By putting feeds from both pro-anti-copyright (read: sympathisers to the anti-copyright movement) websites, pasting a call to save Shareaza, a P2P program “hijacked” by media companies via proxy to ensure its demise, and various other topics of copyright issue, you might have already concluded that I am mostly in favour against the companies chasing after people.
I have surpassed the propaganda regarding the illegality of file-sharing (in which the act should not constitute a criminal offence, because otherwise sharing my picture files to my friends is also considered criminal, by definition), but I also acknowledged the threat of criminal syndicates using piracy as a tool to forward their illegal activities. (This is in regards to a blog post about the bounty on the two anti-piracy dogs, which also diverge on how the same syndicates are pushing pornography as part of the illicit DVD trading — some of which involved child pornography.)
So, wby do I consider these companies’ threats as a credible source for concern?
If you consider the classfication of the various media industry lobby groups — RIAA, MPAA, IFPI, BPI etc. — they bring along the political power to sway government decisions. Already several countries in Europe and in North America are pushing for authoritarian laws that call for censorship of the Internet, capping Internet connectivity due to “heavy usage of the bandwidth,” introducing restrictive technologies that may introduce threatening software into people’s computers, etc. In short, when there is an oligarchy in the political decision-making, you’re bound to have certain civil rights and liberties squashed like ants being stamped onto.
It is necessary that people need to understand this, and ensure that there must be a legitimate checks and balances so that there will not be an abuse of power. The copyright wars is not about protecting the companies’ private interests, or championing the right of composers/artistes/authors to profit their works.
(In that case, however, news have been reported that RIAA, which supposed to champion the rights of music artistes, have been withhelding money made from various litigations with file-sharers, stating “administrative difficulties” in reimbursing the money to affected singers. The state of P2P technology is such that you’ll bound to have thousands of artistes affected by P2P, if not a million. I think it’s another money-grabbing attempt disguised as a legitimate assault against piracy that may or may not inflict any sort of “losses” to these artistes.)
The copyright wars is about retaining these oligarches’ status quo. The Internet has “truly democratise” the people’s wishes and wants, and this will reverberate very violently to businesses still sticking to their autocratic business models.
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