Socio-political Rants
The [RIAA] invoked a 1998 digital-copyright law to force Internet providers such as Verizon Communications to turn over suspects’ names…… but the law does not apply to peer-to-peer networks, where infringing material is stored on individual hard drives rather than public Web sites, the appeals court said.
Court Throws Out Net Music Legal Tactics
Oh, and here is my little rant on the legalities and realities of downloading.. I like this bit so much, I figure I should repost it.
I could put anything in my hard drive to share, I happen to choose music that I liked. Napster had nothing to do with that decision. It’s like suing and winning against the person who built the road because someone else got drunk and crashed their car.
Anyway, the whole legal argument just falls apart if you go through precedent cases. Under the US and most first world country law we are allowed to use the recording technologies available (tape, video, just under the legalese “Computer and Internet” is not included) to make copies and distribute it as long as there is no profit made. So it’s perfectly legal for me to make a 1000 copy of anything and send it to my friends.
Therefore when I hook myself up on Napster, Kazaa, and all those “Peer to Peer” networks, legally I can. Who is to say, that stranger down in Australia is NOT my friend. (He or she is giving me music, which is more than I can say for some people I know.) It’s just a matter of technology expanding and the users having power over distribution that the companies are having problem with. It’s just the “Scale” of it that’s different. The “Concept” is exactly the same.
Yan Sham-Shackleton Online 