Siva Vaidhyanathan recently wrote an article for Slate on the INDUCE Act, which allow civil penalties to those who would "intentionally aid, abet, induce or procure" a copyright violation by a another.
He makes a strong argument that while the sponsors of the bill state they will not go after "neutral technology" such as personal computers and photocopiers -- this distinction is meaningless.
Here's the problem: No technology is neutral.The idea of technological neutrality is most succinctly expressed by the slogan "Guns don't kill people; people kill people." The slogan may be simplistic, but the theory is pretty powerful. It influences many of our debates about technology and policy, from guns to automobiles to encryption....
Technologies reflect ideologies. They reflect the values embedded in them. They alter the environment in which they operate. They enable people to imagine using them in particular ways. There is nothing deterministic about technologies. A gun in the first act need not go off in the third.
Thanks for linking to that great article by Siva Vaidhyanathan. I have one minor correction to offer: the article was published in Salon, not Slate.
Posted by: Morgan | July 28, 2004 at 07:00 AM