Screenplay to "NO COPY - the Movie"
Millions of people all over the world copy, download and share commercial software, movies, and music. The entertainment industry suffered historical losses. CDs weren't selling anymore. People were going to the movies less and less. The classic business era came to an end.
The companies saw themselves confronted with digital anarchy. To assume power, they dared entry into new territory. However, they were not driven by innovation. They wanted to win back, what they had already lost. Their way led to a place where a secret subculture had developed a fairly long time ago and they started a war.
They believed the inventors of the digital age were their enemies. This was not a war for territorial claims but for information and knowledge and it was a war the industry could not win.The story begins ... it begins a long time ago ...
The very first programmers calling themselves "Hackers" are mathematicians, engineers and scientists working at universities. In the 1950s, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston is the epicenter of a technological explosion. Those hackers are the heralds of the digital and technological revolution.
In 1959, two scientists, John McCarthy and Marvin Minsky, found the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. In 1961, the first computer game is developed and in 1975 the world's first hacker club is established. Its members are Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, the founders of Apple Computer. Douglas Engelbart, the inventor of the computer mouse. Ed Roberts, creator of the first home computer. And Steve Dumpier, composer of the first computer music.
Their belief in sharing information and knowledge becomes the fundamental principle on which the digital culture is being formed.
Yet in the same year, Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, writes an open letter to the members of the hacker club banning the copying of his software. The idea that sharing knowledge and information could be illegal creates a new thought - the illegal copy.
However, a quiet protest begins ...
The young computer industry forges its way and grows rapidly. In the following years, more software is sold than anyone would have ever imagined. 1980 marks the beginning of the home computer era. It now becomes clear, that software has finally become a mass product.
However, blinded by the idea, that information has to be protected from sharing the industry makes its biggest mistake it invents the copy protection.
First users start to crack the protection. Cracking becomes a passion. In 1982, first crackers start to spread pirated software all over the world. In 1984, first cracking groups gather and in 1986 the number of their members exceeds 20,000. Within a few years a secret scene develops, operating in the underground and calling itself "the Scene". Long before the invention of the WWW, the Scene shares software in their own digital venues. The groups permanently compete for the first release of pirated software. In 1990, the first official meetings take place with 4,000 members of the so called "Scene"
In the mid-1990's its size reaches 50,000 members.
In the 90s, the Internet becomes a mass medium. With the new possibilities, the crackers are able to establish new structures. Bound by tradition to the code of honor of the hackers of the 60's and the crackers of the 80's a new, even bigger, and more powerful scene develops. Nearly every software program, every movie and every music album can now be downloaded from the Internet for free caused by the Scene.
Finally, the Scene finds the attention of the FBI. In 1994, MIT-student David LaMacchia gets arrested and prosecuted for copyright infringement. In 1997, President Clinton signs the "No Electronic Theft Act" called NETAct allowing the FBI to fight the Scene more rigorously.
On December 11th 2001, FBI-Agents execute about 100 search warrants worldwide under the codename Operation Buccaneer. In massive raids, more than 120 computers are seized.
From March 16th to 18th 2004, several hundred apartments, computer centers and companies are searched. More than 200 computers and 40,000 data media are seized. As the police bust, they confiscate 38 terabytes of pirated material - which equals the storage capacity of 60,000 CDs.
But just after a few days, the Scene manages to return to its former strength. As the FBI finally admits, the Scene can only be described as a "highly organized syndicate". With more than 200,000 Scene members worldwide, even the FBI seems to be overextended.
Soon, the industry makes its next fatal mistake. After the investigations failed, the industry seeks its chance in fighting the consumers. They declare war on millions of users and thus their own customers. In 2004 the industry starts a campaign, labeling thousands of customers "criminals". Until 2006 the RIAA sues more than 16,000 music fans, who had downloaded MP3s for private use.
But all their attempts fail. The consumers stand up against the industry's campaigns. The idea of sharing knowledge and information now becomes more important than ever before. Free music platforms soon dominate the world of digital music. In these platforms, people share music as cultural possessions. Free software as Linux and projects as Wikipedia become the cultural assets of a new digital world.
The entertainment industry started a war on two fronts. It started a war against a 25-year-old, organized underground subculture which the industry had created itself and could not stop. ut their greatest hubris was to fight against the whole net culture.
As a protest against the industry's sanctions, millions all over the world now program free software, share data, information, and knowledge. ot only as a part of a subculture, not only in the underground but anywhere and with anyone. The age of free culture, the second Internet revolution begins,
it begins now ...
