oh knock it OFF already
Thursday, September 28th, 2006http://techdirt.com/articles/20060927/214638.shtml
While the RIAA must love that, it’s very troublesome. Just because a tool is widely misused, that’s hardly evidence that the maker of the tool intended for it to be used illegally, or that it actively “induced” illegal behavior. And, even then, inducement should be a higher standard than just intent.
This brings to mind a tangental point that’s been bothering me for about 8 years.
COULD WE PLEASE STOP PRETENDING THAT FILE SHARING SYSTEMS ARE FOR ANYTHING OTHER THAN ILLEGALLY DOWNLOADING CONTENT!?!
I mean good christ people. Who do you think you’re kidding? This polite fiction has gone on quite longer than enough.
It’s like stoners arguing for hemp as an industrial product. KNOCK IT OFF. You want to con people into legalizing it so you can smoke it. If that’s your aim, fine. No problem. Take your position and stand by it. But don’t insult the intelligence of the entire human race just because you’re too damned stoned to realize how transparent you are.
Yes, Bit Torrent is really interesting technology, and it’s adoption in legitimate distribution of large-scale content is a triumph of that technology. And it’s an exception to the rule because it’s not based on an established p2p network where you can “go shopping” for things you might happen to want to download (you know, like updates to your anti-virus software you have a paid subscription for. Or public domain gutenberg text. :-/ )
If you’re all for downloading mp3s, do it. If you think it should be legislated into legality, do THAT.
But this incessant whining about how p2p networks aren’t REALLY about distributing music and movies ripped off of cd/dvds and how dare they pick on the innocent little file sharing service is utterly ridiculous.
Something isn’t so just because you say it and people are smart enough to know not to take everything at face value.
That being said, as someone with near perfect ignorance of intellectual property law, I’ve got some nebulous creepy feelings about the way the RIAA is going about shutting these things down (as well as the notion that they’re being shut down at all.) It’s an awfully grey area to be attacked so viciously. I’m not all that sure I believe the p2p services themselves have really committed a crime. Though I’ll say it reminds me of the recent story about a website that essentially advertised sources for buying pot in college towns. To come down on either side of it smacks of loopholes and semantic games.
