Episode: 151
Title: HPR0151: Copyfight Vol 1
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr0151/hpr0151.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-07 12:28:04

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Hi, you're listening to Hacker Public Radio.
I'm 330 and this is Copy Fight.
In this episode, I'm going to pave the way for the kinds of topics that we'll be discussing
this series.
We'll be discussing Digital Restrictions Management or DRM, Copyright, Creative Commons, and
Free Software.
First, DRM.
DRM is an umbrella term that refers to the access control technologies used by publishers
and copyright holders to limit usage of digital media or devices.
It may also refer to restrictions associated with specific instances of digital works or
devices.
For digital protection of software and hardware devices, not specifically related to the
protection of digital media.
In real people's speak, DRM is how content contributors keep you from using the product
that you paid for in a manner you see fit.
Some examples of these products and their restrictions are DVDs with CSS.
CSS stands for Content Scramble System.
This is what keeps you from making a backup copy of your DVD.
Anyone with small children will know why this is not a good thing for consumers.
How many times does Little Johnny found a way to open up the DVD player and fling the DVDs
that was once inside across the room like a frisbee?
Often once is too many.
And do you really want to buy another copy of his favorite annoying children's movie?
Of course not.
But the company that owns the copyright to the content says, hey there Jack, I want another
twenty bucks.
Another example of this is Apple's Fairplay.
Fairplay is a DRM technology created by Apple Inc.
It is built into the QuickTime Multimedia Player and is used by the iPhone, iPod, iTunes,
and the iTunes Store.
Any protected song purchased on the iTunes Store with iTunes is encoded the Fairplay.
Fairplay digitally encrypts AAC audio files and prevents users from playing them on unauthorized
computers.
There are sure a lot of I devices listed in there, but there are all kinds of portable
media players.
And you ask, why don't you just get an iPod?
And my question to you is, do you buy a new car every time your tires go bald?
Of course not.
So why should I shell out another 120 bucks for a digital media player for a song that
I purchased for a buck?
And now on to copyright.
Copyright is symbolized by the capital C inside of a circle.
It's a legal concept, enacted by most governments giving the creator of an original work exclusive
rights to it, usually for a limited time.
Generally, it is the right to copy, but also gives the copyright holders several rights
to the work, including the right to be credited for the work, to determine who may adapt the
work into other forms, who may perform the work, who may financially benefit from it,
and other slightly related rights.
This is an intellectual property form, unlike the patent, the trademark, and the trade secret
that is applicable to any expressable form of an idea or information that is substantive
and discreet.
One myth I'd like to dispel real quick about Copyright is that you have to do something
special to get one.
This is not true.
Copyright is enacted as soon as the work is finished.
Ever written a poem, a song, or a program?
Congrats.
Your copyright holder.
Please act responsibly.
In conjunction with Copyright, I'd like to talk about Creative Commons.
The Creative Commons licenses enable copyright holders to grant some or all of their rights
to the public while retaining others for a variety of licensing and contract schemes, including
dedication to the public domain, or open content licensing terms.
The intention is to avoid the problems of current copyright laws and kind of set up a sharing
of information.
The original set of licenses all grant the baseline rights.
The details of each license depends on the version and comprises a selection of four
conditions.
Attributions symbolized by BY says that licensees make copy, distribute, display, and perform
the work and make derivative works based on it, only if they give the author or life
licensor the credits that are specifically detailed in the license.
Non-commercial symbolized by NC says that the licenses that the licensees may copy, distribute,
display, and perform the work and make derivative works based on it, only for non-commercial purposes.
No derivative works or no derivative symbolized by ND says that the licensees may copy, distribute
display, and perform only verbatim copies of the work, not derivative works based on
it.
Sharelike symbolized by SA says that licensees may distribute derivative works only under
a license that is identical to the license that governs the original work.
This is also known as copy left.
Mixing and matching these conditions produces 16 possible combinations, 11 of which are
valid copy or valid creative commons licenses of the five invalid combinations for include
both the ND and SA clauses which are mutually exclusive and one includes none of the clauses
at all.
The five of the 11 valid licenses that lack attribution have been phased out because 98%
of licensees requested attribution but they are still available for viewing on the website
creative commons.org.
And thus there are six regularly used licenses, attribution alone, BY, attribution plus
non-commercial by-nc, attribution and no derives by ND, attribution and sharelike by SA, attribution
non-commercial no derives by-nc, and attribution non-commercial sharelike by-nc, SA.
Just so that you know all the episodes of hacker public radio are licensed under creative
commons, attribution, non-commercial sharelike 3.0 license and all the content that I create
on my own, photos, blogs, stuff like that are all licensed under a creative commons, attribution
sharelike 3.0 license.
And finally we get to my favorite free software and copy left.
Copy left is a play on the word copyright and it is the practice of using copyright
logs to remove restrictions on distributing copies and modified versions of a work and
requiring them to have the same freedoms be preserved in the modified versions.
One practice for using copy left is to codify the copying terms for a work with a license.
Any such license typically gives the person possessing a copy of the work the same freedoms
as the author, including, and this is from the free software definition, zero, the freedom
to use and study the work, one, the freedom to copy and share the work with others, two,
the freedom to copy the work, and three.
The freedom to distribute, modify and to distribute, modify and therefore derivative works.
These freedoms do not ensure that derivative work will be distributed under the same liberal
terms in order for that to work and to be truly copy left.
The license has to ensure that the author of a derived work can only distribute such works
under the same or an equivalent license.
In addition to restrictions on copying, copy left licenses address only possible impediments.
These include ensuring the rights cannot be later revoked and requiring that the work
and its derivatives are provided in a form that facilitates modification and software
that requires source code of the derived work to be made available together with the software
itself.
Copy left licenses necessarily, copy left licenses necessarily make creative use of relevant
rules and laws.
For example, when using copyright law, those who contribute to a work under copy left usually
must gain, defer or assign copyright holder status.
But submitting the copyright to their contributors under a copy left license, they deliberately
give up some of the rights that normally follow from copyright, including the right to
be the unique distributor of the copies of work.
We'll be discussing this in later episodes.
I'd just like everyone to know that hacker public radio is licensed under a creative
comments attribution non-commercial share like 3.0 license.
The punch sound in the bells in the intro of this episode are licensed under a creative
comments sampling plus 1.0 license by J. Canvas 1990 and L. Jude Mann respectively.
They were found on the free sound project web page that will be linked in the show
notes for hacker public radio.
Thank you for listening to hacker public radio, HPR is sponsored by Pharaoh.net so head on