Supernova 2002 (mentioned by Denton) looks weird. It’s one of those big picture convergence conferences where the big picture ends up being too big to talk about, so it degenerates into a discussion of very little things (like the Tivo boss insisting that his customers are all happy as clams, both of them).
Seems to me that digital rights is one of the main barriers to convergence, and it won’t be lifted without some heavy compromise. Yet the advocacy groups that are supposed to be representing the computer industry, like EFF and CDT, are anti-compromise.
Grim prospects, no film at 11:00.
Click here for the Supernova group blog.
As Cory Doctorow said on yesterday’s panel, the history of attempts to throttle innovation in “content delivery” have been resolved not by compromises but by victories for the forces of freedom. (Cory of course put it better.)
I personally think it would be a mistake to look for a compromise because this isn’t a battle between competing interests. It’s a battle between interests and rights, and rights are precisely that about which one does not compromise.
I don’t see that the consumer of a product – whether it’s digitized content or a cheesburger – has the same rights as its producer. The producer can dictate the terms of use as he sees fit, even when those terms are not best for his business.
Nobody in Washington gives a damn about the EFF, anyway.