I read an article the other day that a 60-yr-old grandmother is being sued by the RIAA for downloading some songs from some soundtrack of a movie that she would, in no way, ever watch. Obviously, I forgot the songs and the movie but I do remember it was a remake of some older action/violent movie that at her age she has no interest in.
Anyway, she does have a pre-teen/teenage grandson that swears to his grandmother he didn't download the files - yeah, right! Anyway, she is from the lower-income side of town and cannot fight this fight (they want like $10K) but a pro-bono lawyer is taking on the fight for her.
To an extent, I can see how a person that is sharing copyrighted-stab-you-in-the-ass-rake-you-over-the-coals music files can get in trouble but I find it hard to understand the full legitimacy of pursuing the "downloader".
It's like going to the grocery store and seeing those samples in the meat/deli section. They are out there on display. Granted you would have to purchase an entire loaf, roast or whatever but THEY have put out pieces of the whole. So, if you were to grab enough of the pieces to make a whole, would they charge you for it or pursue legal action against you?
I know. I know. The store put out the pieces and an individual is putting out the pieces of the CD. That's getting too specific and I lacked a better example.
I think you get the point. The point is why should the downloader be punished for what is made available by someone else? The downloader hasn't done anything illegal. It's not illegal to download any type of file by legal methods. Kazaa, LimeWire, BearShare and others are not illegal software. They are fully legit products for P2P file sharing, is it their (companies) fault that it may or may not be used to share copyrighted music? I think not!
I'm sure we could go on and on, back and forth about this whole file-sharing stuff but my opinion remains that the downloader should not be held accountable for downloading the files shared by someone else unless they in turn share the files. Yes, which that is technically the whole purpose...the more people who have the file(s) the faster the download will be.
The future holds for us scenes like in Johnny Mnemonic or The Matrix...super, high-tech, black market-type file-sharing. Good times ahead for all!
Anyway, she does have a pre-teen/teenage grandson that swears to his grandmother he didn't download the files - yeah, right! Anyway, she is from the lower-income side of town and cannot fight this fight (they want like $10K) but a pro-bono lawyer is taking on the fight for her.
To an extent, I can see how a person that is sharing copyrighted-stab-you-in-the-ass-rake-you-over-the-coals music files can get in trouble but I find it hard to understand the full legitimacy of pursuing the "downloader".
It's like going to the grocery store and seeing those samples in the meat/deli section. They are out there on display. Granted you would have to purchase an entire loaf, roast or whatever but THEY have put out pieces of the whole. So, if you were to grab enough of the pieces to make a whole, would they charge you for it or pursue legal action against you?
I know. I know. The store put out the pieces and an individual is putting out the pieces of the CD. That's getting too specific and I lacked a better example.
I think you get the point. The point is why should the downloader be punished for what is made available by someone else? The downloader hasn't done anything illegal. It's not illegal to download any type of file by legal methods. Kazaa, LimeWire, BearShare and others are not illegal software. They are fully legit products for P2P file sharing, is it their (companies) fault that it may or may not be used to share copyrighted music? I think not!
I'm sure we could go on and on, back and forth about this whole file-sharing stuff but my opinion remains that the downloader should not be held accountable for downloading the files shared by someone else unless they in turn share the files. Yes, which that is technically the whole purpose...the more people who have the file(s) the faster the download will be.
The future holds for us scenes like in Johnny Mnemonic or The Matrix...super, high-tech, black market-type file-sharing. Good times ahead for all!
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