The showdown between the music industry, as represented by the RIAA, and the average music fan who file shares seems have come to a big head this week. There are multiple articles whirling around about the RIAA's lawsuits, about their amnesty program, about ... about... about...
Fred Von Lohmann, senior intellectual property attorney for the EFF, has a well balanced opinion column in the LA Times today that actually proposes solutions that could possibly work for all parties. 'Amnesty' for Music File Sharing Is a Sham:
Here's what the RIAA has proposed as its "solution" to file-sharing: an "amnesty" for file-sharers. Just delete the MP3s you've downloaded, shred those CD-R copies, confess your guilt and, in return, the most change-resistant companies in the nation will give you nothing. Oh, the RIAA promises not to assist copyright owners in suing you. But its major-label members reserve the right to go after you, as do thousands of music publishers and artists like Metallica.
In other words, once you have come forward, you are more vulnerable to a lawsuit, not less. This is more "sham-nesty" than "amnesty." What a waste.
Rather than trying to sue Americans into submission, imagine a real solution for the problem. What if the labels legitimized music swapping by offering a real amnesty for all file-sharing, past, present and future, in exchange for say, $5 a month from each person who steps forward?
Additional links to the EFF:
The Electronic Frontier Foundation's "File Sharing: It's Music to our ears"
I wanted to post this to a previous file sharing blog entry but the nwfusion site was down for some reason.
RIAA has already lost the fight and is thrashing around in the digital quicksand of the internet. If it can be reporduced in a digital format, its free for the taking by anyone with a computer and access to the internet. Software makers have had to contend with this fact for decades and have gone to exhaustive lengths to curb software piracy.
For every Kazaa there are a dozen other products operating below RIAA's radar. Long before Napster and still today, warez sites, newsgroups and irc provide access to endless supply of digital media not just MP3s.
The internet was once described to congress as the wild west, a lawless frontier. The internet once was a place for the free exchange of information and ideas and though the corporate world has made strides to change it, old habits die hard.
BTW, here's the link:
http://www.nwfusion.com/columnists/2003/0714backspin.html
by the way, if it is not clear from the email, i am advocating a complete and permanent boycott of the RIAA and a complete shift to p2p file trading networks.
this is a copy of an email i sent to the electronic frontier foundation (eff)
----- Original Message -----
From:
To:
Sent: Saturday, January 24, 2004 8:18 AM
Subject: drastic action on riaa lawsuits
> i have a solution on how to appropriately respond to the excessively unfair lawsuits by the riaa. this is by boycotting the purchase of cd's from the record companies involved. if this is done in an effective way, it will do more to change the outcome of the lawsuits that anything that happens inside or outside the courtroom. my hope is that this would be the final blow against the record industry who will then finally be forced to change their economic model towards embracing the internet the way it is possible and of most benefit to consumers and society in general. i am trying to publicized this boycott. you are welcome to view my blog at:
>
> http://ganga_na.tripod.com/persephone/
>
> the latest entry entitled "The Napster Wars" describes my ideas regarding the current industry model and a boycott if the lawsuits ever go forward. my ideal time for going forward with such a boycott is the moment the first judgment is entered against the first person being sued. that would give time to organize and give the whole movement a sense of poetic justice. i am trying to work on this idea with as many organizations as is possible and appropriate. if you are not able to go along with this boycott, that is fine but you may be caught red-faced on the sidelines while it moves forward knowing that you could have participated and made it have even more of an impact. The choice is your but i think you' ll agree as i do that a boycott of the music industry is the best action to take in retaliation to the riaa lawsuits against consumers.
>
> -(~)
>