Re: RIAA wins its first piracy trial

[David Farber <dfarber () cs cmu edu>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
Date: October 6, 2007 11:48:41 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: lauren () vortex com
Subject: Re: [IP] Re: RIAA wins its first piracy trial


Dave,

I have refrained from commenting on this trial outcome publicly up
to now, but my resistance has run out.  All the words have already
been written about the RIAA/MPAA/entertainment industries' rights to
protect their copyrighted works, and the extent to which those
efforts can in many cases be seen to be grossly overreaching.

Let's put that all aside for now.  What's the real practical
positive impact for these industries of this trial decision, other
than having created a financial mess for the convicted party
(whether or not she actually was breaking the law doesn't even matter
for this question).

Nothing.  Nada.  The Big Empty Set.

Cases like this are pursued in an attempt to (a) demonstrate that
they are "serious" about protecting their copyrighted works, and
(b) providing an example to others that presumably will cause other
potential violators to fall into line and stop their illicit
activities (however defined by the law of the day).

While the industry may score on (a), they are accomplishing nothing
useful when it comes to (b).  I wager that trial results like this
cause no perceptible change in the activities that the industry is
trying to prevent.  In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if anger at the
result inspires even more of those activities.

You don't have to approve of such prosecutable acts to acknowledge
that the reality of the situation is such that they're effectively
unstoppable.  That's simply the bottom line truth.  There are lots
of nuances and details we could talk about, but the fact is that any
business models that depend on stamping out music and video piracy
are likely doomed in the long run.

I don't enjoy saying this.  I have friends in both the music and film
industries here in L.A., and there are lots of very hard workers in
both who are anything but rich, and are being hurt economically by
piracy.

But it simply doesn't make sense to pursue a course that everyone
knows is not going to succeed.  The executives in these industries
are mostly not stupid people and they generally do understand at the
gut level that these control attempts are going to fail.  But they
feel desperate.  Such lawsuits -- or attempts at draconian copy
protection that will also fail in the long run -- are all that
they've come up with so far in an attempt to preserve their existing
business regimes.  They're going with what they've got, even though
they can clearly see the handwriting on the wall.

Nobody should feel any joy at this situation.

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren () vortex com or lauren () pfir org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
   - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com

 - - -

> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: "K.E." <guavaberry () earthlink net>
> Date: October 6, 2007 9:07:33 PM EDT
> To: dave () farber net
> Cc: rforno () infowarrior org, tfairlie () frontiernet net
> Subject: Re: [IP] Re:  RIAA wins its first piracy trial
>
>
> I read this today and thought to send it along.
>
>
> <snip>
> I have a hard time seeing it as stealing.
>
> I play in a metal band. We have sold around 200k records across 3
> releases. We're not 'huge' by any stretch but do alright and live off
> (and ON subsequently) the road. Fans and friends ask me all the time
> how I feel about "stealing music." I just told someone yesterday "I
> have a hard time seeing it as stealing...when I don't see any money
> from cd sales to begin with. What are they actually TAKING from me?"
>
> If you want to squeeze an opinion on theft out of me, ask me about
> the dude that grabbed our tshirt off the table tonight in Detroit or
> better yet.. ask me about record contracts.
>
> I encourage our fans to acquire our album however they please.  The
> philosophy I've adopted is that if you're supporting disc sales,
> you're keeping the old model around longer...the one that forces
> dudes like me to tour 9 mos/year if they want to make ends meet with
> a career in music.  If you wanna really support a band, "steal" their
> album....help bury the label....and buy a tshirt when you show up at
> their show and sing every word.
>
> Dave Peters
> Thowdown
>
> ---</snip>-----
>
> Karen Ellis
> http://www.edu-cyberpg.com



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