DOJ takes P2P legislation with 'grain of salt'

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Re: say goodbye to my freedom

The tragedy is that a lot more people feel the way you do than ever before. The more technology empowers individuals, the more heavy-handed legislators have to be to protect the interests of their sponsors. Laws like the DMCA and the Copyright Extension Act may enrich the industries that wrote them and paid for them to be enacted. But when laws are seen to go against the public good and favor certain parties, they engender contempt and disrespect for the law.

It wasn't always this way. In the past, when copyright came up against new technology, legislators always saw the good in the new technology and copyright gave way. From the player piano through radio, television and the VCR, all new technologies of mass media were seen as threats to copyright holders.

Cable TV 40 years ago, for example, was not that far different from the networks' point of view than P2P technology is today for the record companies. When the networks went to Congress to get protection, they were told to chill out and, oh, by the way, consider yourselves compelled to license your content to the pirates. Presto, no more pirates. Suddenly cable TV was legit.

Of course, over the years cable morphed from a simple pipe for broadcast outlets to become a major producer of original programming itself. Now the networks have a lot more competition for eyeballs than probably they care to have. But aren't we better off for the compulsory licensing solution to the piracy problem?

One can understand how, after seeing the sun set on the networks, the record companies don't want to go down the same road. What's hard to understand is how Congress would become hardened to the public good - declare war on the public threatening "tens of thousands of legal actions" until the public is cowed - when it has the option of telling the recording industry to chill out and, oh, by the way, consider yourselves compelled to license your content to the pirates.

Wouldn't we be better off? Wouldn't Congress be better off? Wouldn't there be more respect for the law, especially copyright law? I think so on all counts.

I don't want to have to think about what TV would be like if cable was stopped in its tracks the way lawmakers seem to want today's new technology to be stopped. Wake up, Congress!


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Posted by: none none   Posted on: 08/23/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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