Text 10534, 153 rader
Skriven 2006-04-05 17:44:20 av Gary Britt (1:379/45)
  Kommentar till text 10528 av Rich Gauszka (1:379/45)
Ärende: Re: First spybots and now lawyerbots
============================================
From: "Gary Britt" <email@from_Gary_Britt.org>

What if Gort and the other Robots "evolved" their concept of what constituted
aggression?  What if they treated their programming as a living breathing
document of ideas that could and should be adapted to evolving times.  Easy to
imagine how they would be dolling out that punishment to terrible to risk for
traffic offenses and non-PC emails, or a non-PC rally, etc.

They could have been the Universe's first perfectly evolved race of liberal
Monte tyrants.

Gary

"Rich Gauszka" <gauszka@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:443412c2@w3....
> the bot menace continues.  "Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!"
>
>
> http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/396
>
> Increasingly, legal notices, threats of litigation, and other legal
process
> are being issued - and acted on - not by bespectacled gentlemen and women
in
> crisp tailored suits, but by autobots, robots trained for litigation.
These
> lawyerbots threaten to, like their metallic counterparts, take over the
> world. They must be stopped. Come to think of it, perhaps their human
> (semi-human) counterparts need to be stopped as well.
>
> Brian Kopp lives in Bronson, Florida where he became something of a gamer
on
> his purchased copy of the online multiplayer video game World of Warcraft.
> In fact, he became so good at the game, he achieved level sixty as a night
> elf rogue (this apparently means something to gamers). He decided to share
> his wisdom with others by writing a book containing hacks, cracks and
cheats
> as well as tips, techniques and experiences for players playing the game.
> While this was an "unauthorized" book (with no permission from the
Warcraft
> publisher) there was no evidence that Kopp's book contained any of the
> publisher's intellectual property. There were no bits of code in the book,
> references to source code, and only a few screen shots of the game taken
> from a third party website. In fact, the book clearly stated that it was
> "unauthorized" and that there was no affiliation between the book and the
> copyright holder. Fair 'nuff.
>
> Then Brian began to sell - or more accurately to try to sell - his book on
> eBay. That's where the trouble began. Shortly after the book became
> available for sale, eBay began to receive probably automated "takedown"
> notices telling them that Kopp's book violated the intellectual property
> rights of the various copyright holders. One after another, the
"lawyerbots"
> kept notifying eBay about the illegality of Kopp's actions - all under
> penalty or perjury. "I, ROBOT.. do solemnly swear."
>
> Now these "takedown" notices are due to a provision of the Digital
> Millennium Copyright Act. You see, ISPs and other services that host
content
> for others have had a legal problem. Third parties would host, post or
> otherwise display content that might infringe the copyrights of others.
The
> parties injured by the postings would sue not only the poster, but also
the
> ISP that was hosting the information. Under then existing copyright law,
the
> host was making a "copy" in the cache of the infringing work, was doing so
> for commercial purposes (they were either being paid to host content, or
> drive traffic, or advertisements or whatever), and were contributing to
the
> infringement. Therefore, hosting companies could possibly be held liable
for
> content under their control unless they did something.
>
> Chilling effect
>
> One of the problems with these automated takedown notices is the fact that
> most ISPs will send a perfunctory notice to the last email address of the
> poster (if they even have that) and then just remove the putatively
> offending material. In Kopp's case (PDF), under eBay's Verified Rights
Owner
> or "VeRO" program, eBay went even further - not only removing the
allegedly
> infringing materials, but also suspending Kopp's account. Thus, Kopp could
> not sell ANYTHING - not just the Warcraft book. When he opened a new
> account, the takedown notices would come again, and the new account would
be
> suspended. Most people - even those who don't infringe, or have a
colorable
> claim of non-infringement, simply walk away, tail between their legs.
Thus,
> by wallpapering the net with takedown notices, a copyright holder (or
> trademark holder, or person claiming any kind of damage, breach,
> infringement, or improper use) can effectively remove all kinds of content
> from the web. And there are few if any consequences to guessing wrong. At
> worst, the alleged infringer can send a letter back and get the content
put
> back up. Nothing stops you then from either contesting the use in court,
or
> just letting cyberlawyer send you another takedown notice! You won't hurt
> its feelings.
>
> Problems with Copyright and Trademarks
>
> One of the biggest problems with lawyerbots is their inability to think
and
> discern - particularly in the area of infringement. One might make the
same
> argument about human lawyers as well. You see, copyright or trademark
> infringement isn't really binary. A work doesn't either infringe or not -
> there are infinite shades of grey. A clear case of infringement might be
> where I copy the entirety of your copyrighted work and sell it as you and
> keep the money. Pretty black and white. But in most cases, even when I
copy
> parts of your copyrighted work, it may not be an infringement.
>
> ....
>
> So the infringement seems to have been writing a book and selling it.
> "Danger! Will Robinson!" Moreover, by relying on the commercial use
> provisions of the EULA, effectively the lawyer is arguing that a software
> review published for commercial purposes would be a "use" of the software,
> and therefore both a violation of the EULA and then a copyright violation.
> The lawyer went on to lecture Brian about Brian's ignorance of trademark
> and/or copyright law, and suggest that Brian search the Internet for terms
> like "intellectual property," "trademark," and "copyright."
>
> Of course, the company had no need to resort to "formal legal action." No
> need to go to court. Just keep those automatic DMCA notices coming in, and
> eventually eBay and others will suspend the accounts. But Kopp did one
> better and sued the copyright holders and those who sent the DMCA notices.
> You see, it is rare that the issuer of a takedown notice is called to
prove
> that what he swore under penalty of perjury is, in fact, true. So there
are
> few consequences to calling a non-infringing use infringing, and great
> benefits if you manage to get the materials you don't like removed.
>
> When you automate the process you end up silencing legitimate uses of
> trademarks and copyrights.
>
> As Klaatu explained about the robot Gort, "In matters of aggression, we
have
> given them absolute power over us. This power cannot be revoked. At the
> first signs of violence, they act automatically against the aggressor. The
> penalty for provoking their action is too terrible to risk."
>
> It's time to call off the robots. "Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!"
>
>
>

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