Date: 22 Jan 92 11:01:59 CST
From: barlow@well.sf.ca.us
Subject: File 5--A Comment on the SPA (Gray Areas Reprint)

((MODERATORS' COMMENT: The following is extracted from an interview of
John Perry Barlow by Netta Gilboa from the November, 1992, issue of
GRAY AREAS. GRAY AREAS focuses on cutting edge cultural issues. The
editors can be contacted at grayarea@well.sf.ca.us))

GA: SOFTWARE PIRACY IS RAMPANT IN THE U.S. AND WE'VE IDENTIFIED
SEVERAL TYPES OF PIRACY RANGING FROM FRIENDS WHO TRADE DISKS TO PIRATE
BULLETIN BOARDS TO BUSINESSES WHO LITERALLY FORCE THEIR EMPLOYEES TO
USE PIRATED SOFTWARE IN ORDER FOR THE CORPORATION TO AVOID BUYING
MULTIPLE COPIES. DO YOU APPROVE OF THE SOFTWARE PIRACY ASSOCIATION'S
APPROACH TO STOPPING PIRACY?

JB: No, it's boneheaded. It is just plain stupid and, look, I think
that software piracy is pretty complex. I mean there are cases as in
the Next world where you've got such a limited market that a certain
amount of software piracy can completely destroy a product.  But
generally speaking, that's the exact opposite effect of what software
piracy has. I think you can make a pretty persuasive case that the
reason that Lotus, for example, continues to exercise an iron standard
among spreadsheets, is that it is also the most pirated software in
the world. Once something becomes a pirate classic, then it is out
there being distributed and distributed and distributed and gets
itself fixed in the public mind and, you know, becomes a valuable
item. So that often the best thing that can happen to you is to have
your software pirated from an economic standpoint. The SPA just
doesn't get it. They really don't. I mean people who pirate software
sooner or later buy it. There is an incredible amount of software
piracy going on and yet one of the most robust portions of the
American economy is software. You know there is reason for that.  It
is kind of like the home video tape thing. When video cassettes first
became popular in Japan there was a full court press on the part of
the movie companies and the traditional manufacturers of media to stop
them from hitting these shores. They arrived in America quite a bit
after they'd been developed because of legal efforts to stop them from
coming, because it was the conviction of everybody involved that
having this medium that could be so easily reproduced out there would
be the death of movies. Well, now more than half of all the revenue
that film companies derive is from videos and in fact they don't even
put movies in theatrical houses except to advertise the video.

GA: EXACTLY.

JB: So this is another one of these cases where having this very fluid
easily reproducible, easily pirated version of intellectual property
has redounded to the benefit of the intellectual property creator. I
think that software piracy is a complex issue and I think that right
now what protects a lot of software from piracy is the fact that
people want to have the manual. As those manuals become more and more
an on-line kind of thing and software becomes easier and easier to
use, that kind of protection goes away. So you have to think about
other ways and other incentives that people have for buying software
and not simply pirating it.  And I think that what you are probably
going to see is if people are going to want it, they are going to want
to have the latest version of it which is not going to be easily
pirated.

GA: INDIVIDUALS THAT WE TALKED TO SEEM TOTALLY UNCONCERNED ABOUT THE
SPA, ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY ARE UNDER 18.  WHAT CAN BE DONE TO EDUCATE
THIS MARKET?

JB: Well, the first thing the SPA can quit being is so stupid.  I
think that the real unfortunate effect in the way in which the SPA
approaches this is that it breeds the kind of general disrespect for
the interest of the people they are protecting.

GA: AGREED.

JB: It is kind of like drug laws. You have these draconian drug laws
on the drugs that are least likely to cause damage and mayhem like
psychedelics and marijuana.  But they are all being couched as if you
take this stuff the world will end and your life will become a living
hell. The really dangerous drugs are the ones that are legal. But this
totally false message gets conveyed by the drug laws. Kids take
marijuana and say wait a second, this isn't going to kill me. This
isn't going to ruin my life. This must all be bullshit. Well, the fact
is that there's probably a pretty good reason for having a law against
cocaine. But if you concluded that it is all bullshit then you are not
going to pay any attention to the social strictures against cocaine.
Right.  So it is the same thing with the SPA and the way in which it
is trying to enforce software copyright. It breeds a general
disrespect for the whole idea that people should get paid for the work
that they do with their minds and that's unfortunate.

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