Law Not On P2P's Side

[MagicMorpheus]

DOJ vs. the American Public
On July 25, 2002, 19 lawmakers sent a letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft. The letter had asked that the Department of Justice to play a greater role in the enforcement of copyright laws in light of the recent surge in P2P networking. Initially, the DOJ kept a low profile on the issue, refraining from any type of comment.

At last, the DOJ has spoken, and it doesn't bode well for the P2P community. Speaking at the Progress and Freedom Foundation's annual technology and politics summit, John Malcolm, a deputy assistant attorney general, make it quite clear that the US government was not on the side of the file-sharing community.

From News.com: Malcolm said the Internet has become "the world's largest copy machine" and that criminal prosecutions of copyright offenders are now necessary to preserve the viability of America's content industries. "There does have to be some kind of a public message that stealing is stealing is stealing," said Malcolm, who oversees the arm of the Justice Department that prosecutes copyright and computer crime cases.

While this may sound like bad news, it's not critical as it may sound. If and when the department of justice does prosecute, they will be doing so under the guidelines of the NET Act. Under this law, it is a federal crime to share copies of copyrighted products such as software, movies or music with anyone, even friends or family members, if the value of the work exceeds $1,000. Violations are punishable by one year in prison, or if the value tops $2,500, "not more than five years" in prison.

In reality, few people share enough, or are dumb enough, to be prosecuted under this act. For example, lets say an individual shares 200 mp3's. In trying to calculate the value of this sum, lets assume that an average CD has 10 tracks on it. Therefore, 200 mp3's divided by 10 tracks equals 20 CD's. Now, even if every one of those CD's cost $18, the total value of all those shared mp3's would only approximate to be $360 (20 CD's multiplied by $18 ) - way below the $1,000 minimum required by the NET act. In addition, an individual would have to share over 40 DVD quality movies ($1000 minimum divided by the average DVD price of $22) in order to be prosecuted.

So does the average file-swapper have anything to worry about? Probably not. The RIAA/MPAA are more interested in making example out of those who share copious amount of files. If individuals keep their shared folders on the modest size, say anything below 500 mp3's, then you're in the clear. It's important to realize that the DOJ, if and when the prosecute, will be facing whirlwind of criticism from the public as well as the media. Much like the war on drugs, it is doubtful that the forces that be will successfully create and example out of a few individuals. Instead, it will only enrage and encourage others to participate, making any further efforts to crush P2P networking futile.

You can read more on this story here

[TankGirl]

Check also this fresh story from Wired:
Bracing for the Digital Crackdown

The fear and loathing focused at the file-trading community is reminiscent of 1990, just before the Secret Service and the FBI conducted raids in order to smash the loosely affiliated hacker organizations around the country, as chronicled by Bruce Sterling in The Hacker Crackdown.

"They are going after the same set of folks they were going after back then," said John Perry Barlow, co- founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit legal fund formed to defend people caught in the hacker raids. "They are going after people who are young and want to share their ideas. They are criminalizing the curious."

- tg

[Merijn]

They are criminalizing the curious.

Hm... what happened last time they did this (aka Hacker Crackdown)? Oh right, hackers went (even more) underground and continued their works

So remember boys and girls - the legally maximum allowed amount of shared w4r3z is 1500 MB in mp3s and 48 GB in dvdrips

[SA_Dave]

These laws are from the 1930's aren't they? Perhaps you'll appreciate the input of a lowly African like myself.

The key points here are :

"...the world's largest copy machine..."

AND

"There does have to be some kind of a public message that stealing is stealing is stealing," said Malcolm...

To me, this is totally contradictory! What exactly is it that I'm "stealing?" Since when is a COPY identical to the original? Are the RIAA insinuating that people are sharing disk images of entire albums; bundled with inserts, cover labels, warning stickers & even the disk itself; in an all-in-one, burn-it-on-the-fly-in-one-easy-step, pirated-CD-to-go format? This propoganda is ludicrous! To true fans (the vast majority of listeners) there is no substitute for the original, no matter how lossless the compression and limitless the bandwidth. The RIAA are merely scared because they're losing control over the fringe elements ie. the ones who are stone-deaf, trend-following, brainless wonders. I'm sure this constitutes a large part of their customer-base! Many alternative/indie labels have embraced this new medium. The only difference between radio & mp3s is the choice & convenience. Of course the RIAA is scared of losing their monopoly as a result, hence the persecution of services like mp3.com which ironically gave people what they wanted.

Who's to say that someone's going to buy that CD anyway? Just because they search for it, it doesn't mean they've already looked up every track listing etc. with intent to 'pirate.' I sometimes share mp3s that I'll probably never listen to again just because I believe in the cause. (BTW I listen to labels like Century Media, Nuclear Blast & Spinefarm : I've never supported the RIAA & never will.)

As far as movies are concerned, even DVD rips are inferior to the original. eBooks are dismal in comparison with conventional books. You can get eye-strain from reading them, printing them is often difficult & it just doesn't feel like a book! Software is the only thing that could really be considered identical to the original, due to its digital nature. Then again, who says that someone would've paid $750 for Photoshop to begin with? (BTW The GIMP beats Photoshop & it's totally free!) Software 'piracy' is Microsoft's main legacy (before their monopoly was created software could be modified & distributed freely, like under the GPL of today, as long as everyone was made aware of the authors) and they are guilty of it themselves. As the saying goes "Piracy doesn't hurt pay software, it only hurts free software."

These companies are missing the picture completely! I live in a developing country (South Africa) & p2p has opened my eyes to anime, rpgs and music I could only dream of before! None of this stuff is available here. Since the equivalent of a SDSL connection (we don't have cable or anything much for that matter) costs US$600 per month (never mind the fact that you have to have a business license, be near the CBD & pay $2000+ for installation), I'd rather spend that money on importing DVD's, CD's, games, books etc.! It is true that satellite & other wireless connection methods are becoming available, but they're alot (3 times) more expensive than $30 for dialup and it'll take a long time as there's only one major telecomms company (previously government owned & has an even larger monopoly than M$) which is in the process of being dismantled/diversified.

The RIAA could easily (although this might be a violation of anti-trust laws) extend their monopoly into countries where even popular American artists are under-exposed. My mom likes Jimmy Buffet for example (don't know why) and for her it's less hassle to "pirate" something than to import it. With shipping and our ever-fluctuating exchange rate, it costs twice as much to import as to buy locally. Would you pay $35-40 for one CD? Didn't think so! I'd like to point out something that the RIAA/MPAA moguls might not know about. Granted, Blizzard does have a reputation for quality products, zealous fans & ease-of-use, and they also have a knack for creating blockbuster games titles. However when Warcraft 3 was released locally for +-$35, most other new titles were selling for $60 on average! I believe this further contributed to its blistering success in selling 6 million+ units. I'm sure it would be even easier for the RIAA etc. to use a similar strategy, both locally in the continental United States and internationally. Ironically this is what the people want, so they'll fight tooth and nail until they fall by the wayside!

It seems that corruption is part and parcel of the democratic way of governance, regardless of geography! It would be a shame for the self-proclaimed "land of the free" to sully its own image even further, considering the state of world politics today!

[MagicMorpheus]

Take That (echo: Take That) RIAA!!!

[theknife]

Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics Association, said he was skeptical about the view that peer-to-peer piracy should be a criminal offense. "If we have 70 million people in the United States who are breaking the law, we have a big issue."