Interesting People mailing list archives
Re: RIAA wins its first piracy trial
From: David Farber <dfarber () cs cmu edu>
Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2007 16:43:32 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Richard Forno <rforno () infowarrior org> Date: October 7, 2007 11:46:06 AM EDT To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>, <lauren () vortex com> Subject: Re: [IP] Re: RIAA wins its first piracy trial Frankly from my view, the entertainment industry's dogmatic refusal toaccept the changing face of society and realize that emerging technologies have, and continue to, change the paradigm of industry, social control, and information exchange continues to baffle me. I think it's only a matter of time before their refusal to accept reality and redefine their role in the
information age will be their undoing.To wit: They try to control the content (watermarking); they try to control the endpoints (hardware and software); they attack any hint of a paradigm
shift that endangers their social status in the world (Napster, DeCSS,Kazaa, BitTorrent); they conduct pre-emptive profit strikes on customers in
the form of taxing hard drives and media that *could* be used for piracy activities (the iPod tax); and constantly seek out new laws to restricttechnological change and innovation under the guise of protecting 'their" material (DMCA, WIPO) when it's all about preserving their failing industry business model in an age where they're becoming more irrelevant with each passing year. I really think these folks would prefer it be 1998 all over
again.From where I sit, I can count the number of movies I see in theaters or have
purchased on DVD in recent years, or new music I've bought or even had adesire to buy. Not only is there not enough stuff produced that interests me, but I refuse to support an industry that, when you get right down to it, considers and treats ALL customers as criminals for no other reason than to
preserve its rapidly-aging business model. From an anthropological perspective, they just do NOT want to change with the times --- it's too hard to relinquish power when you've had it for so long, and alsofrightening to know that you're being seriously-challenged by entities far outside your direct ability to constrain. Hence, the industry lashes out in all directions in what clearly is a panicked 'death throes' flailing action to try and control/influence/constrain anything that might present a danger
to their existing business models in the hope that they can head off theinevitable -- namely, the global reduction in their marketplace legitimacy
and hegemony. It's all about marketplace control. Marketplace control is all about profits. And profits is all about control of your resources offered forsale. Unfortunately, unlike controlling of other resources such as power,
water, or oil, efforts to exert control over "their" digital information resources has the consequence of providing them with the ability to influence or control most other digital information resources, includinginformation resources and data they have no right of ownership -- such as
unsigned bands, indie movies, and other nonprofit or personal data. It's all about control. -Rick Infowarrior.org ------------------------------------------- Archives: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
Current thread:
- RIAA wins its first piracy trial David Farber (Oct 05)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: RIAA wins its first piracy trial David Farber (Oct 05)
- Re: RIAA wins its first piracy trial David Farber (Oct 06)
- Re: RIAA wins its first piracy trial David Farber (Oct 07)
- Re: RIAA wins its first piracy trial David Farber (Oct 07)