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Court Action Does Not Reduce File-Sharing
gollum123 wrote to mention a BBC report that despite numerous court cases, litigation does not appear to be reducing the amount of file-sharing. From the article: "The level of file-sharing has remained the same for two years despite 20,000 legal cases in 17 countries. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industries (IFPI) said it was 'containing" the problem and more people were connecting to broadband."
True, the level has stayed the same .. but perhaps without the lawsuits and FUD campaign the amount of file sharing would have grown?
The number of users of iTunes and iPods music devices has increased, why hasnt the level of file sharing? Seems either lawsuits worked, or people prefer convenience of using the itunes store. I dont think it's healthy for the lawsuit factor should be blindly dismissed as ineffective.
The point I actually want to make is we have to be objective and have to know where the threats are. After all, no point in ignoring something that might be true. Maybe counter FUD is needed, or better file sharing methods?
Copyright was never about the experience, it was always about the product. They want a copyright on the experience of something; afterall, the Eifel tower is an experience and it's copywritten, as is times square in new york. You can't take pictures of it; security guards will forcibly confiscate the film. Same goes for a number of other things in America.
;)
Copyright was always for the profitable production of various works; works being vynle records, tape casetts, music rolls, ect. It's come to the point where it's now on the experience of something, which it was never meant to be. But pioneering judges and profiteering politicians have sold their power for profit and in their attempt to gain an income, have sold off nearly all of their vested commodity.
Frankly, if you're sharing music, you aren't a bad guy. If you're on the streets of Chicago selling burned CD's and harddrives full of various works then yeah, your but should be busted because you're selling a product, not sharing an experience.
It may seem sad to some that we now have been spoiled by this technology. Frankly, technology has brought us closer together, and we have now nearly reached the ultimate goal copyright set out to achieve; a technology that lets everyone produce and spread experiences and media, for free. The new market, undoubtedly, will be for experience preservation. 89 cents to buy an MP3 is a bad business model; 89cents to gain access to someone's perminant music preservation service and $50 to order a hyper-long-lasting recording of it is going to be the new business model. Because of gnutella, I now have access to a breath and depth of information never before realized, and in the future, it will only exponentially increase. I can now hit a few websites and get enough books to last me for the rest of my life if I read them back to back, in mabye 2 or 3 days.
The recording industry cannot compete with technology so they've tried to destroy technology, and have thus far failed and will fail. The cost of producing media and experience has gone down and down and as it does we get closer to living in a completly virtualised and created reality with created experiences and created ideas.
Ownership and property will become obsolete. I look foward to the ultimate ego/identity dissolution experience it will be. Of course, there will be those who will refuse the change and will lead a path of destroying themselves and will try to drag everyone else under them. That's the basic idea behind revelations.
If we've got a problem with filesharing, wait until someone figures out a way to make a home-fabrication machine the size of a car that can produce anything a machinist can.