a license, where the idea of the copy says it’s none of their business, it is up to me and how I live my life in the privacy of my own home.
I write software. Software is as prone to piracy as music, and has been pirated for as long as mix tapes have existed. Software is also how these digital locks are implemented into the hardware. I’ll tell you right now, the problem is nearly intractable trying to make a secure trusted system that is in the hands of a potential infringer. If the device can play the media, the device can be reverse engineered in the hands of a determined party, and the security can be compromised. Feel free to read John Carmack’s take on it. The solutions are terribly invasive, expensive and generally have the effect of really pissing those of us off that paid your wages to enjoy your work.
You want to decrease piracy? Punish the pirates for distributing the copyrighted work. You can do that already, you don’t need TPM, you don’t need C-32, you have the laws for that already. Increase the penalties as further deterrent but enforce the law. C-32 is a good law except for the TPM protection for non-infringing use. Let those of us that own the work enjoy it privately how we see fit. Grant us that as our “license right” if you really need to attach yourself to that idea, and you can keep the TPM legal protection when the break of the TPM is done in order to infringe copyright. Then everybody is happy and you aren’t telling us how to enjoy music, movies, and other digital works in the comfort of our homes.
If you think that isn’t fair to you as an artist, I accuse you of overestimating your value to your customers and further state that I believe you are willing to extort and exploit your customers as much as you can for money, because that’s all that the TPM protection for non-infringing use can ever accomplish.
I enjoy Loreena McKennitt’s work on the radio, and I have come close to buying an album on iTunes. I have no copies of any of her work and I will never have any unless I pay her for them. But at this point, if that’s how she feels about her fans, about her customers….. I will not count myself among them.