[GB-Today] Monday Musings

[Susan Estrada]

Monday Musings
September 7, 2004

I think a lot in this job and talk to a lot of people.  So, I figured, 
maybe I should let you know what I’m thinking every now and then. Hence, 
Monday Musings.

Just for annoyance, the first Monday I decide to do this, of course, is a 
holiday.  So, today is the first one and yes, it is Tuesday.  Hope you all 
enjoyed the long weekend.

The DRM Roll Please

Last week was a week of thinking about intellectual property and digital 
rights management aka DRM.  We broadband believers understand that one of 
the key factors towards a successful deployment of one gigabit ubiquitous 
synchronous broadband in California is to alleviate the fears and 
trepidations of those people who own very valuable intellectual property 
(or maybe valuable in their mind).

In our society we have a lot of different views about intellectual 
property, but really, truly, if you create something, you should own it and 
get to figure out how others can use it if you want them to.  As we move 
into the broadband-everywhere, everything-over-broadband-world, each and 
every one of us is going to experience some sort of ire, fear, trepidation, 
or other annoyance over something that we believe is ours but is being used 
by others.

Bet a lot of you could tell me a story right now.

One of my favorite quotes came from my “author years” when I valued every 
dime of royalty that I received from my book. (Yes, in ancient times I 
wrote a book called “Connecting to the Internet” – you can buy a used one 
even today at Amazon for 67 cents. Such a deal!  Should be considered 
historical non-fiction... Anyway, back to my favorite quote
)

"Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for the love of it, then you 
do it for a few friends, and finally you do it for money."  Moliere

This is the essence of digital rights management.  You can be doing it for 
love or for money, but you need (and want) to have control over how your 
content is used.

This is going to be a critical issue for our action plan.  I encourage you 
to send me links to good resources and/or your personal thoughts on this 
issue.  I will compile them and post to this list.

Susan

************************************************************
Susan Estrada
Director,  CENIC's One Gigabit or Bust Initiative
susan at cenic.org
760-510-8406 x1#
http://www.cenic.org/GB/index.html
************************************************************