from "SIVACRACY.NET" - Siva Vaidhyanathan's Weblog

Monday, June 21, 2004
Response to a Senate Staffer
http://sivacracy.net/

Recently I received a request from someone on the staff of a U.S. Senator
who is rather supportive of Hollywood and its attempts to crush p2p file
sharing. She asked me to give a few comments about the fairness of the p2p
phenomenon. Here is part of what I wrote to her:


I have too much to say about p2p. And my opinions are beyond the pro and
con simplifications that get laid out in newspapers.

Suffice it to say that p2p system are not the only way people share
copyrighted works without compensation. E-mail does that as well. I am
sure you have forwarded someone a newspaper story via e-mail, thus
violating copyright. If you communicate, you copy.

Copyright is by design a leaky regulatory system. If the leaks are too
big, copyright fails to generate incentives. If they are too small,
copyright fails to allow for democratic creativity and sharing – the
essence of culture. So managing leaks is important. But freaking out about
them is counterproductive. So far, the content industries have been better
at freaking than managing. And we are all worse off because of that.

So I am not a supporter of those who hope to profit from these p2p
systems. There are plenty of non-commercial systems that music fans would
flock to if the commercial ones went dark. And besides, computers, CD
burners, and cable modems all play integral parts in the file-sharing
system. No single industry should shoulder the blame for this phenomenon.
Sony, for instance, makes computers, CD burners, and MP3 players. And it
sells movies and music. So the situation is far from simple.

The best way to approach this issue is through serious and sincere ethical
deliberation. That means avoiding harsh moralizing, threats of criminal or
civil action, and blunt technological moves that will only create more
problems and ill-will. The goal should be flourishing democratic culture
and creativity. It should not be the artificial support of poorly run
media companies. Nor should it be the unfettered proliferation of machines
and code for the sake of more machines and code. We must be modest and
patient – an unpopular stance in this age of extremes.

posted by Siva | 10:25