What is Cigital disobedience?
What is Cigital disobedience? It’s a term I made up(for the lulz) based on the obvious civil disobedience.
Half of it is scoffing current copyright laws the other half is thinking of ways of taking back the rights of the public to copy, archive and share through non-monetary gaining activities as at the end of the day those who made or own the copyright/ip should have first dibs over what can be made from its distribution. Key words “non-monetary gaining activities” this IMO is the key to keeping it a natural part of the modern world rather than what we have now which is artificially expanding file sharing to a point where it competes directly with legal alternatives of Copy right/IP distribution.
Basically you can comment or share a clip and post it online BUT the trick is no money can be made off it. Sites like youtube would have 2 choices other than the norm of deleting videos . One run advertisements that go to a media conglomerate fund that distributes total earnings to each of its members. Of course such a thing would have to be made but that would be rather easy to do. The other alternative is to run the page with no advertisements at all.
I really think this would catch on if (I were smarter lulz) people gave it some thought.
This is not without flaws, but freedom has always had flaws. Can we be reasonably free people and have the current oppressive copy right/IP system? I do not think so, knowledge and inspiration have no price or single description thus we must make it easy to share any and all information within reason.
Of course if we take out the DMCA and any and all copy right law that limits all but non-monetary gain file sharing, you still have loopholes like google can post links, file lockers can share files and people can run a site sell merchandise of that site that focus on file sharing.
This is where due process comes into play. You need a system in place that knows what is copy righted IE things are registered in 3 levels a low level non registered general license ala a GNU/GPL.
A second level for slightly less common things which are registered for say 50$ and adjusted for 50$. Say you put some time and effort into a character, story or paid for a commission and want to register it. You fill out a form add in copies of things that you made or had made for you with the address or web site and signature of the artist, send it in its either approved or denied if approved you are sent a bill with a form number and other information. And have 60 days to pay the bill or have to reapply. Copy right disputes are handled by the committee and may be passed to the courts if both sides cannot agree. It defaults to the courts if simply ignored by the committee. Fines for members for stealing/copying another’s copy right or making up placeholders to lock in a copyright are 500-5000.
The final level is the corporate level where all the major players put in their copyrights, these take priority in search protocols, when a takedown is called is into dispute all the paper work to prove ownership of it is at hand digitally to show who owns what and who has monetary gain rights to the copy right in question. Registration is 5000, adjustment is 500, and fines start at 50K and end at 500K to spurn abuse of the system.
If you are not registered your dispute is treated as an open license (on the same level as a GNU/GPL) where you have limited monetary gain protection. IE protected from profiteering/counterfeiting off your copy right/IP but little else, registering insures you have the most protection while allowing for the most freedom of the public.
Of course the more money you have the more likely it is you can buy a court’s ruling but this has more paper work and processes to allow for more free activities with any and all copyrights.
So until we have a more fair copy right system keep on breaking them but strive to build a less mangy pirate ship if you can.
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Older posts on cigital disobedience
http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com/2010/05/21/cigital-disobedience/