As said in IntellectualProperty
one can imagine funny sketches,
if exchanging intelletual property was understood as the exchange of data:
http://www.pigdogs.org/art/adobe.html
Not a joke is a patent on a
digital rights operating system
held by microsoft for it's windows xp technology.
DigitalRightsManagement,
beeing largely missunderstood or missused
(depending on your point of view),
puts high risks on the freedom to use your very own IntellectualProperty.
Dave Winer has some
comments.
At least the western countries (at the time of writing the only
whose need to be concerned about the topic) used to deem
this a freedom which can't be denied.
See also AskemosProtection for a simple algebra of rights
derived from observation of human interaction.
This protection scheme puts only limitted effort in protecting raw data
access. Instead it's focused on forge proof at the information level,
which is just enough to balance the rights of information producers
and consumers.
Personal note: Having the personal background of living behind the iron wall,
I feel that it's time to wake up and stand for your rights.
Otherwise this society will go the way down the sink
- this is a matter of law of nature, not free will;
you know HoeheresRecht and ProduktivKraefte (both german).
http://www.research.ibm.com/gsal/tcpa ,
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~sws/abstracts/msmw03.shtml , http://www.crforum.org/articles/about/overview.html
Related Material
Maybe this should go elsewhere:
Utah spyware law, opposed by seveal companies
like aol, Amazon, Cnet, eBay, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo!
http://www.le.state.ut.us/~2004/bills/hbillenr/hb0323.htm