freedom

 by Brendon J. Wilson

Pity The Children

If there’s one thing I’ve noticed since moving down here, it’s this: it would totally suck to be a teenager in the States. No, it’s not just raging hormones, illicit pot use and the odd swig off the old man’s Colt 45 that’s turning Johnny and Sally into brooding halfwits. It’s a society that lacks any faith in its youth, shows little respect for their ability to think for themselves, and takes protection of its children to absurd lengths.

Take the current “zero tolerance” policy being employed in the War Against Drugs being waged in the school system, a policy that’s turning US schools into prisons. There are numerous examples of kids being expelled for possessing little more than over-the-counter drugs, like Advil and Tylenol, as part of a single-minded application of policy designed to purge the schools of illegal drugs. Some are even going as far as requiring drug tests, despite all indications that teens are the only ones not doing drugs and getting away with it. Meanwhile, kids with legitimate needs for medication, such as an asthma inhaler, are being required to store their medication with the school nurse.

It’s funny – you would expect the threat of legal liability to work in the kids’ favour on this one, but then wham! You’re thrown a total curveball.

Meanwhile, so as not to be disturbed, the grownups have been having a separate grownup conversation about an imaginary guy that lives in the sky, and his relation to the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. For those not familiar with the topic, a father is seeking to have the Pledge banned from public schools on the basis that it violates the separation of church and state. The Pledge is recited in schools by children each day – yet it’s likely they don’t understand what’s they’re saying, and couldn’t care less.

What’s interesting is what isn’t being discussed. While funding in US schools is in a constant state of recession, nobody’s too concerned about the quality of the education. Nope, they’re shilling their kids’ futures by signing contracts with Coke and Pepsi, and suspending into the ground any wiseass who dares to point out the irony. Yet they can’t figure out for the life of them why the kids are getting so damn fat on all that sugar water, and outsourcing to India is threatening the US economy. It makes me wonder: has anyone ever sued a school for its liability in failing to educate its students? Why the hell not?

But sugar may not be thing rotting the minds and bodies of US teens.

Everywhere I look here, I see signs stating “No Skateboarding/No Biking/No Rollerblading” – we wouldn’t want you kids getting off your asses and going places, now would we? Has anyone bothered to look at the design of American suburbia? If you can’t drive, you might as well have lost your legs in a tragic screen door accident. Kids can’t drive, can’t skate, can’t blade, and then we wonder why they’re stuck at the mall. When teens say they’re nothing to do, it’s true – there’s literally nothing they can do. Even when they turn 16 and start to drive, they can only look forward to having their every move tracked by satellite.

Americans appear genuinely scared of teens – and I don’t blame them. If the kids figure out that not only are they getting the shaft, but also that the US economy is almost entirely based on exploiting their cheap labour, underdeveloped sense of self-esteem, and disposable income, we’re in serious trouble. Because after all, we may think we’ve figured out how to stop them doing drugs, exchanging bodily fluids, and doing all that other stuff that we enjoyed doing at their age, we sure as hell haven’t figured out how to stop them getting their hands on firearms.

I guess the real question to ask is: if we’re going to have the War on Drugs, when are we going to have the War on Bad Parents Who Blame Everyone Else Except Themselves For Their Kids’ Problems? How about the War on Gutless School Boards That Pass Useless Regulations Instead Of Using Their Heads? I can’t say we’ve seen an appropriations bill for either of those fine programs yet, now have we?

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 by Brendon J. Wilson

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

The media industry’s assault on fair use is now entering its final Orwellian chapter with the MPAA‘s latest suggestion to plug the “analog hole” by legislating manufacturers to incorporate watermark detection technology into analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). ADCs are hardware components that convert analog signals (such as the input into a soundcard) into digital signals suitable for storage on digital devices. By requiring devices to refuse to convert analog signals containing a watermark, the media industry would achieve complete control over all digital content and effectively eliminate consumer’s right to fair use of copyrighted material. As pointed out by John Gilmore, the consumer may have the protected right to fair use of copyrighted material but not the technological means to extract and reuse copyrighted material.

This move by the media industry should come as no surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention. For those who haven’t been paying attention, here’s what you’ve missed:

  • The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA): Designed to update copyright to address the new challenges posed by digital technology, the DMCA included provisions making it illegal to circumvent copyright protection technology. While this may sound reasonable, opponents of the law note the media industry is using the law to squelch legitimate security research. Front and center, the case of the RIAA versus Dr. Richard Felten, a case that illustrated the law’s deadly double-edge. Most disturbing is the fact that other countries, including Canada, are looking to adopt legislation similar to the DMCA.
  • The Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Act of 2002 (CBDTA): Introduced as a bill in March by Senator Hollings, the “Senator from Disney”, the CBDTA seeks to force all software and hardware to incorporate copyright control technology. This bill is a re-tooled and re-named version of a previous bill introduced by Hollings, the “Security Systems Standards and Certification Act”. The bill requires manufacturers to create a standard within 18 months of the bill becoming law; if manufacturers fail to agree on a standard, it will be up to the US government to set the standard.

With this latest suggestion, the media industry is illustrating how small changes, each perfectly logical, can result in a society where civil liberties and free will are next to non-existent. What’s to prevent the media industry to seek mandatory implantation of copyright protection mechanisms in humans once the appropriate technology is available? Sure it sounds crazy, but think of the advantages for media industry if every human’s sense of touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight were regulated to squeeze out every last cent of profit from copyrighted material:

  • “Premium” experiences: While you may pay for food or clothes, the implanted technology could be used to prevent you from fully experiencing the taste of your food or the sensation of your clothes. Want that extra experience? It’ll cost you.
  • Don’t whistle while you work: Say you’ve got a cool song in your head, so you decide to whistle it. By doing this you’re reproducing a copyrighted work, so the implanted technology prevents you from doing so without paying a royalty. Even once you pay the royalty, the implants force the sounds you produce to contain an embedded watermark forcing anyone around you to pay a royalty to listen to you. Good-bye impersonations and catch phrases.
  • So much for casual teenage sex: Want to enforce teen abstinence? Install NetNanny software into the implants that prevent the teens from experiencing sex in any way!

Is this stuff far-fetched? Sure, but as pointed out in The Age of Access this culture of paid-for experiences is already exists today, even without the benefit of copyright control technology. If we give companies the tools to commodify our culture, our experiences, our very lives, they will use it. Companies exist for one purpose: to make a profit. And in the war of business, everything is fair game.

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