|
A: The issue is not simple - so I try to put my thoughts into a few words.In general, the way to make a sane society is to enact and enforce lawsrather than to ban a given generic technology. (I would make the exceptionfor things which are specifically designed to harm such as guns and nuclearbombs.) That said, one can make technology which supports our social andlegal frameworks better if one does it deliberately. One of the four domainsof the World Wide Web Consortium addresses Technology andSociety for this reason. For example, in this case, I think we reallyneed standards for encoding the broad licensing terms of material so it canbe read and handled automatically. Then we can see, when the technologyallows one to see whether information is free or for pay, whether there isstill a substantial problem of theft. The basic idea of forwarding copiesautomatically between machines is a technical optimization of thedistribution protocol which is very useful and should not of itself bedisallowed just because it -- like many powerful things -- can be abused. I'dpoint out that some ostensibly 'peer-peer' systems are centralized system infact, allowing centralized control and profit by the central server's owners.Other systems are really decentralized, having no central server. These arelike internet news groups which have been around for ages and which raisedsimilar issues.
|
