What is this "due process" thing all about

Originally uploaded by kdborden86

The Motion Picture Association of America said Friday intellectual-property holders should have the right to collect damages, perhaps as much as $150,000 per copyright violation, without having to prove infringement.

“It is often very difficult, and in some cases, impossible, to provide such direct proof when confronting modern forms of copyright infringement, whether over P2P networks or otherwise; understandably, copyright infringers typically do not keep records of infringement,” MPAA attorney Marie L. van Uitert wrote Friday to the federal judge overseeing the Jammie Thomas trial. [Wired]

The theory almost makes sense.

The MPAA… told Judge Davis that peer-to-peer users automatically should be liable for infringement. “The only purpose for placing copyrighted works in the shared folder is, of course, to ‘share,’ by making those works available to countless other P2P networks,” the MPAA wrote.

Saw it at the Consumerist.

What is a hero?

The gentleman pictured right is Thomas J. Tauke, executive vice president for public affairs at Verizon. He may look like the love child of Don Rickles and Voyager’s “Doctor”, but just at this moment he looks like a hero to me.

“Hollywood” (by which the New York Times means “the entertainment industry”) has been asking the big players in home internet service to “stand alongside them in their fight against online piracy” (by which they mean “monitor what your customers download and tattle on ’em if it’s our music and movies”).

The big players in home internet service, for their part, have seen where their civic duty lies (by which I mean “quake in fear of Congressional oversight bought and paid for by the entertainment industry”). Comcast is reportedly going so far as to actually alter the data the user thinks he’s downloading with the intent of making torrented (by which they mean “illegal”) material download so slowly that it won’t be worth the time.

“AT&T …is talking about developing a system that would identify and block illicitly copied material being sent over its broadband network,” says the Times. By which AT&T means “We still remember what happened the last time somebody said ‘boo’ to us.” Or, more succinctly, “You got it, boss.”

But Verizon, through its spokesman Mr Tauke, says this: “We generally are reluctant to get into the business of examining content that flows across our networks and taking some action as a result of that content.” By which, surprisingly enough, he appears to mean “No.”

Yes, there’s a healthy percentage of self-interest in his reasons. But at least the customer’s privacy is on the list. It may not be the reason, but it’s a reason.

(See also the Consumerist.)

Happy Public Domain Day!

music piracy
Originally uploaded by Slider22.

Boing Boing and Copyright Watch are celebrating Public Domain Day, or January 1 as the rest of us call it. As of today in the United States, the unpublished works of authors who died 70 years ago will enter the public domain.

Just imagine what nuggets of literature must reside in that collection.

As for me, I’m thinking, as I so often do during the holidays, of that besieged agency that fights for the rights and money of musicians everywhere, the Recording Industry Association of America. Seeing that millions of American music consumers no longer know what they can legally do with the CDs they’ve bought or received for Christmas, the RIAA, with its lawsuit against Jammie Thomas, has clarified its position beyond any possibility of misunderstanding.

What can I legally do with this CD I just bought?

Why, you can listen to it on a CD player.

Can I copy it to…

Nope.

But wait. I didn’t tell you how I was going to copy it, or where.

Doesn’t matter. You can’t copy it. At all. Period.

But I got this new iPod for Christmas…

My, yes, that is a handsome model. I’ll bet it sounds terrific.

I wouldn’t know, there’s no music on it.

That’s a shame.

I’d like to listen to these songs.

You can.

But you just said…

All you have to do is buy them from iTunes.

But I bought the CD!

*blank expression* Yeah?

So I thought I’d copy the songs to…

Ah ah ah. That would be stealing.

But I bought the CD!

But you didn’t buy a license to make a digital copy of the music.

But I bought the CD!

You keep using that word, “bought”.
I don’t think it means what you think it means.

Welcome to music in the 21st century.