FwdRe North American Box Office Hits Record $11.4 Billion

["Dave Farber" <dave () farber net>]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Richard Bennett <richard () bennett com>
Date: Mon, Jan 2, 2017 at 7:50 PM
Subject: Re: [IP] Re North American Box Office Hits Record $11.4 Billion
To: John R. Levine <johnl () iecc com>
Cc: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>



On Jan 2, 2017, at 3:47 PM, John Levine <johnl () iecc com> wrote:

I agree that it would be socially desirable to fund music better, but
I don't think that threatening to put the people who listen to that
music in jail is a winning strategy.  I also think, as an author who
has written a lot of books that have been widely pirated, that it is
not society's job to police my copyrights.


I’m not aware of any law proposing to criminalize mere listening to music
outside of morality-based laws in theocratic regimes or
politically-motivated speech mans in autocratic states. In the US there are
various measures in place to enforce copyrights, but they mainly fall on
unlawful sale.

Maybe I’m splitting hairs, but there seems to be a rather large gulf
between operating a website that profits from unlawful sale and listening
to a song you didn’t pay for. I suppose the line gets fuzzy with the
peer-to-peer sites like Pirate Bay where users are bartering stolen music
with each other, but the ad revenue all goes to the Pirate Bay operators.

Anyhow, I always find it interesting that all pretty much agree that the
Internet has brought about massive positive changes in sociability,
informational retrieval, commerce, health, and education but when the
subject switches to negatives such as criminality or the demise of
journalism the Internet has produced no effects at all.

Can that possibly be true?

RB


On Jan 2, 2017, at 3:47 PM, John Levine <johnl () iecc com> wrote:

I agree that it would be socially desirable to fund music better, but
I don't think that threatening to put the people who listen to that
music in jail is a winning strategy.



—

Richard Bennett
Founder/Publisher, High Tech Forum <http://hightechforum.org>

IPR Consultant



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