Seagram Declares War On Napster

GrokSoup writes: "Seagram Chairman Edward Bronfman declared war on online piracy in a speech in San Jose on Friday. While many of his arguments are hard to dispute -- Napster-like music-sharing services have turned a blind eye to theft -- he makes others that are tougher to support. For example, Bronfman said that anonymity isn't privacy, arguing that we have a right to the latter, but not the former: '[online anonymity] is nothing more than the digital equivalent of putting on a ski mask when you rob a bank.'"Apparently some folks have a hard time figuring out that the stuff in quotes and italisced is a quote from the submittor. That's not me writing above - that's GrokSoup.

Comments

In case you're wondering...

[kaphka]

This article makes a lot more sense when you realize that Seagrams doesn't just make seltzer anymore. I don't know if that's common knowledge...

war on alcohol...

[b_pretender]

I declare war on Seagram's alcohol branch.

He can't argue when I say that alcoholism disrupts families, causes death, unemployment, ...

--

Hmm.

[WarmProp]

For some reason I feel like a mafia don is calling me a criminal.

He says it so much better than I:

[Convergence]

"There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or a corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute nor common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back, for their private benefit. That is all." -- Robert A. Heinlein ("Life-Line")

This is my observation, it is not my moral judgement on either side of the issue.

This guy must have had some bad crack...

[hawkear]

Anonymity, on the other hand, means being able to get away with stealing, or hacking, or disseminating illegal material on the Internet - and presuming the right that nobody should know who you are.

One of the major attractions of the internet to some people is the prospect of anonymity - creating an online persona to experiment and discuss what you wouldn't normally in a public, non-anonymous forum. The whole idea of not knowing exactly who you're talking to is both a blessing and a curse (is that really a dog on the other end?), and it's what helps many people who are normally pretty introverted actually express themselves. Anonymity does not propagate stealing, it permits privacy and expression.

Here, we have already seen some major successes:
...
Another recent victory confirming the application of copyright law to cyberspace involved the unlawful dissemination of DVD anti-copy codes.

Since when was this case a victory??? It hasn't even come to trial yet!

In the appropriation of intellectual property, myMP3.com, Napster, and Gnutella (which has stolen from the breakfasts of 100 million European children even its name) are, in my opinion, the ringleaders, the exemplars of theft, of piracy, of the illegal and willful appropriation of someone else's property.

ok... so an open source program is a ringleader of piracy? This guy's logic is amazing!

Those whose intellectual property is simply appropriated on the Internet or anywhere else, are forced to labor without choice or recompense, for the benefit of whoever might wish to take a piece of their hide.
If this is a principle of the New World, it is suspiciously like the Old World principle called slavery.


So... trading mp3s is equated with slavery!!!

Let this be our notice then to all those who hold fairness in contempt, who devalue and demean the labor and genius of others, that because we have considered our actions well and because we are followers without reticence of a clear and just principle, we will not retreat.
For in the end, this is not only a fight about the protection of music or movies, software code or video games. Nor is it a fight about technology's promise or its limitations. This is, at its core, quite simply about right and wrong.
Thank you for letting me speak from the heart.

And what a cold, misguided heart that is... This is not simply right and wrong. It is about freedom, and he is saying freedom is bad. This guy needs to be educated. I'm disgusted.

Re:what?

[dr_labrat]

>obfuscating your identity during a criminal act is immoral and unethical

Um, no. The criminal act is immoral and unethical. Obfuscating your identity while performing a criminal act is common sense....

Insanity.

[elsam]

This guy's views are not just hard to support, they're downright psychotic. Here's a summary:

• He equates copyright infringement with theft.
• He characterizes current technology as "offering comfort to hackers, spies, pirates and pedophiles."
• He says that if intellectual property is not respected, the Internet will "suffer the fate of the buffalo", and "wither and die like the Hantavirus".
• He claims to know about technology that can "trace every Internet download and tag every file."
• He defines anonymity as meaning "being able to get away with stealing, or hacking..."

and then he gets really crazy.....

• Allowing anonymity on the internet "would undermine the very basis of our civilized society".
• The widespread copyright infringement of Napster users "is suspiciously like the Old World principle called slavery." [The musicians being the "slaves", I guess.]
• The current dangerous anarchy of the internet, like the equally unjust Soviet Union, "will crack, crumble and collapse."
• He declares war on the Internet, for its own good, and compares it to World War II. If only the forces of Copyright can bring "enough men and women, weaponry and money" to bear against the Internet, as the Allies did against Nazi Germany, then the world will be once again made safe.

Re:Funky! Look at their history!

[SimJockey]

Gee, no mention of how the Bronfmans really made their money. Bootlegging!!! Here is an interesting link. Freaking hypocrites!

Illegal FileSharing!

[PopeAlien]

I have discovered a massive conduit for stolen intellectual material. They call it 'email', but beneath it's innocuous sounding name hides a great evil. As I write this, there are potentially gigs and gigs of illegal material flowing all around the world.. entire chapters of books, song lyrics, and the misuse of corporate trademarks are all taking place - but that's not the worst of it! Using a technology called "attachments" actual songs, TV shows, and stolen software can be exchanged along with the plain-text.

I have done a little research, and it appears that the major ring-leaders are a company going by the name of 'MicroSoft' with their 'hotmail' service (even in the name they are brazen about the 'hot' or 'stolen' nature of the contents!) and a company that goes by the name of 'Time/Warner/AOL' operating under the alias 'Netscape Webmail' (Which I assume relates to the web of lies and trickery that the service enables).. I have heard that there may be some other software that make use of this 'email' technology, but I think we have to go after the biggest most brazen CopyRight Theft Enablersto send a message to the internet community at large: 'Sharing is bad! Communication is Sharing!'.. We must get congress to ACT NOW and stop these 'ringleaders' while we can..