Congress to Ashcroft : Sic 'em!

[theknife]

This just in

"Such an effort is increasingly important as online theft of our nation's creative works is a growing threat to our culture and economy,"

If they're gonna start going after threats to our culture, start with Disney, go right on through the big five record companies, nail the two companies that own 80% of the country's radio stations, and then go after Hollywood. Their collective efforts to control the ownership and distribution of art is the biggest threat to culture of all.

[TankGirl]

Originally posted by theknife
If they're gonna start going after threats to our culture, start with Disney, go right on through the big five record companies, nail the two companies that own 80% of the country's radio stations, and then go after Hollywood. Their collective efforts to control the ownership and distribution of art is the biggest threat to culture of all.

Bravo!

- tg

[JackSpratts]

Originally posted by theknife
This just in



If they're gonna start going after threats to our culture, start with Disney, go right on through the big five record companies, nail the two companies that own 80% of the country's radio stations, and then go after Hollywood. Their collective efforts to control the ownership and distribution of art is the biggest threat to culture of all.

this should be mailed to the signatories of that pathetic proposal. f*ck them. if joe biden and his posse of sold-to-the-highest-bidder "legislators" want ashcroft to hunt people down who lend copyrighted material - they can start by busting the librarian of congress! let's see how well that goes over with the citizens of this fair republic.

- js.

[Scyth]

In my opinion, this is a good thing. Unenforced laws are bad. They're what got us into this whole mess in the first place.

For years people never objected to copyright laws because they only engaged in small-scale (i.e., copying a friend's CD) piracy that was ignored by law enforcement and the record labels. Then Napster came along, we all continued to do what we had done all along, and were all upset when Napster got nailed to contributory infringment. But that feeling passed now that we've moved onto other services. Well, perhaps some of us are still upset, but your average citizen doesn't care about copyright law so long as they can still get their free music. Had CD copying been aggressively persued back in the day, I doubt copyright law would be a strong as it is now, and Napster probably would never have been shut down.

Copyright law needs to be reformed but laws that don't affect many people are far less likely to be changed. Enforcement is needed to draw attention to the law.

[TankGirl]

Here's a good commentary on the topic by The Register:

Hollywood's private war for social control

from the article:

Freedom of choice in how one is able to bring his content to market means a greater chance of it reaching an audience. Up until Napster, the entertainment industry alone decided what artist gets supported, promoted, and published, and in what quantities. The Information Age threatens to reverse this centralized control mechanism and profit stream, enabling anyone to publish and promote their content around the world, cutting the middleman - RIAA and major studios - out of the financial equation and management process. Nobody in an established role likes to lose control, be voted out of office, or see their authority and influence erode....yet this is exactly what the Information Age is doing to the centralized entertainment industry. This helps explain some of the goofy proposals mentioned earlier -- like a Vegas gambler, the RIAA (and MPAA by extension) is hedging its bets, trying to not only maintain control of the content and media industry, but if it can't, get as much as it can through other methods, laws, and charges.

- tg

[hda12]

On July, the labels considered to suit individuals, which run P2P software, but according to the Wall Street Journal no definitive decision had been made.
I think, this letter demonstrates that the labels decided now to suit individuals and its only a matter of time until the first P2P-users are charged for copyright violation.
But can P2P under this conditions exist as public network? I'm not sure whether anyone will share her or his files if this could mean jailtime for her / him. And so the content available on P2P networks will probaby decrease and an negative network effekt will takes place.
I think the only possiblility to prevent this, is a powerful movement, which fights for the leglisation of filesharing. But i'm not verry optimistic, because not organisation was able the mobilize people for this goal in the past. And no one disagreed with the conviction of the DoD-members, a similar case.

[TankGirl]

Originally posted by Scyth
Copyright law needs to be reformed but laws that don't affect many people are far less likely to be changed. Enforcement is needed to draw attention to the law.

I think that copyright laws are getting quite much attention today due to p2p even if the mainstream media still pretty much swallows the corporate propaganda and keeps talking about 'piratism' etc. Yes, reformation of laws is needed but on whose conditions? People or corporations? It seems that there are still a good number of Hollywood puppets among U.S. legislators so it is perhaps only good that legislation hasn't so far catched up with the technology. And it is good that p2p is an international phenomenon which cannot be controlled by the U.S. legislation alone.

Originally posted by hda12
But can P2P under this conditions exist as public network? I'm not sure whether anyone will share her or his files if this could mean jailtime for her / him. And so the content available on P2P networks will probaby decrease and an negative network effekt will takes place.

This is a perfectly possible scenario. The copyright nazis may still be able to make public sharing risky enough (at least for the Americans) to force it underground. But even if this happens, I am confident that it will not stop p2p but rather make it evolve into more protected and socially advanced forms. The present harassment campaign with faked files is already making p2p developers to consider content autenthication methods. If Jack and Hilary get more personal in their bullying, the developers will come up with personal autenthication methods to keep the bad guys out of p2p communities. It will take some time and some new methods to build large filesharing communities starting from small cells of trusted friends, establishing trust relations between such groups etc. but it can be done. The battle will not be over until all non-commercial p2p is considered fair use and perfectly legal.

- tg