Date: 22 Jan 2004 23:09:23 -0500
To: rms@gnu.org
Subject: Biz press attacks copyright!?

You've probably seen this.. but in case no one has passed this on
before me, the URL and the article are enclosed below (Update on
uPangea, later this weekend :-) Harel

http://money.cnn.com/2004/01/22/commentary/wastler/wastler/index.htm

Sticking it to swappers

If it works for music, will strong arm legal tactics work elsewhere, too?

January 22, 2004: 1:52 PM EST 

The pinstriped phantom appeared out of nowhere and stapled a
"Swapper!" sign to my chest.

"Okay buddy, here's your subpoena. Now follow me for your trial."

Huh? How'd this happen?

I did like I do every morning. I got off the train and I threw my
newspaper on top of the garbage can -- not into the garbage-slot
proper -- to give folks waiting on the platform something to read.

A share-the-love, good karma thing, right?

Wrong.

"Hey," I tried to explain. "I paid for that newspaper!"

"Right," replied the jack-booted legal phantasm. "But that doesn't
give you the right to redistribute it. Others want it? They can buy
their own paper! You're no better than a dirty music-file swapper." He
slapped on handcuffs and started pulling me down a long, dark,
supernatural corridor.

"It's not like I copied it or something!" I protested.

"Oh, we got her too," he said with a smirk, motioning toward a
librarian-type lady being escorted down the hall by a ghostly
prosecutor of her own.

"All I did was Xerox a recipe," she pleaded.

My ghoul was gleeful. "Thank God for the Recording Industry
Association of America. They showed us the way! You sue average Joes
and Janes in a high-profile bust-up and ... shazam! The crime dries
up."

He had a point. 

http://money.cnn.com/2004/01/22/commentary/wastler/wastler/media_matrix3.gif

After the RIAA first started suing individuals for illegally swapping
music over the Internet -- using peer-to-peer systems like KaZaa, for
example -- the number of people pirating music dropped by half, from
35 million to 18 million, according to a study by the Pew Internet
Project.

"If it worked for music, it'll work for other things ... like
newspaper pass-along artists," my prosecutor smirked. "Or," he pointed
at a group of teenagers being herded along the corridor, "like people
who find one person with an HBO subscription ... AND THEN THROW A 'SEX
IN THE CITY' PARTY SO THEY CAN WATCH FOR FREE!"

The kids cringed.

"OR ..." he turned his rage onto a mother and her kids morosely
walking ahead of us, "people who buy one refillable soda at a
restaurant, AND END UP SHARING IT WITH EVERYONE AT THE TABLE!"

I couldn't help being a smart ass. 

"But isn't dragging all these people into court going to cost a lot?"
I asked.

"The RIAA showed us cost and hassle don't matter. Their second wave of
lawsuits this week has to use a cumbersome subpoena process, sure. But
if it pays off like the first set of suits did, it'll be worth
it. Remember that Pew study -- 17 million dropped out of the piracy
game the first time around."

We came to a long line of people, no doubt waiting for their turn
before the court.

"Okay, people may fear the stick," I conceded. "But couldn't the
dropoff also be due, at least in part, to the availability of
relatively easy, cheap, and legal ways to get music online? I mean
Napster, iTunes and others weren't really into full swing until last
fall. Maybe the music industry needed to concentrate on the carrot end
all along?"

My ghostly prosecutor ignored my question and surveyed the line ahead.

"This may be a long wait," he muttered.

"Got a paper?" I asked. 

Allen Wastler is managing editor of CNN/Money and a commentator on
CNNfn

----------------------------------------

http://money.cnn.com/services/pressroom/awastler/

Allen Wastler
Managing Editor

Managing Editor Allen Wastler runs our New York newsroom and is a
regular on CNNfn's Money Morning program. His online column, Wastler's
Wanderings, is one of the site's most popular features.

Wastler joined what was then CNNfn.com, in May 1997 as a producer and
was later promoted to supervising producer. He was named managing
editor in August 1999. Before joining CNNfn.com, he was an editor and
writer for The Journal of Commerce, a daily business newspaper owned
by the Economist.

Wastler earned a bachelor's degree in writing from John Hopkins
University and a master's degree in business from the University of
San Francisco.