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P2P vs. RIAA: RIAA Wins
revscat writes: "Salon has a nice writeup of the persecution and eventual success of the RIAA vs. commercial MP3 entities. And while alternatives exist, they "may eventually succumb to the might of the RIAA, which is already making noises about targeting software developers, ISPs and individual users of the network with lawsuits." Basic gist: for profit MP3 has consolidated into the hands of the recording industry." Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.
US, Everywhere - The RIAA has sued the Department of Defence for creating ARPANET, the mother of the Internet, on the basis that it facilitates "copying of mp3 files via HTTP, FTP, EMAIL" and a host of other evil tools that exist merely for the facilitation of piracy. Al Gore was also named in the suite.
Upon learning that the case was summarily dismissed, the RIAA sued the messenger who delivered the news.
This article is pure bunk. I've lost track of how many file sharing programs I've seen announced in recent months. The internet is a system designed to share information. The only way to prevent information (like mp3s) from being shared is to shut down the entire net.
It was pretty apparent to me that the big names in early file sharing (Napster, MP3.com etc) would go down. They had pretty, bright red targets painted on their foreheads.
However, now that it is started there will be no stopping it. You can filter for music and people will just encrypt it before sending. You can shut down central servers and people will go peer to peer. You can publish FUD about the death of music sharing and people will ridicule you.
Bah, just go to freenet.
Unbreakable toys can be used to break other toys.
I'll refer to two pieces of science fiction, as harbingers of the future war of which we're seeing the first battles.
For the first, I forget the title. But it was about an unspecified era in which aliens try to 'help' us by giving us replicators. First there are attempts to control access to the replicators. But of course, someone manages to replicate the replicator, and it's all out of the bag. Along the way, someone speculates that the aliens were really out to ruin us by destroying our economy, which is based on scarcity. Finally, the 'hero' of the story realizes that by controlling the originals, he can still be rich. Economy of scarcity is maintained, only at the 'manuscript' level.
In Joe Haldeman's "The Forever Peace", the United States invents the NanoForge, essentially a nanotech-based replicator. Then they nuke the lab that the prototype was in, telling the world that the NanoForge exploded, so it's established as *physically dangerous* technology. (It's really not physically dangerous, just politically and economically.) Thereafter, some dozen NanoForges are government-run at high cost, with some public access, because they're just too dangerous any other way. Once again, economy of scarcity is maintained.
This is it. The Internet enables an economy of abundance based on exchange of information. Bits are bits, and from a technological perspective, they can be copied for near-zero cost. But information exchange is not a new business. Prior to Internet and electronic exchange, it was done on dead trees and discs. (First laquer, then vinyl, then CDs.)
The publishing industries arose in order to disseminate information. They made their livlihood doing so, and grew into empires. Ironically, they are now threatened by more efficient means of dissemination, and are fighting for their continued existence by *restricting* those newer means.
From another perspective, there are (at least) two aspects of publication, be it music, movies, or print, editorial and duplication. While the editorial aspect is still necessary and valuable, the duplication is becoming obsolete. Yet in common perception, the editorial value has faded and the duplication dominates. So someone downloads music, and wonders what value the record company contributes.
We were headed toward a world with wide, free spread of information. It had some problems, in that it didn't recognize the editorial value of the current publishing industries. Now, as a result of RIAA and MPAA actions, we are headed toward Joe Haldeman's world, where a potential economy of abundance is being thrown away, in favor of information and access control. I don't like this at all.
But *they* have more money, and more influence in the courts and congress than *we* do. We can fight the good fight it's a sad reflection on "Justice" in the USA that I expect us to get beaten down every step of the way. Rather cynical for a Friday, I know.
The philosophical war began in music and movies, and is moving to the print world. There are signs that it would like to move into software, though we have a good, strong beachhead here. I wonder where else it will try to go.
To be more positive, we first need to recognize the *editorial* value of the publishing industries. The bar for publishing on the web is low, and there are a lot of clunkers out there as a result. We need some way other than a few portals and hit-based Google searches to recognize good content. If we want to take the battle for music and movies to a different front, we need to grow the alternative - free (or at least non-RIAA/MPAA) content. We need to make it known where it is, and how to sort the wheat from the chaff.
Even after the first few battles, most of us don't recognize the breadth of the War. This is a wholesale societal change for the better that we're letting slip out of our grasp.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
I absolutely agree, and for $lots, you can have your very own politician to fight for you. For $lots, you can customize your personal politician, complete with morals (that happen to strongly believe in your causes), a sense of duty (to you), and the cleverness to make everyone else believe this is not the case and get elected.
So call now, our stock of wannabe poiticians is overflowing! We've seen the MP3 battle coming for years and have planted lots of personalized politicians ready for you to own!
America(TM): land of the free (reign of large companies), home of the puddles where free use used to be.
--IronHelix
OPERATEUR: ecran principal s'allument.
M. LE CAPTAIN: C'est vous!!!
MICHAEL: Comment allez-vous messieurs.
MICHAEL: Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.
M. LE CAPTAIN: Quoi vous dites!?
MICHAEL: Vous etes dans le chemin à la destruction.
MICHAEL: Vous avez pas du chance pour survivre faites votre temps.
MICHAEL: Ah-hau hau hau hau.
Obliteracy: Words with explosions