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43 Million Americans Use P2P Software
robl writes "If the NYTimes article is correct then somewhere around 1 in 6 Americans apparently are unindicted felons. In the eyes of the public file swapping is as morally wrong as speeding on the NJ Turnpike. The rest of the article talks about the RIAA's carrot/stick/education approach and how they may find themselves entering into negotiations for some forms of file sharing. Also the EFF will be running ads in Rolling Stone next month asking if enthusiasts are tired of being treated like criminals."
There are worldwide much more than 42 million people involved in war and criminal activities. But this doesn't mean that you can go out to rob your neighbour, smash his car and kill his dog.
And many people on the world do much worse things.
This "Look ma, but Jim does it, too !" "argument" is pretty infantile and irrelevant.
Copyright holders have rights on their creation. Would it come into your mind that you can just take your neighbours car just because it should belong to everyone and this guy is a fat, ugly badass ?
The problem with P2P is that it corrupts people views of right and wrong because committing a crime is so easy and seem negligible.
And do you really think that the providers of the P2P networks just want enable people with free data access ?
No these people are common theifs: all P2P system are created to steal the distribution rights from their original owners. Napster was no underdog, it was backed by greedy investors with the morales of leech.
And for KaZaa and co.: Why have these "nice" people ridden the P2P with spyware ?
This is not exactly the behavior of selfless, Gandhi-like saints. In fact this a rather the behavior of greasy, amoralic criminals.
There is no such thing as a free lunch. If you really think that you'll get stuff for free by P2P then you ignore the fact that you are paying and paying with the most valueable things you have: morality and integrity.
Form bad things NEVER comes something good.
Owner of a Mensa membership card.
Seriously, there has got to be no easier way for someone to become a criminal without them giving it much thought. If you walked into a record store and tried to walk out with loads of shoplifted CDs under each arm, you'd get busted. And if you tried any of the following rationales:
1. But I'm too broke to afford music
2. This music should be free
3. Yes but the RIAA isn't paying the artists for these CDs that I just stole
4. Corporations are evil
5. But officer EVERYBODY does this!
6. This falls under fair use
7. I'm not going to fence them, I'm going to "share" them
They'd laugh and it'd be off to the pokey for you. Yet, introduce P2P technology into the equation, and miraculously these kind of arguments suddenly seem like they're holding water. And people think there's nothing wrong with downloading entire albums without paying for it, or ripping albums and distributing them to thousands of people who will download them without paying for them.
Sometimes, the paranoid tinfoil-hat part of my brain takes over and I wonder if the government doesn't somehow want it this way. After all, get enough people downloading files, convict the whole nation of one big felony, and just throw a big wall full of armed guards around the entire country. Then if you want to download that Kid Rock mp3 you will have to "Escape from New York."
The fatal flaw is that the Constitution counted on a watchful populace that cared more about what their government was doing than on who was going to win American Idol and The Bachelorette. Or how much beer they had in the fridge. Or if they were getting enough sex. Pleasure is the real American idol.
"Tired of being treated like criminals?". Well, most people are. Sucks, doesn't it.
There is no small amount of folly in criminalizing the behavior of "most people" -- in making felons of the masses because of things that people believe to be innocent everyday acts. Ask any of the numerous governments that have fallen during the last several centuries...
STOP . AMERICA . NOW