Let's face it: although I am small and weak, Gollum to the World Media Corporations' Saruman, I am pretty much a Publisher. I package content and deliver it - via magic, winged monkeys, and Jedi powers - to an audience. Possibly a virtual audience, I've never taken the time to verify you people. And it's always possible that all those hits on the web site are just me, obsessively checking and re-checking everything; I am far too lazy to look at IP addresses to see how many actual people are out there. Still, an audience of some sort. Therefore, I am a Publisher. I deliver Inner-Swine content in two mediums:
 

1. 1. Print: The old-school paper zine, shipped from my house to Tower Records and other stores, plus a subscriber list
2. 2. Electronic: HTML samples of current issue, web-only content, and PDF archives

Yahoo, you're thinking. The reason I bring this up is to point out that while I technically own these creations - everything from my first issue to this stupid column you're reading right now  - there is nothing, really, to stop you from doing what you will with them. Granted, if you put a collection of my writings into a book and sold it without my permission, I'd be within my rights to sue you, and I'd probably win, unless I suffered one of my increasingly common bouts of Public Cursing. But as far as your own personal nonprofit use there are very few limitations.

We used to regard this as a general right - the Right of Fair Use. Oh, but we were wrong! It wasn't a right, it was just something that was impossible to prevent, because technology hadn't yet given us the ability to prevent. As we snowball our way into the 21st century, however, the Fuckers who run the show are trying to figure out how to take the Right of Fair Use away from us. Because soon everything that is now a separate, analog item we can possess and manipulate - a book, a videotape, a CD - will soon simply be bits in a data stream, and the player you'll need to decrypt it will be wired to protect the only rights that count: the rights of the copyright holder.

Imagine having to pay a surcharge every time you re-read a book. Imagine being physically prevented from selling a book, or even giving a book away. Imagine having to purchase a separate CD for your home, office, and car - no longer being able to just tape or burn a copy for yourself. Imagine all this well, kids, because it could very well happen.

Of course, for some people this doesn't matter. Some people don't re-read books. Some people don't read, period. Bully for them, but for the rest of us this whole concept should be a little disturbing, because it undermines the whole concept of ownership and fair use. There's a legitimate argument that people should not be allowed to download digitally-perfect song files for no money instead of paying for a product that cost money to produce. But once you've paid for that product, shouldn't you be allowed to do what you will with it, short of selling it yourself or using it in your own work without permission and attribution? With Digital Rights Management schemes, you won't have the option, because you'll no longer be able to make copies of those sound files. Period.

The Corporate Sucks know that all digital files are just ones and zeros and that any encryption will be broken - that's a fact of the Universe. Data streams can never be unbreakable. SO, they're turning to the decrypters instead. Soon we'll have screens that will only play approved media, speakers that will only play approved songs. That isn't science fiction, it's right now. Now imagine the day when newspapers, magazines, everything is a data stream of some sort, requiring the right decrypter to view. The implications are obvious: we'd be paying through the nose for basic information we now take for granted.

Don't worry, though, because I will always offer The Inner Swine in a free format. And there may come a time, I can only hope, when that means I'm the only non-encrypted game in town, and millions of desperate consumers will purchase subscriptions to my zine just to have something they can safely read.

Until that glorious day, folks, I remain, Your Humble Editor...
 

    New column in about two weeks. In the meantime, please feel free to drop me a note.