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NYT Promotes File Sharing

Posted by michael on from the all-i-need-to-know-i-learned-in-kindergarten dept.

aisaac writes "An article in today's NYT comments intelligently on filesharing. Key points: downloading music is not illegal, peer-to-peer enables this useful and legal activity, and a list of good places to find good music online (including the American Memory Collection at the Library of Congress. The Induce Act is briefly mentioned without analysis, but the article does not mention that some of the Act's sponsors and cosponsors have expressed a willingness to consider ammendments to restrict the application of the Act. (This according to a letter I received from Senator Sarbanes.) Let's keep the pressure on!" A Congress call-in day is being organized.

7 of 247 comments (clear)

  1. Downloading music itself is not illegal... by rd_syringe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...but downloading copyrighted materials you don't have permission for that belong to someone else is. Let's not forget that a lot of the anti-copyright sentiment around here magically disappears whenever we have a GPL violation article.

  2. Excellent by ravenspear · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's nice to finally see a journalist who is at least moderately informed on this issue. More coverage like this will be needed though to bring greater understanding to the majority public. The Hatch'esque philosophy of absolute IP supremacy over legitimate use of technology will do great harm to innovation if it's adopted by the masses. The xxAA orgs would like nothing better than this, but ultimately the consumer would lose.

  3. Its just a ploy ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    They figure if they appease the slashdot crowd they can get us to register to view the articles.

  4. We need more articles like this. by Maestro4k · · Score: 5, Insightful
    We really need to see more of these type of articles, currently the RIAA/MPAA have managed to drown out the voices of those touting the legal uses of P2P applications. The more people who know about the legit uses, the more of an outcry there'll be. Right now the RIAA has pushed right up against the wall of public apathy, many who don't even fully understand the situation were not happy seeing 12yo girls and Grandparents sued over sharing music. Perhaps an article like this will be the proverbial "last straw" to push the public past their apathy and into full blown "the must change NOW" mode. It'll take that to stop the *AA's lobbying efforts for ridiculous laws like the Induce act.

    The RIAA also has been quite effective in making it sound like the Internet and P2P will end music. The reality is it may put an end to the current music industry where profits are reaped at the artists' expense but those who are musically talented will continue to create new music. The most likely end result is an entirely new music distribution mechanism, one that pays the artists fairly. More and more bands are starting to offer Mp3s online, both for free and for small payments. The more people who know about this and start taking advantage of it, the quicker the current crooked practices of the music industry will fail. It might even lead to more good music being out there. :)

    1. Re:We need more articles like this. by ravenspear · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The RIAA also has been quite effective in making it sound like the Internet and P2P will end music. The reality is it may put an end to the current music industry where profits are reaped at the artists' expense but those who are musically talented will continue to create new music.

      That is the crux of the matter. Ever since Napster the RIAA has doused the public with hundreds of stories, press releases, and all out rants that internet piracy is so out of control it will ultimately destroy their right to collect profit on the IP they hold.

      The reality is that the threat to them is much broader than piracy, but they don't want to focus on that. There have been several university studies (I can't remember them specifically right now) that have indicated that P2P sharing has not had a huge impact on music sales. It seems that while some people do download things and never pay for them, others actually buy more music because of it. The reason for this is the broad distribution mechanism the internet offers artists outside of RIAA sanctioned radio.

      Behind the scenes, I'm quite sure the RIAA isn't doing it all because they feel that Kazaa will ultimately cause them to go bankrupt. What they are really afraid of is permitting artists to see the potential of online music distribution. If that happens and the artists realize they can do just as well by going online and connecting directly to their fans and listening audience, then they will see a better alternative to the perennial shafting they inevitable receive from the RIAA. Once that occurs, the RIAA will become irrelevant and that's what they are deathly afraid of.

      They're trying to turn back the clock by painting everything related to online music with the same brush. Let's hope it doesn't work.

  5. Following the logic. by erick99 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I get genuinely confused about what is legal and illegal in terms of downloading copyrighted music. The NYT in this article starts out with what appears to be an overly broad statement:

    DOWNLOADING music from the Internet is not illegal.

    But that at least seems to be based on what is involved in the lawsuits and not purely on the law or so this next quote seems to say:

    But the fine print of those lawsuits makes clear that fans are being sued not for downloading but for unauthorized distribution: leaving music in a shared folder for other peer-to-peer users to take.

    I understand that the lawsuits have focused on people who have uploaded music and the conventional wisdom is that if you only download you won't get sued.

    So, I am still confused and the article only confused me further

    Cheers,

    Erick

    --
    http://www.busyweather.com/
  6. It's not the computer that steals music... by AcademicRobot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The debate over filesharing networks a close analogy to the gun-control debate. In other words, here they are saying that the means (e.g., guns or file-sharing) are not at fault, it's the motivation (e.g., for violent crime or stealing music). The opposite side of the debate is, of course, if we remove the means, then we disable the criminal.

    I bring this up only to point out how Congress reacts to these types of questions. That is, the means can be held accountable (i.e., gun registration, bans on some firearms). We could see uncontrolled filesharing networks banned based only on how the RIAA is framing the debate.