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BitTorrent May Be Next
From the Washington Post, BitTorrent may be the next target in the fight against file-swapping. Speaking as somebody who just recently tried out BitTorrent, I'm a new believer. If they take out BitTorrent (and just how would that happen, anyway?) next up will be FTP and HTTP. It's a nonsensical position the court has put us in. The state of copyright law is not so good nowadays. Let's dig in just a little further.
Amazon.com is getting sued as well. Why? Because when people type in searches, up comes adult content from the web on their screen. So you think the people are suing Amazon? Not at all. It's the adult content providers, suing for copyright infringement. An editorial from the economist print edition points out that content creation is not as difficult as it has been in the past, and perhaps laws should be changed to reflect this.
I have very mixed feelings about all of this. As a programmer, writer, and musician, I understand that without copyright protection a lot of what I do wouldn't happen. Or maybe it's more accurate to say it wouldn't happen the way it used to happen.
My feeling, as a technologist, is that the world has moved on. Every now and then the fundamental structure of reality shifts. This is one of those times. I'm not sure how the legal battle will go, or how long it will take for the rest of the political world to catch up, but content creation and sharing is not the same as it was in the 80s. Likewise, digital imaging, sound, and storage means that experiencing an event and recording an event are going to be the same thing.
We can have all kinds of discussions about how many angels can dance on the tip of a needle -- and it's going to be just as useful a conversation as what to do with the legal system regarding copyright law. The world has moved on. We'll need to catch up or get run over.
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Not to nitpick...but it is how many angels on the head of a pin, not the tip of a needle! OUCH!!!
As for BitTorrent, I have mixed feelings. If you are simply getting shows you could have watched on Cable/Satellite or regular tv had you always had the time to sit and watch them when they were on, I see no problem with it. However, getting movies before they are released in theaters or while they are still in the theater or just out on DVD, but not run on mainstream tv, seems wrong to me. I mean...Hollywood employs a lot of people, not just actors and those people have to be paid.