If anything, I expect the EU to try and keep anti-circumvention laws to benefit its own tech industry.
The neat thing about Doctorow’s proposal, though, is that at this point anyone could do it. Canada, India, Brazil… with tariffs already in play, there’s not really much to lose.
For example, what would Hollywood do if Canada suddenly stopped respecting copyright? (I know we’re talking about the anti-circumvention provision of the DMCA, but the C in DMCA is “Copyright”, so this would definitely be framed as Canada not respecting copyrights.) A lot of movies and TV shows are now made in Canada. I imagine a lot of those companies would pull their productions out of Canada. So, whichever politician passed the law would be labelled as the one who killed Canada’s entertainment industry.
If Canada allowed jailbreaking John Deere tractors, or HP printers, they might stop selling them in Canada. If Canada allowed people to bypass Apple’s App Store, Apple might ban all apps from Canadians and Canadian companies. That might piss off farmers, or CTOs, venture capitalists, etc.
Taking this step might create a lot of new jobs, but that’s a big unknown. How many jobs? How well paying? How long would it take for them to be established. They’d have to weigh that against all the people whose jobs might be disrupted. So, it’s much easier to stick with the status quo, even if that status quo means just bending over for the US.
I have considered that possibility, yeah. I’m not an expert by far, but it seems less likely.
Breaking from the US is going to cause an initial upheaval to the tech industry that the EU won’t be able to just immediately assert new anti-circumvention on while they are in the active process of a smash and grab. It’s going to take at least some amount of time for them to re-establish that on their terms during which people will become a lot better familiarized and practiced at what all this jailbreaking is going to look like.
People can resist during that time and while I don’t necessarily delude myself into thinking that’ll be super effective, it will also require legal coordination and brand new anti-circumvention tech. Could still be wishful thinking, but I don’t assume it’s just a done deal.
If anything, I expect the EU to try and keep anti-circumvention laws to benefit its own tech industry.
The neat thing about Doctorow’s proposal, though, is that at this point anyone could do it. Canada, India, Brazil… with tariffs already in play, there’s not really much to lose.
That’s his argument, but I don’t really buy it.
For example, what would Hollywood do if Canada suddenly stopped respecting copyright? (I know we’re talking about the anti-circumvention provision of the DMCA, but the C in DMCA is “Copyright”, so this would definitely be framed as Canada not respecting copyrights.) A lot of movies and TV shows are now made in Canada. I imagine a lot of those companies would pull their productions out of Canada. So, whichever politician passed the law would be labelled as the one who killed Canada’s entertainment industry.
If Canada allowed jailbreaking John Deere tractors, or HP printers, they might stop selling them in Canada. If Canada allowed people to bypass Apple’s App Store, Apple might ban all apps from Canadians and Canadian companies. That might piss off farmers, or CTOs, venture capitalists, etc.
Taking this step might create a lot of new jobs, but that’s a big unknown. How many jobs? How well paying? How long would it take for them to be established. They’d have to weigh that against all the people whose jobs might be disrupted. So, it’s much easier to stick with the status quo, even if that status quo means just bending over for the US.
I don’t think any these companies would stomach a cut in sales. They’d definitely try and fight any change in the courts.
I have considered that possibility, yeah. I’m not an expert by far, but it seems less likely.
Breaking from the US is going to cause an initial upheaval to the tech industry that the EU won’t be able to just immediately assert new anti-circumvention on while they are in the active process of a smash and grab. It’s going to take at least some amount of time for them to re-establish that on their terms during which people will become a lot better familiarized and practiced at what all this jailbreaking is going to look like.
People can resist during that time and while I don’t necessarily delude myself into thinking that’ll be super effective, it will also require legal coordination and brand new anti-circumvention tech. Could still be wishful thinking, but I don’t assume it’s just a done deal.
If there are broken up markets with anti-circumvention, then more attractive players will appear to compete without it.