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-Caveat Lector- The Daily Texan - Opinion
Issue: 9/1/04
Bill attacks Kazaa, independent media
By Brian Boyko
Last Wednesday, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced"Operation Digital Gridlock," - which targeted five alleged file-sharers, and the next day, he announced "Operation Web Snare," which took aim at other alleged computer criminals.
This new emphasis on computer crime from the Justice Department may have something to do with the recent 9th District Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in the MGM v. Grokster case. Less than a week before Ashcroft started talking about "cybercrime," the 9th Circuit - the same court that shut down Napster [the very court just dismantled by Republican vote]- decided Aug. 19 that file-sharing application manufacturers Grokster and Streamcast could not be held liable for the copyright infringement of their users.
The ruling was based partially on the precedent of Sony v. Betamax, which established that a technological device that has both legitimate and copyright infringing uses (for example, a VCR) is not itself illegal, even if people could potentially use it for illegal acts.
In the case of peer-to-peer technology, there are plenty of examples of non-infringing uses. Established bands such as Wilco use peer-to-peer in order to increase publicity, local bands use it to increase exposure to a wider audience, and small filmmakers use it to bypass the theater distribution chain.
But perhaps more significantly, peer-to-peer is an efficient and effective method of distributing news.
Last Saturday in Manhattan, political activist Joshua Kinsburg, was arrested while demonstrating an invention for MSNBC reporter Ron Reagan. The video of his arrest was made available on the Internet via BitTorrent technology.
BitTorrent allows users to distribute or download large files over limited bandwidth using peer-to-peer networking.
Whether or not you agree with Kinsburg's message or methods, the First Amendment implications of the new technology are significant.
Through peer-to-peer technology, not only can we get more information and enable smaller media - like college television stations - to increase their distribution to a wider audience, we can also solve more immediate problems.
New York University unveiled a public beta of its web caching peer-to-peer program called "Coral" last Saturday. Coral uses the same general idea behind BitTorrent to enable access to Web sites even when the server is overloaded by distributing the bandwidth among many peers instead of a single server. This is a boon to smaller Web sites, including small newspapers and alternative press.
The idea that smaller press might soon be able to offer more choice and more information than the hyper-consolidated big media should be cause for celebration.
But big-media consolidation is incredibly good for the party currently in power. When there are only a handful of media organizations - most of them slacking off in their job to report the news - it is far easier for the powerful to manipulate the media than when there are a large variety of diverse voices and a large number of investigating reporters.
The decision of the 9th Circuit established that peer-to-peer applications like BitTorrent and Coral are legal according to copyright law. So, having lost the case on its merits, the media companies have decided to try to change the law.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who received $168,928 in campaign contributions from television, movie, and music companies for the 2004 fund-raising cycle, is currently pushing a bill called the "Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act of 2004" - formerly known as the INDUCE Act. Superficially, it would make file-trading networks based on peer-to-peer technologies expressly illegal.
But it is written in such a way that it could make almost any device that could potentially violate copyright - including VCR technology as well as CD burners and MP3 players - illegal. This would have a chilling effect on the development of peer-to-peer technologies, and therefore a chilling effect on speech.
The IICA puts an end to technologies that have been a thorn in the side of entertainment conglomerates for decades, it kills the current distribution competitor to the entertainment oligopoly in the form of peer-to-peer software, and it prevents potential future technologies from threatening the stranglehold big media has on the current distribution network. Obviously, it's a good thing for big media corporations.
But the worst part of the IICA is that it creates yet another obstacle for independent media, which is good for those in power who don't want to answer to the press.
Boyko is a journalism graduate student.
www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Om
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