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Q & A With Canada's Michael Geist
Torrentz writes "P2PNet is running a question and answer session with Canada's Michael Geist, a leading Internet and copyright expert. Geist discusses P2P, the music business, and the future direction of
copyright law." From the interview: "My focus has traditionally been on Internet issues and I'm very active on privacy, spam, Internet governance issues. The growing attention to copyright merely reflects its critical importance to the Internet and to creativity and culture more generally."
He's a law professor and holds a chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law. How much more of an expert do you want?
"It is possible to commit no errors and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life." -Peak Performance
Nobody says he has better opinions than you. But being a law professor and with his CV, he probably does have special knowledge, and he apparently performs quite skillfully. So his opinions might not be better, but his facts are likely to be a lot better, and he probably knows a lot more about the entire legal aspect than you (and most people) do.
"It is possible to commit no errors and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life." -Peak Performance
Geist actually holds a prestigious Canada Research Chair.
These are national research chairs, and very hard to get.
I don't know about you. But as another poster notes, the CRCs are very hard to get. I've read some of Geist's stuff, and he's not stupid. He does know what he's talking about, he just talks about it from a legal perspective, (he does commentary), and his own perspective. and do you know what? I'd be really, really surprised if he DOESN'T know everything you laid out. He does work with the technology. He does understand how it can be used. But he is, first and formost, a lawyer and a commentator, not a techie. And if you can't get the fact that maybe he's just as smart as you are, but coming at it from a different angle through your head, you're too stupid to complain that he should shut his mouth. I'd ask you to do the same, but your foot is already in it.
"It is possible to commit no errors and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life." -Peak Performance
Mr. Geist, your expertise with Internet Copyright Law seems to have the momentum of a runaway frieght train. Why are you so popular?
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Reading the article, I am struck by the common sense he exhibits. I have to say this whole P2P thing really needs to be sorted out - it is consuming far too many resources.
;-).
As I think back to when I was younger, the way those of use with little disposable income got our music was to record it off the radio. I would wait anxiously for the Thursday night countdown so I could try to get a recording of my favorite songs. Of course we didn't have nonlinear digital editing tools (or even crude analog editing tools) so invariably there would be a DJ yammering (and sometimes other room sounds) on my recorded music. And I became the master of the 70's fadeout, turning down the volume of the radio near the end of the song, trying to end the recording gracefully before the DJ chimed in. Anyhow, it strikes me that the big difference between then and now was that, while I could get (inferior quality) free music, I couldn't easily share it with others, though occassionally I would get together with friends and let them copy my recordings (and vice versa). Oh, and when I got a few sheckles together I would buy the 45 of my favorite songs, and over time built a decent collection (decent in size, not quality
So this makes me wonder if we need to change the P2P universe somehow. I just don't think the current system is sustainable over the long-term. To me the "problem" is massive sharing. I personally believe this goes beyond the concept of "fair use". I don't think there are many people who consider it a crime for me to loan a friend a CD (or a book or a DVD for that matter). If we could extend that model somehow to P2P, keeping it easy to share with people we have "direct contact" with, but more difficult to share with people on another continent, I think that would be a more balanced approach. And of course there would be nothing stopping artists from distributing their stuff broadly if they so chose. I could almost imagine "content-playing machines" exchanging some sort of key or token via some non-remotable physical interface, thereby allowing those machines to share content with each other. Sounds Orwellian, I know, but it would maintain the "fair use" aspects while inhibiting massive sharing.
The more you regulate a company, the worse its products become.
OK, I can name at least one thing wrong with that statement. (Hint: there's no Canadian association of anything American).