This proposal is an alternative to the “digital locking” measures in Bill C-32 (http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/5080/125/). It is intended to preserve the right of fair use while preventing unauthorized republication of the work of artists.
The only way to extend copyright to embrace the distributed nature of the Internet is to extend the “web of trust” to cover media. The “web of trust” would merely be an extension of copyright, restricting publication *not* use and access. This would be an open and distributed way to prevent unauthorized republication of content.
The problem is that copyright in its current state doesn’t extend well to the Internet, as anyone has access to the means of publishing content. There is no way of preventing unauthorized publication of digital content without utilizing encryption. However, both the means of encryption and the means of access should be an open public good.
Within the “web of trust”, you would buy a key to the content, not the content itself. You would also be able to resell this key, transferring your rights to use and access the content to another person. It would be within the rights of the consumer to break the “web of trust” if, and only if, the key has been lost or rendered non-functional and they wish to access the content. Consumers would always have the right of fair use. Under no circumstances, however, would consumers have the right to redistribute their key, as this would result in the republication of the content.
The effects of this “web of trust” would be very similar to the clause you see in books where you cannot sell a book without its cover. This stipulation does not affect end users but it does force *publishers* and *vendors* to obtain permission to republish the content.
Media can never be free. Because if media was free, there would be no economic incentive to produce it. Media, however, *can* be made open. And there is every economic incentive for media to be made open.
In depth technical specifics are available here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_of_trust
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerckhoffs%27_principle
Thanks,
Ryan Oram
Lilithe
You Sir/Madam are the enemy of confusion everhywere!
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