Editorial Reviews:
Book Description
Pirates of the Digital Millennium: Preface PREFACE It was a quintessential New England fall morning-crisp, sunny, cold-that day in November 2002. We were two old friends and colleagues, getting together for breakfast to catch up, talk about our work, our children, our lives. John, the researcher, was just finishing up a massive project at IDC on the economic impact of worldwide software piracy. Jack, the writer, smelled an important story in the making. We were both amazed at the extent of worldwide copyright violation, astounded at how fast Napster had grown, sad at its demise and the loss of one of the easiest to use software programs we d ever seen, and amused at how quickly KaZaA had filled its shoes. Little did we know that the casual activity known as file-sharing, or downloading MP3s, would explode in the news six months later when the Recording Industry Association of America began issuing takedown orders on college students. And even though we knew our kids-boys in high school, college, and beyond-were downloaders, we didn t really understand how they felt about what they were doing, about what the music industry was doing, or about copyright infringement in general. Nor, when we met, did we understand the wildly complex facets of copyright law-for example, how it was rewritten 11 separate times during the 1900s, each time granting longer and longer terms of copyright. We had no idea that Mickey Mouse s copyright (1928 2023) would outlive his creator, Walt Disney (1901 1966), by 57 years. We had yet to grasp the full extent of worldwide media piracy and its impact on the global economy. Before we left the breakfast table, we were talking about working together on another book, 20 years after our first collaboration- a widely popular book called The Naked Computer- was published. Our agent and publisher shared our enthusiasm for this new book, and soon we were once again writing together. We have entered the digital millennium, where most, if not all, of our media have been (or soon will be) rendered into the strings of ones and zeroes a computer chip understands. The world is awash in media and entertainment devices, personal computers, Internet connections, and broadband transmission. We re surrounded by MP3 players, TiVo, Personal Video Recorders, CD burners, iPods, laptops, Playstations, and more. Technology has unsheathed a sword of Damocles that makes it possible for us to enjoy media-software, computer games, music, movies-in ways that were not possible 20 years ago. At the same time, it threatens the long-held right of artists and copyright owners to expect a fair return for their intellectual capital and the sweat of their brows. Yet as the media for gaming, music, movies, and computers become ever more interchangeable, so will the public s expectations that they ought to have the right to use them in all the new and different ways they choose. These two viewpoints are in serious conflict. When we began writing Pirates of the Digital Millennium , we held some cherished, all-American beliefs. We believed business is entitled to a profit. We were convinced that black marketeers in other countries are hurting the world s economy by stealing and replicating computer software and games, movies, and other forms of intellectual property. We assumed kids don t really understand copyright and that they re stealing from record companies and artists. But after a year of researching and writing, we didn t end up in quite the same intellectual place we started. This book was a journey of personal discovery. We hope it will be the same for you. We have been forced to scrutinize our personal philosophies and our understanding about what motivates people. We ve had to travel the timeline of copyright protection from the Middle Ages until now to see how it has evolved. We ve had to understand how business, politics, and law mix in today s information society. We ve had to ask: What freedoms have we given up in the name of copyright protection? Our discussion concerns intellectual property: its use and its value. On one hand are those who believe that anything they conjure up, anything that transforms an idea into form, is intellectual property. On the other are the individuals who believe just as passionately that the entire notion of intellectual property is at best a farce, at worst just another way to suck profits out of the ether. In between these two extremes is a spectrum of social, legal, and ethical points of view. There s a battle outside and it s ragin , sang Bob Dylan in The Times They Are A-Changin . This battle pits media conglomerates against teenagers, artists against artists, technology providers against content providers, nations against nations, Internet service providers against entertainment companies, media companies against their best customers-and even law enforcement against organized crime. The ownership of intellectual property has been passing from the minds of artists and into the bank accounts of media businesses for at least 200 years. Yet since the passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, some of those in the media business have developed a lockdown mentality that many people feel threatens their right to enjoy the media they buy however they see fit, as well as the public right of fair use. The concerns discussed in this book rise way beyond simply being able to legitimately download a song from the Internet: They extend all the way to your right to not sit through commercials when you watch a recorded television show. There are those who believe the American model of capitalism, along with American intellectual property, should be promulgated throughout the world economy, with the same terms of sale and use for their products as in the United States, regardless of disparities in economic status or local customs regarding ownership and copying. And there are those who don t. We found ourselves asking a number of these questions as we traveled the road from blank page to completed manuscript: Do we have a right to use media we license or buy in any way we see fit? Do the media publishers have a right to profit for decades from their acquired intellectual property? Is downloading stealing or civil disobedience? Is enforcement curtailing piracy or making it worse? Can we expect to change the hearts and minds of the global citizenry to a capitalistic point of view? Could the software companies and media firms do something different to alleviate the problem? How bad is the problem? Whose problem is it? Why do pirates pirate? And why don t others? This is our invitation to you to take a journey into the heart of intellectual property darkness with us. WHAT S IN THIS BOOK? Here s a roadmap for the 10 chapters of the journey you re about to embark upon with us: Chapter 1, Are You a Digital Pirate ?, presents an overview of the ideas and social situations regarding the licit and illicit use of copyrighted intellectual property. We ask you to evaluate your own behavior, or that of people close to you, to determine if you, or they, are pirates of the digital millennium. Chapter 2, Is it Copyright or the Right to Copy ?, presents a history of modern copyright in what we generally regard as Western civilization, beginning with monks in the European Dark Ages and moving (somewhat regressively) through English law to American issues of fair use and the sanctity of ideas. A table of the political history of copyright concludes the chapter. Chapter 3, Us Against Them ?, explores the war over intellectual property use, providing a fair and balanced perspective of all the competing camps. It s the scorecard-the playbook-of the conflict. Chapter 4, Inside the Corporate Intellect: A Day at Microsoft , explains just what goes into software development, in terms of human intellectual capital and corporate resources. Next time you think how cheap it is to make a CD, remember this chapter and that the aluminum and plastic disc is a very small part of the cost. Chapter 5, Inside the Sausage: The Making of the Digital Millen nium Copyright Act , sets out what led to the creation and passage of this piece of legislation, which has caused one of the most pitched battles between copyists and capitalists in the history of copyright. Chapter 6, Global Fallout , explores the worldwide effects and aftereffects of digital piracy. We re not talking about kids downloading tunes here. In some cases, organized crime is a major player. We explore what it takes for a less privileged country to gain economic footing with our intellectual property. Chapter 7, Dude, Where s My MP3 ?, focuses on youth, primarily American, who regard access to the Internet as an ordained right and anything on it as fair and free game. Yes, a game: If the copyright holders find a way to protect their intellectual property, the game is to crack it. Chapter 8, Eliot Ness or Keystone Kops ?, looks at the attempts- and we do mean attempts-to stem the tide of international piracy and download thievery. While the RIAA did put the fear of God in America s downloaders for a short while, most have come to believe that detection and punishment are unlikely-and it appears they may be right. Ditto for the rest of the digital planet. Chapter 9, Angel on My Shoulder: What s in It for Me? , asks you to examine your own beliefs and ethics in making a personal determination about what s right and what s not, what the other guy does be damned. We all have to take our own ethical stand. Chapter 10, Through the Fog: The Future of Intellectual Property , sums up what we ve learned in the foregoing nine chapters, and extrapolates from that some solutions to the problem. Here you can test our logic and vision, and add your own. The Afterword, following Chapter 10, describes each of our personal journeys, where we reveal our views to you. Don t peek until you ve read the book, though!
Download Description
"Digital piracy. It's a global war. It touches you every day, even if you've never downloaded an MP3. And it's just begun. It's a war between media conglomerates and teenagers. A battle to the death between billion-dollar tech companies and billion-dollar content providers. It's artists battling artists, nations battling nations. This book covers it all. Every side. All the implications. The economics. The law. The ethics. The players. And above all, the realities¿including the extraordinary findings of a new 57-country digital piracy research project and fresh survey and focus group research conducted specifically for this book. The media universe is shaking to its very foundations. One book helps you make sense of what's happened and what's next: Pirates of the Digital Millennium. The war over digital piracy and intellectual property is being fought everywhere on earth. It's the world's #1 technology story. It just might be today's #1 culture and entertainment story, too. Now, best-selling authors John Gantz and Jack Rochester take on the subject from every side: culture, ethics, law, business, even geopolitics. They start with facts, not uninformed opinion: facts drawn from IDC's unprecedented 57-country survey of digital piracy and its impact, as well as fresh focus group and survey research conducted specifically for this book. You'll travel from the streets of Bangkok to the halls of Congress, secret duplicating factories in Paraguay to America's suburban bedrooms. You'll discover what ""fair use"" really means, then sort through the morality of digital copying. You'll hear every side of the debate. You'll also hear something unprecedented in debates about piracy: some real, fair solutions. Will big media survive? Can you sue your customers into submission? The cultural impact of strict copyright law Does strict copyright law protect creativity¿or shackle it? Are we killing our #1 export market? If we can't export creative content, what can we export? DMCA: The secret history Making political sausage: How the Digital Millennium Copyright Act made it through Congress Eliot Ness or the Keystone Kops? Law enforcement versus piracy: shoveling against the tide Through the fog: The future of intellectual property Sensible ""grand compromises"" that just might work"
Customer Reviews:
Review #1: A Pirates Life For Me
2005-05-27 
This book is a description of controlling a barrel of monkeys. The authors tackle the complex and almost untamable world of intellectual property piracy. To their credit this is a very accessible book, they left the detailed legal opinions on the cutting room floor. They also cover the subject in a rather even handed way. At first they were falling onto the side I fall onto, that any of this downloading etc is stealing plain and simple. They end up with a far more mellowed view and they almost convinced me along the way.
They give the reader a nice overview of what constitutes the new world of digital piracy. They cover everything from a teenager downloading a new song to Asian mafia types counterfeiting Microsoft code. It is very enlightening to say the least. They go on to cover topics such as how is software created, the current laws, and who and where is the major counterfeiting taking place. I really liked the chapter on the current ineffective and almost nonexistent law enforcement efforts. Arresting ten high school kids for downloading songs while millions of versions of counterfeit software packages come into the country each year highlights the joke of the law enforcement effort.
While I might not have come to completely agree with the authors suggested middle road approach, I did find the book very enjoyable. The book is easy to read and moves along at a nice pace. You learn a good deal from it also. If you are interested in the topic then this is a book that is well worth your time. Just make sure you get an authentic copy.
Review #2: A Complex Problem Indeed
2005-04-24 
In Pirates of the Digital Millennium, co-authors Rochester and Gantz tackle a subject with many far-reaching facets, and artfully illuminate the players, their motives, and their means.
The book starts with an excellent primer on intellectual property and copyright laws, which is vital for helping the lay reader understand the chapters ahead, and spells out some key underlying points (e.g. copyright laws have always been there to protect the publisher fat cats, not the artists, and most of the world's population lives without intellectual property laws!).
As the chapters go on we're taught about how companies lose money to pirating, who is doing the pirating (organized pirating rings, mostly in developing countries, are doing most of the damage), and what's being done to minimize it. The authors intelligently criticize the methods the music industry has used, like suing 12-year-olds, as well as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. They offer alternative strategies such as being one step ahead of the downloaders and creating pay-downloading sites that are better than the ones currently available for free.
The case is made that pirating really is ethically wrong, but it's also acknowledged that most people don't think it's wrong enough to keep them from doing it.
Since the data on digital piracy are sparse, the authors have commissioned some studies of their own, and used interviews with students, friends, and relatives to fill in the rest.
My one criticism of the book is that the authors seem to have a reverence for the software industry that they don't feel for its movie and music counterparts. An entire chapter is devoted to what goes into making a software package at Microsoft, and I got the feeling that the authors were really tickled to be there documenting the process. While it's repeatedly noted that CDs are overpriced at $20, there's no mention of the bloated price of software (how about $600 for Photoshop?).
In sum, the book educates the reader on the issues and leaves it up to him to decide whether or not to pirate media, and to do something about the silly laws that have been enacted to stop piracy (and that restrict our personal freedoms). The reader is left educated and empowered.
Review #3: Well written, balanced perspective
2005-01-06
The digital rights management problem is complex. Consumers have a right to own what they buy, and fairly use it. And commercial companies and artists have a right to make money on products that consumers are willing to pay for. Finding the right balance is complex, and that's what this book sets out to do.
It's a relatively quick read at about three hundred pages. If you read just the first portion of the book you would believe that the author is firmly in league with the companies. He lays out in grim detail the cost of piracy at an economic level. In the later chapters he does a good job representing the consumer perspective and advocating for our rights.
He finishes up with a well reasoned proposal for striking a balance between these two warring factions. Companies want to make money. People want to own stuff. Cant' we all just get a long?
Review #4: Great book. Comprehensive & Illuminating
2004-12-06
While most of us have probably engaged in some form of digital piracy - be it mp3 downloading or CD burning/sharing - I think few of us actually understand the legal or moral ramifications surrounding these activities. In 'Pirates of the Digital Millenium', Gantz and Rochester offer a balanced and revealing perspective on all of these issues and encourage a rethinking of the problems surrounding digital piracy and copyright.
'Pirates of the Digital Millenium' starts off by discussing the history of piracy (of written media) and copyright law. It then proceeds to analyze the recent explosion of digital piracy from the multiple perspectives, including those of the music industry, the artists, and the consumers themselves. I was surprised to learn about the striking similarities between instances of piracy in the 1800s and in the current day - how divides exist between artists/authors, publishers and consumers, and how copyright laws cater only to the economic needs of the industry.
While highlighting historical similarities, Gantz and Rochester emphasize that digital piracy is a new phenomenon that will require radically new mechanisms of control; as demonstrated by the recent actions of the RIAA against music downloaders, existing methods of law-enforcement do not work against digital piracy. At the same time, Gantz and Rochester calls on the digital media industry to stop demonizing consumers - college students in particular - and start finding new ways to distribute their media in a way that addresses people's needs.
This book is a great read. It is well written, rich with interesting information and persuasive in its arguments for better solutions to the problems at hand.
Review #5: The Internet is big Brother.....
2004-11-05
This book warns us of the dangers and the traps that hackers will use to steal music,money, information, almost anything as long as the stupid cable companies develop fast internet access. After reading this, you will want to cancel that AOL account and give your computer away. |
