09.27.02
Script Kitties Rejoice – High Tech P2P Arms Race Looms
Congress yesterday (Sept. 26) heard testimony from major record labels seeking permission to use electronic sabotage tactics on the p2p file trading networks they feel are ruining their business, as stated in this article.
This is what caught my eye:
But some lawmakers worried that overzealous copyright enforcement measures could end up targeting innocent computer users, and said they did not want to encourage a high-tech game of cat and mouse that could easily get out of hand. “What are the implications for the Internet’s functionality when the inevitable arms race develops?” asked Virginia Democratic Rep. Rick Boucher.
We’ve already seen the inability for the record industry to develop a secure, uncopiable format – the SDMI project is a failure. There are tens of thousands of geeks living in their parents basements (and I say that with the utmost love and respect) just waiting for the next challenge. If the RIAA and the people they represent think that they can get into an all out coding-crap storm with these people and come out on top, they’re wrong. These are highly skilled, highly motivated people with no social life to distract them from their mission. Given the choice between a corporate shill and a passionate phreaker, I’ll choose the phreaker every time. God bless him and his unshowered demeaner.
Toward the end of the article I think they offer a better solution:
Steve Griffin, who watched from the audience as lawmakers and witnesses castigated his Morpheus peer-to-peer service, said Congress would do better to establish a per-song royalty rate to compensate copyright holders, rather than endorsing high-tech warfare between record labels and peer-to-peer networks.
Yep – instead of trying to destroy the thing, it would be much wiser to try and use this new technology to your own ends. Would it be easy? No. Would it be a battle that the record labels and the artists they represent might be capable of winning? Yes.
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