ACM vs. RIAA 136
stinkbomb writes "The venerable Association for Computing Machinery has posted a legal brief on it's site regarding Felten vs. RIAA. The ACM position is: 'ACM believes that the application of any law to limit the freedom to publish research on computer technology will impose a cost not only on ACM's members, but also on the academic community, the process of scientific discourse, and society in general.'"
What About Research That IS Computer Technology? (Score:5, Interesting)
(That code of conduct is, generally, in my opinion, excellent, and well worth reading and abiding by, to the extent it's possible.)
Unlike most any other industry, the computer industry is one in which research on the technology is often presented as the technology itself. In that sense, even well-established, free, "production" software like GNU Emacs, GCC, and the Linux kernel can be reasonably considered "research" as well -- they're distributed as source code, and everyone is encouraged to study it, learn from it, modify it, and distribute what they learn and/or their modifications.
Since the existence of software patents directly infringes peoples' individual rights to distribute research in that form (free source code), I found the ACM's requirements, as much as I agree with the basic ethical, moral, and practical basis for them (that is, it's generally ethical, moral, and practical to obey existing laws), to be too much for me in the case of software patents.
So, while I'm happy to see the ACM recognize the specific new threat, I wonder how they view software patents today, since software patents can easily render much practical research either infeasible (can't be distributed as free software without authors losing their houses and other property in court due to patent-infringement lawsuits) or illegal?
For example, without things like the DMCA, software patents can be used to prevent (or punish for) distributing things like DeCSS and other "IP-security" softwarez. (I used that term on purpose; "warez" denotes illegal software, it should perhaps also denote immoral, self-delusional, or tyrannical software as well. ;-)
True, ideally, software patents make an invention's nature plain enough for all (adequately schooled in the arts) to understand, and what the ACM's complaining about here is the "security-through-obscurity" approach presently used by certain companies enjoying an artificial, and ultimately too-fragile, legal fence built around it, known as the DMCA.
But, in practice, software patents are not used by typical programmers or computer-science researchers as a source of information on how stuff works; and, further, the lawyers who help write them up apparently try to make sure they are as inscrutable as possible (while still passing muster with the Patent and Trademark Office, or whatever it's called), so as to provide the least useful information, while carving out the most intellectual "property" possible.
So, even absent the DMCA, it seems to me that a much broader problem, including much of what the ACM is presently worried about, is posed by software patents, which too-often amount to inscrutable, unhelpful "explanations" of just what a person (or even a computer program) might, on its own, be doing, that is illegal, because the owner of the software patent a) says so and b) can afford expensive lawyers.
I guess what I'm asking is, given that the DMCA and software patents do exist:
Does the ACM expect its members to abide by the legal restrictions of the DMCA, even if the result (not publishing weaknesses in a timely fashion) might be loss of property or even life of innocents?
Similarly, does the ACM expect its members to strive to avoid infringing software patents, by:
And does it expect its members to do these things even if doing so prevents them finding and/or publishing security flaws, again, even if the result of withholding such information might include the loss of property or life?
Beyond specifics such as the DMCA and software patents, does the ACM generally expect its members to abide by legal restrictions when the result of doing so could have severe moral repercussions, such as loss of life or property due to inadequate, or even hostile, computing technology being deployed by companies using "intellectual-property" law to protect such deployments against ACM members dutifully informing the public?
Re:The ACM code of ethics has deliberate loopholes (Score:2, Interesting)
So, you're right, the ACM has already answered the most important of my questions, leaving only my belief that software is close enough to speech, aka research, that software patents pose a greater and longer-term threat to secure systems than the DMCA.
(Remember, the DMCA applies only to software distributed under it, while software patents apply to all software, even free software, so while we can theoretically avoid "DMCA-contaminated" software in our research -- as impractical as that might be -- we can't avoid working with software that might be "contaminated" with algorithms already, or being, patented, without leaving the field of software altogether...something I often consider doing myself, to be honest.)
At this point, I consider my concerns about the ACM's recent position to pale in comparison to the good they've done by highlighting the risks posed by legislation such as the DMCA, especially in the short run.
Ultimately, as the ACM's own section 2.3 says, it's not, to me, a matter of "software patents are bad" or "the DMCA is bad". I believe it's simply a matter of helping everyone, especially those involved in deciding the acceptability of such law, understand the long-term, possibly unintended and/or unforeseen, consequences, so they can see more clearly what they are already accepting responsibility for.
(I guess what I am saying is that, while section 2.3 specifically identifies those going against some laws in favor of higher moral/ethical laws as bearing the risks and responsibilities of doing so, I believe that's true of everyone, regardless of whether they're "playing by the rules", violating the rules, or writing the rules. Not that everyone's "equally guilty", but since everyone has the capacity to decide how to proceed, they have to recognize that they have a responsibility for the freedom to make whatever choices they make. The more enlightened they can be about the potential outcomes, the better, is how I see it.)