Social Implications of Computers 2 1. Patents and copyrights Examples of parallel development. Constitution: patents and copyrights for limited terms. Why not forever? Because in the minds of the founders there is no "intellectual property right"; instead there is a /bargain/ between society and creative people so that the latter can profit from their ideas but ultimately we own them collectively. Example: Much of Disney corpus is based on public domain classics. The problems with computers: (a) Digital Rights Management software allows de facto permanent control, risks future unavailability of ideas. (b) The Digital Millenium Copyright Act replaces the idea of a bargain with the idea that holders of copyrights have all the power. (c) The term of patents is too long for the software development cycle. In particular, the fact that patent applications are secret until approved, but run retroactively from the application date, means that people can infringe a patent without any way of knowing it. (d) Now that algorithms are patentable, big companies file dozens of patents every day, then cross-license with each other. They don't always care about profiting from a patent; they just want to be sure nobody can sue them successfully. This makes it very hard for smaller companies or individuals to write non-infringing software at all (especially free software). 2. War War has always been about technology: swords, shields, armor, guns, horses, catapults, etc. Star Wars: Sold as defensive shield for missiles; really defensive shield for launch sites. Beginning of CPSR to oppose on technical grounds -- would have been biggest program ever written, and not debuggable in advance. First time giving computers control over WMDs. (Cf. near misses of accidental nuclear war with USSR during cold war days.) Today: Remote-guided weapons allow risk-free war. Advanced nonlethal weapons give state control without consequences. US developing "tactical" nuclear weapons. Environmental damage from weapons deployment. Why won't US sign landmine treaty? 3. Community What does it mean to have 20,000 "friends"? The good news: Computer-mediated interaction for communication-impaired (e.g. deaf) people. Ability to find old lost friends. Maintain friendships over long distances. Crowdsourcing. Ad hoc rescues. The bad news: Privacy. Computer-mediated interaction less rich than face-to-face (e.g., flaming). Spam and phishing. Impoverishment of actual local community. Are computers democratizing? Obama election. Chinese protests. Gerrymandering. Databases and privacy. Web publishing model vs. earlier peer communication model. Loss of community bookstores.