On Thu, 19 Sep 2002, Ron Harwood wrote:
> I'm sure that the legal/ethical problems stem from the fact that people
> use kazaa/napster/gnutella/etc to trade pirated intellectual property...
> and the companies that create the software and maintain the
> infrastructure are seen as promoting said piracy...
Sorry for the following rant, but if it is possible to convince the
original presenters to go forward as planned, then it will be worth it.
Could you forward this message to them?
If anyone wants to continue to debate this, please go to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] as I suspect this is off topic for the CLUE
admin forum.
Many of the supposedly 'illegal' forms of file sharing, such as
copyright music, are not illegal in all countries. In Canada the private
copying of music is already paid for with the Private Copying tax and thus
is legal.
The assumption that "a copy made is one less copy paid for" is also a
bogus statement. The alternative to making a copy without paying for it
is more likely to not make a copy at all. In many cases, especially for
entertainment industries, there is more benefit received by the copyright
holder to having the information shared without paying than not shared at
all. This is a form of free advertising.
Rather than assume that the problem is with the not-for-profit private
copying of works under copyright, it may be that the business model of the
copyright holder is at fault. I believe this is the case for the
entertainment industries who wish to have all ICT tools crippled to their
benefit. If they aren't willing to accept the risks publishing information
using ICT tools into the home, then they should simply not release their
works into the new home market.
Which side of this debate is unethical is itself up for debate. I
happen to believe the ethical problems are with these mega-media
middle-men (Recording Industry, Motion Picture distribution) trying to
take control over our communications tools. Talk to Jack "the ripper"
Valenti about VCR's and you'll find out what unethical is - his attempts
to have our home entertainment equipment be under his control rather than
under the owners control.
It is too bad that software developers are now being convinced by these
folks that it is what the developers are doing that is wrong, rather than
the business models and ethics of these publishers that may be wrong.
I'm not saying these issues are easy - I am saying exactly the opposite,
and the public debate needs to continue.
P.S. Send those folks to http://www.digital-copyright.ca/ if they have an
interest in such things. Maybe we could convince the original folks to
attend the conference as planned.
---
Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
See http://weblog.flora.ca/ for announcements, activities, and opinions
Submission to Innovation Strategy | No2Violence in Politics
http://www.flora.ca/innovation-2002.shtml | http://www.no-dot.ca/
