Segueing back to cyberlaw, this great, must-see montage on Salon, Reporters Gone Wild, is an excellent example of why content needs to be freely available for these types of uses and not locked down by technological means that it is illegal to circumvent. Technology has finally advanced to the point that all citizens can access all the coverage of Katrina, talk intelligently about what is going on, and make up their own minds about the government’s response. Now is not the time to lock down these programs, especially when we know news media has tried to prevent their use when they think allowing it may result in diminished access to powerful people. I wrote this in Findlaw after the the Janet Jackson clothing malfunction when anyone could use the blog-search engines to find a copy:
[The incident] served as a demonstration of the power of innovation to promote the democratic process. In this case, the innovators were the entrepreneurial companies that harnessed the open nature of the Internet to enable users to easily capture, transfer, upload, post, and search for the TV clip.
Even those who missed the game could, because of these companies, easily watch and talk about the incident that was about to be a catalyst for major policy changes at the FCC. Their technologies thus enlarged the marketplace of ideas and influenced public debate.
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Neither CBS nor the National Football League lost any money because of the distribution of the Jackson clip. And on the plus side, our democratic process was enhanced. Millions of people had access to view for themselves content that was subject to a national debate -- whether or not they were watching TV when the event occurred.
The FCC should not regulate in a manner that will freeze innovations that facilitate democracy and hurt both consumers and industry. Especially while the technology industry is trying to pull itself out of the dot-com bust, this is the last thing it -- or the economy as a whole -- needs.
Salon’s montage makes this point more eloquently than any words can.