I love reading about the piracy wars. I’m a proponent of non-commercial piracy. Anything that takes money away from corrupt institutions is something I support. The music and movie industries have long enaged in price-fixing and market manipulation to the detriment of the rest of us, the people who are expected to pony up our hard-earned money for these created desires. I say download anything you want regardless of what they say. People know best what is right and wrong.
- General update on the ‘piracy’ wars. RIAA is having conniptions. Fuck ’em. People’s expectations are changing. They are being enlightened and empowered by technology. If you can hear something you can make an mp3 of it.
- RIAA trying to go after individual file sharers. They’re getting desperate. People will meet in person if they need to, to share files. We need to supplement the global internet with local area networks to prevent snooping by these organizations. There’s very little they could do to prevent infringement on a smaller level.
- DOJ to swappers: Law’s not on your side. Big Brother to get in on the action at the behest of their paymasters. During his confirmation hearing in June 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft told Congress that “given the fact that much of America’s strength in the world economy is a result of our being the developer and promoter of most of the valuable software, we cannot allow the assets that are held electronically to be pirated or infringed. And so we will make a priority of cybercrime issues.” This is an attempt to put the brakes on societal change. Christopher Cookson, executive vice president of Warner Bros. and another panelist, said there was “a need for governments to step in and maintain order in society.”