Jaron Lanier: Big Tech is worse than Big Oil

Employment: well, yes and no.

I think some people have the idea that industrial automation means no people are needed.

That's wrong.

Every automated valve, actuator, widget and gadget needs maintenance and repair. Every sensor needs calibration, periodic checks, and then replacement as it reaches retirement age. Every automation network needs techs to set up and maintain. And upgrade. And expand. Thousands of electro-mechanical devices in an automated refinery or factory need ongoing adjustment, repair, etc.

Every PLC needs a special friend who knows how to stroke it's ladder logic in that, erm, special way.

I have never seen any industrial installation of any complexity which was human-free, humming along in antiseptic self-sufficient autonomy. There's always people fiddling and fixing, adjusting and rebuilding.

Just my insignificant opinion.

Copyright & US Constitution

Lanier should read the US Constitution, I have my doubts about his reading comprehension though. Copyright and patents are envisioned very limited monopolies for the promotion of overall public welfare. The idea is give the creators a limited monopoly to make some money so they can eat and pay bills. It was not envisioned as a quick-buck, eternal, defraud the public scheme. SV's position is actually closer to the original intent.

Support for copyright

The reason why a lot of the internet community has such weak support for copyright is the overreach by copyright holders. The continual extension of copyright that keeps everything that was 10 years away from expiration when I was born still 10 years away from expiration today, courtesy of Disney.

I don't begrudge those writing books/articles, making music or writing computer programs today to keep them under copyright for a number of years and make money off them and/or control their distribution. I do begrudge their "right" to have their grandchildren continue to profit from them 50 years from now, with little hope that they will ever enter the public domain.

And when older tech blog readers see the word "copyright," they think they're being oppressed. This is a historical memory: the creative industries hardly helped embrace the possibilities of technology readily. Anyone recall the plan to turn PCs into dumb devices where the media could be locked down remotely?

A decade in prison for uploading a few films seems pretty damned oppressive to me.

Plus, your pro-copyright arguments would hold much more weight if the various IP rights groups hadn't spent the last 20 years being complete dicks (and still are if the above proposal is anything to go by).

Let's also consider that Disney et.al. have completely fucked the copyright laws to the detriment of humanity as a whole.

We seriously need to throw a match in and redraft the entire field of copyright from scratch because all it's doing at the moment is making arseholes richer whether that be Disney, Google or anyone else. Anyone not a corporate monolith just gets ploughed under.

Must read

If you haven't read Lanier's "You Are Not A Gadget", you really, really should

What an odd fellow

"While an oil monopoly might control the oil, it won't take over everything in your life, but information does, especially with greater automation,"

So he rides a bike or a horse, fine. But no food or furniture or plates or clothes? Everything in most people's lives is completely oil driven. Where does he think plastic comes from? Not only production but you can't get stuff shipped to your area without oil, nor likely drive to the stores. Seriously, I doubt this guy rode his bike to China to purchase his computer from a "green" oil-free producer.

I'm certainly not pro oil, but the idea that we'll have a future where we'll survive on trading information is fanciful. Anyway, those are my pearls of wisdom. That'll be $10. Ya, right.

He's barking up the wrong tree

Oh poor Jaron. Did his patents expire?

Anyone notice?

Anyone notice the bits about trying to put personal identifiers on everything you do? Gives me the willies...

Also, this may be the first time I've seen El Reg refer to the Recording Industry Ass. of America by its less common, expanded name.

The times, they are a changin'

Enemies of the people.

I suppose it's a sign of the times that we've gone from hating institutions like landlords, the power utilities, the taxman and the local council to hating Microsoft, Apple, Google and the phone companies.

Perhaps because, like the old enemies, they have the power to take money from us for unreliable services without much remedy -- but now also invade privacy and threaten our security.

One should also note that large services got popular because it shields you

I mean in the past, if you wanted to distribute things like opening themes to cartoon shows, you'd do it on your website. Usually nobody would care, but you always had the fear that some big copyright holder would sue you into oblivion... not a good prospect for someone having a small private webpage.

Now with services like Youtube you can simply do that. At worst Google will take it down, but there is no personal risk involved in it. That's why they got so popular. If we'd have a saner approach to copyright, (i.e. allowing personal use and citing things on the Internet, as well as making DRM illegal) we'd have a much more distributed Internet again.

Copyright/Patent

Hmm... ISTM that Copyright (the ability for 'artists'* to claim their own unique work, for a period of time) & Patent (the ability for inventors/engineers to claim a /limited/ timeframe for their unique innovation to be licensed to build copies) is being conflated here

*'artists' include authors, picture daubers, metal/masonry/fish reconstructors (including architects) etc etc

Inventors/Engineers get IIRC 20 years from a patent (+ applicable licensing) to make a living out of producing Something New, that may (or may not) be still going & producing 'better things' for x years in the future.. alternatively it may die due to any reason, including fashion. That's if their patent licence has been (a) granted & (b) they live long enough for (a) to be applicable.. (I'm leaving out (c) their application has been contested then denied by Big Corp lawyers for obvious reasons)

Artists (see above) create something out of 'nothing'. Good for the psyche of those that behold the creation, but other than that..? However, whatever they've created & however it's perceived it'll still get 50 (or 70 or WHY) years' prevention of duplicating, /past the creator's death!/**

So, I can see reasons for artists' copyright time limit (there are very few rich artists, on a global scale), but I can't see parity for engineers/inventors :( OK, some may be working for others (as most artists do: ever heard of 'commissions'?), but shirley Engineers/Inventors should be recognised for who they are, what they do & paid appropriately!

**(I'm deliberately not going into the 'perpetual copyright/patent' situation here as it's far more complex than this bear of very little brain can follow..)

TLDR:

Guy says that Google sucks and I think Google sucks as well.

But the dumbed down PC:s plan is on track!

Anyone recall the plan to turn PCs into dumb devices where the media could be locked down remotely?

A pretty good description of the iPad and similar. Note that the market for "open" PC.s has been going downhill for years, and they, too, have gradually become less open. Modern chipsets from Intel and AMD actually are always running a little closed OS underneath what you think is the OS (Windows,or Linux, does not matter), it is in full control of the PC, and you can't turn it off, or replace it.

"The general principle that we pay people for their information and contributions is critical if we want people to live with dignity as machines get better,"

Except IP law was never designed to put a price on information*. And in any case how is that going to help the information poor i.e the people who actually stand to be out of work by Google's robots. It seems to me that Lanier is actually infected by the very techno utopianism he's made a career out of decrying.

Yes he's added the meaningless *contributions" in there as if that was going to fool anyone.

posthumous copyright extensions

has anyone found out where the dead are banking their cheques? How do they get them?

Or are the corporations banking them themselves and pocketing the money?

And, copyright is supposed to return the investment of time and energy to the people doing the work, so they can continue producing it. Or at least according to the precise of copyright the US Constitution proffers. As far as I know, only Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ever wrote something from beyond the grave: there might6 be a few others like Cleopatra and the like, but they've all "produced" works well beyond their lifetime thus are not covered by copyright as such. Does Disney have a medium on staff to receive film scripts from Walt Disney himself?

I think Jaron Lanier's taking himself far too seriously.

Sorry? Copyright will save us from big tech?

I think anybody who had fair use content DMCA's out of existence from YouTube and/or had their channels shut down might have a different opinion on that front.

And your opening sentence sounds like a stretch at best.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for protecting the rights of creators, but there should be some fairness in the laws and right now there isn't any. I copied the CDs I bought with my money to the iPhone I also bought with my money using the software Apple provided me for that purpose, and under UK copyright law that makes me an evil scumlord pirate. How is that fair. And how is it fair that the goalposts on how long copyright lasts keep moving? Lets be honest, no work made since Steamboat Willy will ever go out of copyright because when the copyright on that film is about to expire the American government will extend copyright terms.

'For the past twenty years, Silicon Valley has waged a war on patents and copyright. Google alone funds over 150 digital rights astroturf groups, think tanks and academic departments to advance its case for weakening copyright. This campaign has been reasonably successful in the US, as the formerly independent agencies like the Patent Office and the FCC are now aligned with Google, and in both cases populated by former Google employees.'

We agree. Don't believe the lies of thieves. Just because they call it reform doesn't mean it is.

For our position and the changes we advocate to truly reform the patent system, or to join our effort, please visit us at https://aminventorsforjustice.wordpress.com/category/our-position/

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