Screw Patents

Upon further thought, I've decided that most of the ideas surrounding intellectual property are garbage anyways and patents will require too much time and energy to write when the system electrical systems that will be required are possibly still decades away.

Instead, I'm taking all this bullshit and chucking it out the window. There's no point in one person stressing himself out so much over things that he can not control.

I'm thinking I'll probably put together a quick YouTube short featuring some info about the Weedshare alternative... simply because it was a real step forwards in digital distribution that's currently being moved against by most corporate interests. DRM is now being phased out in favor of watermarking, which means that instead of restricting access to media, it'll just be easier to figure out who you stole it from. Although MS will definitely still be seeking financial gain through their two patents which cover the Weedshare-style distribution and Zune-a-like media marketplace.

I'm going to coin a new term for this blog:

D. R. E. - Digital Rights Enforcement

While the RIAA is (apparently) acting to reduce piracy and ensure that artists benefit from their work (doubtful), there's no real agency acting to preserve and protect the rights of the consumer.

A digital distribution system that allows consumers to act as middle marketers for their favorite bands is a definite step forwards. However, if the companies responsible for maintaining the database of purchases and ownership cannot be trusted to stay float indefinitely, they do not actually create a form of permanent 'record label', as a simple software update can wipe them out.

Culturally, the vast majority of the world has already accepted that computers are here to stay. Yet we still live in a society of obsolescence. Not only hardware-wise, but software-wise as well. How many people are still using Windows 3.1? How about DOS? One might argue that advances in hardware quickly made these older platforms go the way of the dodo, but why should digital media platforms have to go the same way?

Sooner or later, we'll need to establish a permanent cultural digital record. One that can be given an absolute virtual value and can remain "Future Compatible" into the indefinite future. It shouldn't be that difficult to create. The actual codecs required would need to be extremely robust. You'd need to aim for the perfect range for the human audio and visual range, achieving a higher resolution than anything possible with analog recordings or current digital standards.

These codecs would also have to be extensible, allowing for 'upgrades' to the code as the hardware advances to new levels.

The business model that would back this format should be based around a sharing system like Shared Media Licensing's system, but with the new Cultural Record acting to give back to the society that's acting to give it it's indefinite and virtual value.