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By David Rothman

John EdwardsProf. John Edwards, despite a promise to do his best to answer “each and every question” on his podcasts, wimped out on copyright-related issues last time. So far the founder of UNC’s new poverty center just isn’t speaking up on the harm that Hollywood-bought copyright law can do to the best poverty-fighter, education.

Though the center is domestically oriented, its Web area says Edwards will “deliver a series of lectures on domestic and foreign policy at the School of Law and for the University.” Ex-Sen. Edwards sat on the copyright-related Judiciary committee, so wouldn’t it be appropriate for him to take an interest in Draconian copyright’s special threat to education and development and freedom of speech in the Third World?

Meanwhile copyright experts with an interest in poverty issues are speaking out against DRM abuses and potential abuses in the States and elsewhere. Tough DRM–the technology so dear to the DMCAists–is poison for the Third World, according to public interest groups such as the Washington-based Consumer Project on Technology. Here are more specifics, via an article by CPTech’s Manon Ress for INDICARE, a Euro-based organization–whose full name is “The INformed DIalogue about Consumer Acceptability of DRM Solutions in Europe”:

Regarding specific threats to developing country consumers, the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) paper on TPMs and developing countries says it best: “It is no secret that DRM and anti-circumvention laws have proved dangerous to the developed world. These harms are well-documented in Canada, the United States and elsewhere” (CIPPIC 2005). DRM is dangerous to developing nations for these same reasons.

However, there are also reasons why DRM is even more dangerous to developing nations. By releasing content using DRM, foreign rights-holders may attempt to trump local copyright law and exceptions through unfair contract terms. In other words, because DRM permits consumers to access and play content pursuant to automatically-enforced license terms, contract law governs the relationship, not copyright law. Foreign rights-holders thereby bypass developing nations’ copyright laws. By locking-up content in DRM, foreign rights-holders will prevent people in developing nations from accessing and using copyright works in ways that those nations’ laws may allow, even for free. DRM may also prevent legal re-sale of copyright protected goods, particularly through the use of region-coding which has never proved positive for developing regions.

Further, to the extent that, like Canada and unlike the United States, developing nations are net importers of cultural products protected by copyright, DRM and anti-circumvention laws will aggravate the cultural deficit that may already exist in those countries. DRM and stronger copyright laws will have a net negative cultural and economic impact in developing nations because royalty payments to foreign rights-holders, particularly those in the United States, may increase as a result.

Finally, DRM and anti-circumvention laws could have a significant negative effect on the innovation agendas of developing nations. Developing nations depend on a technological and legal environment that fosters innovation. The American experience with DRM has shown that copyright owners inappropriately use DRM technology and anti-circumvention laws to stifle competition and create artificial monopolies. These inappropriate uses of technology and law favor bigger, established market players and artificially increase the market risk faced by smaller companies and new entrants to the markets.

The “awareness” angle: When Edwards does foreign policy speeches, he should keep in mind the above and live up to one of his poverty center’s goals–”Raise awareness of work and poverty issues.”

The “war on terrorism” connection: Professor, do you think that anti-Western religious fanatics in the Third World bother with DRM on their content? The harder it is to use Western educational material and the rest, the more reliant will be Third World children on books and other items without strict legal and technological restrictions. They will be more exposed to anti-Western hatred from people less interested in quarterly profits than ideology. In time even math and science books could be laced with propaganda if it isn’t happening already. If I were Osama bin Laden, I’d love DRM and the DMCA and U.S. efforts to inflict the latter on the whole planet. Washington constantly threatens to withhold favorite trade treatment from countries that resist the bullying. Hollywood needs should prevail over national security ones, the goodwill of our allies, and humanitarian considerations, eh? (Sarcasm alert.)

 
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