Video: Professor Ed Felten on Technology, Politics, and the Fight to Control Digital Media

Ed Felten, of the Freedom to Tinker blog, is also a Professor of Computer Science professor at Princeton University.

You can watch his lecture (Real Player req.) titled, "Rip, Mix, Burn, Sue: Technology, Politics, and the Fight to Control Digital Media"

The video is entertaining and informative, and well worth watching.

UPDATE (12/21): This post has been heavily edited.  Prior to editing, I stated that Ed implicitly advocated the use of P2P technologies to infringe on copyrights.  Upon receiving comments from both Prof. Felten and Prof. Solum, I realize that my statement was unduly harsh and intellectually lazy.  I could, and should, have simply emailed Prof. Felten for his position on the matter instead of attributing any particular "implicit" view on his behalf.  My apologies to Prof. Felten for any offense I may have caused and my apologies to Prof. Solum for lowering the level of discourse on this blog.

Comments

[Ed Felten]

To be absolutely clear: I don't condone copyright infringement, whether via P2P or otherwise. When I talk about copyright, I'm not talking in code. I'm not playing a game in which I hint at positions that I support but don't state.

My concern is that overbroad regulation, motivated by copyright, is squelching new creativity. When I talk about ordinary people participating in culture, I'm talking about participating as creators. I have no problem with enforcement of copyright against people who mindlessly republish copyrighted songs or movies on the Net.

I do talk a lot about the non-enforceability of proposed regulations. The worst outcome of all is to have overbroad regulation that deters legitimate creativity but fails to prevent infringement. I fear that's where we're headed.

[Lawrence Solum]

I think it is very important to be careful about attributing "implicit" views to others. You might want to consider revising the text of your post.