Legitimate P2P through single possession

Niflmir

A modern nomad
Dec 18, 2006
3,460
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Leiden, the Netherlands
Lending a book out to a friend after one has finished reading is a legitimate use of the purchased good. Once one has read the book, the book has nearly no personal use-value anymore and has some exchange-value remaining. There are many examples of friends who share books, movies, and music in this way, the only really concession is the fear of damage and so a loss of exchange-value.

Enter the modern world and digital transferance which has a higher reliability in transferance and storage than conventional physical representations. The basic idea of a legitimate Peer-to-Peer is this:
A person uploads an original paid for work into the collective, "destroys" their copy and receives a certain exchange credit. A person with exchange credit can take possession of that work at which point it becomes accessible to no one but the new possessor.
There are various mechanisms for accomplishing this in an effective way, but are overly technical and I would like to stay away from describing them here. It is implicit to the legitimacy of the collective (under current exclusive rights law) that the original purchaser "destroy" the original. The exact meaning of "destroy" varies by nation, in Canada for example, the original could be kept in trust for the current possessor in case of file corruption, hard drive crash, and so on.

There are some movements currently to abolish the potential of such a system, but currently in Canada and many other nations, this would still be considered fair use: the exchange of one purchased good for another. The idea is that if enough people uploaded content and did not feel like watching the same movie twice, they could exchange it for something else that someone is tired of. Since Susan might not like Bob's movies, the server could arrange the exchange via the exchange credits so that Cameron gets Bob's movie, Bob gets Susan's and Susan gets Cameron's. This could all be done quickly and affordably as the number of peers in the system increases.

If there were not copies available at a time, an extra copy could be made and the right holder reimbursed at the exact cost of the original from which the copy was made. I don't personally like this idea because it would result in copy inflation at release time and then deadfall subsequently, which would complicate a simple 1-1 exchange principal. Alternatively, one could wait about 2 hrs.

Comments? Complaints?
 

Niflmir

A modern nomad
Dec 18, 2006
3,460
58
48
Leiden, the Netherlands
How would the service determine if the media you are uploading is legit and not pirated?

Ah, the technical side. There are already mechanisms for this in some cases through license files and product identification numbers (PIN). If the file was purchased digitally it would ideally come with the PIN. Alternatively we could try to update the medieval "proof-of-purchase" mail-in system, or try to work out a verification system through a type of bank statement. Security would be a must for anything tied to financial accounts. A unique PIN could be taken as evidence of original purchase.
 

DurkaDurka

Internet Lawyer
Mar 15, 2006
10,385
129
63
Toronto
As long as the service doesn't tag the files with a "call home" mechanism. Sony has paid dearly for that rootkit they decided to add to their cd's.


I like the idea of what you propose, a 1 to 1 service could be quite handy. I have purchased a whole whack load of media that I have only viewed once.
 

Niflmir

A modern nomad
Dec 18, 2006
3,460
58
48
Leiden, the Netherlands
As long as the service doesn't tag the files with a "call home" mechanism. Sony has paid dearly for that rootkit they decided to add to their cd's.


I like the idea of what you propose, a 1 to 1 service could be quite handy. I have purchased a whole whack load of media that I have only viewed once.

Yeah, I wouldn't dream of something like that. We have to assume a certain amount of honesty. I too have purchased a whack load of media that I have only viewed or listened to once or twice. This caused me to become frustrated with my purchases because I wanted to get more bang for my buck, so I always looked for things that were more continuous in their use. But trying to find a person to trade dvd's with is way too time consuming and prone to scratches.
 

DurkaDurka

Internet Lawyer
Mar 15, 2006
10,385
129
63
Toronto
Is there a unique identifier# of sorts a script could read from a disc image and stamp it is a legit or something like that?
 

Niflmir

A modern nomad
Dec 18, 2006
3,460
58
48
Leiden, the Netherlands
Well there is this patent, which is too "call home" for my likings. Currently I don't think there is one. Which creates some problems, since we don't want people to be able to inflate their exchange credits through piracy, and validation is crucial to this sort of system.