Summary: [Fsfe-uk] TV show about copyright, the Internet and DRM

[MJ Ray]

So, this went out at 12:00 BST today.

> Intro from the lawyer, then Shane explained upload/download.
> Now the lawyer is talking about royalties as if they're a right,
> but does say the movie industry needs to accept the internet.

After the intros, a bit of a ramble around copyright and whether
filesharing is or isn't illegal. Shane's main point seemed to
be that filesharing is just sharing files, which is a good idea.
Lawyer Andrew (didn't catch surname... sorry) seems to describe
royalties as an entitlement and illegal filesharing as starving
artists. Then the ad break, during which I send an email.

Coming out of that, Shane tries to make online and offline
copyright comparable, then moves onto the strong point about
DRM and loss of control - nice "noddy shot" of the lawyer
during this.

Next, Matt Phillips of the BPI on the phone explains what BPI
is, then launches into illegal filesharing and enforcement -
presenter asks some questions, camera stays on her during
the call and she looks fairly bored IMO. More questions. Matt
calls digital "blessing and a curse" but seems to centre on
the curse aspect... tries to link copyright infringement to
the dotcom crash but I lost that point. Generally, comes across
very negative.

Andrew replies first and agrees about the e-commerce surge. When
asked, Shane really lays into Matt, disagrees with tons of
stuff, talks across him, points out that enforcement is OK,
but DRM isn't good for people, as it's all about taking control
of computers away from people.

Matt claims not to understand the control question, Shane
replies by explaining Sony-DRM a little. Matt tries to dismiss
that as an implementation bug, and they're then cut off by the
presenter bringing lawyer Andrew back in, who suggests that
the boundaries are all up for moving and maybe technological
fightback (I think that's what he said) should be allowed too.

Then the presenter seems to get a bit flustered and closes down
the show pretty abruptly, but did invite the BPI guy back!?!

Shane is a very powerful speaker when addressing Matt, looking
directly at the camera, using the natural advantage of physical
and screen presence. I worry it looks a little aggressive, but
I can understand that reaction to a BPI spokesman! When talking
to other studio guests, Shane seemed to be looking sideways at
the table, which seemed a little odd: are there monitors under
it or something? Was the presenter a little too close for comfort?

Can anyone see the repeat times? Like most channels at 28e,
LegalTV seem to be paying Sky for non-standard EPG encoding,
so it doesn't work with a normal DVB receiver.

Hope that helps,
--
MJ Ray - personal email, see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
Work: http://www.ttllp.co.uk/  irc.oftc.net/slef  Jabber/SIP ask