Musing on a conference proposal: A DMCA Speech-In?
I was trying to generate a good proposal for the 13th Annual Conference on Computers, Freedom & Privacy. Last time around, I sent in an idea about a tutorial to evaluate censorware, but that didn't make the cut. Maybe I'll renew that proposal. But I was trying to come up with something more intriguing. It's a hard process though, since the idea would need to be "edgy", without having sufficient liability to be cutting oneself to pieces. And it's sometimes not clear when one is on the bleeding edge (and about to be cut to ribbons).
I think the fundamental suppressive strategy of the DMCA is more solid than some would grant. It's classic - pick off the "ringleaders" (here, the programmers or professors) with legal liability, and no matter how much noise is made by everyone else, choking that bottleneck works. Some people get to be celebrities or niche-celebrities. But as I recall from a book discussing legal cases against activists, it's important to keep in mind that there's not much celebrity to go around.
By Seth Finkelstein |
posted in activism
|
on November 01, 2002 09:06 AM
(Infothought permalink)
