Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

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Differences between 1980s copy protection and today?

Author:	Russell Lipton
Posted:	9/14/2000; 8:03:48 AM
Topic:	Differences between 1980s copy protection and today?
Msg #:	21313
Prev/Next:	21312 / 21314

Musing. In the 1980s, if someone broke copy protection, it was offline, usually between them and their friends - if anybody. Floppy disks.

Though difficult to manage broadly (needlessly resource intensive in most cases), Internet activity can be tracked.

Now, conceive laws against unlawful use of intellectual property (as defined by courts) that are draconian enough and enforced randomly enough that it dries up underground transmissions.

I'm not focusing here on whether or not that would be a good thing - neither the courts, politicians nor netizens have a consensus on what to do - just on the differences between then-and-now.

Does this make any sense?

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