Free Culture & Piracy
"Overregulation stifles creativity" and "Overregulation corrupts citizens and weakens the rule of law" are two very thought provoking quotes from this weeks reading (Lawrence Lessig "Free Culture..."). I find it very hard to argue with this author because I totally agree with him, it’s a very interesting and fresh view on piracy and so called freedom.
He definitely clearly conveys the truth of the music industry and the war against piracy. Though I wouldn't describe it as a war, like the war on drugs and on terrorism. But it gets across the idea anyway. I don't think piracy could ever be as important as a war on drugs or terrorism, but piracy carries most probably the highest monetary penalties in law for so little offense (compared to murder or rape). It’s completely irrational. The RIAA and MPAA are totally control freaks and bullies, even taking the life savings ($2000US) off a 12-year-old girl to settle a claim. Read the reading and you'll know what I mean.
This is a very American based story, I wonder about the similarities of cases within New Zealand. I think it must be quite slim, as in single consumers being taken to court over downloading a song, I know they have done busts on actual pirating sellers. I also wonder about the percentage of kiwi's illegally downloading/copying pirated material, how many people in this class can say they don't have 1 single illegal MP3, have never taped a show off TV, have never watched a pirated movie or have never recorded music onto another CDR or blank cassette tape?
After reading that great article, here's some links to add to the experience:
Download the PDF version of H. G. Wells "The Country of the Blind" (1911) here. This is the short story mentioned at the beginning of this article, and don't worry this book is public domain, totally legal.
Keep up-to-date with the latest piracy news here. A good news site for keeping up-to-date with news and especially the craziness of the RIAA and MPAA.
Stay up-to-date with the latest pirated releases here. Movie releases here. These are 2 very interesting and useful sites. Use the sections on these site to view the NFO's (information text files) that come with every pirated release. These contain basic source information on the release. It’s also interesting to read the NFO's of pirated media that are released online illegally before the actual public release date, they sometimes include how they did it to some degree. These 2 sites are handy for assignments on piracy and researching the pirated history of a release.
-Karl
He definitely clearly conveys the truth of the music industry and the war against piracy. Though I wouldn't describe it as a war, like the war on drugs and on terrorism. But it gets across the idea anyway. I don't think piracy could ever be as important as a war on drugs or terrorism, but piracy carries most probably the highest monetary penalties in law for so little offense (compared to murder or rape). It’s completely irrational. The RIAA and MPAA are totally control freaks and bullies, even taking the life savings ($2000US) off a 12-year-old girl to settle a claim. Read the reading and you'll know what I mean.
This is a very American based story, I wonder about the similarities of cases within New Zealand. I think it must be quite slim, as in single consumers being taken to court over downloading a song, I know they have done busts on actual pirating sellers. I also wonder about the percentage of kiwi's illegally downloading/copying pirated material, how many people in this class can say they don't have 1 single illegal MP3, have never taped a show off TV, have never watched a pirated movie or have never recorded music onto another CDR or blank cassette tape?
After reading that great article, here's some links to add to the experience:
Download the PDF version of H. G. Wells "The Country of the Blind" (1911) here. This is the short story mentioned at the beginning of this article, and don't worry this book is public domain, totally legal.
Keep up-to-date with the latest piracy news here. A good news site for keeping up-to-date with news and especially the craziness of the RIAA and MPAA.
Stay up-to-date with the latest pirated releases here. Movie releases here. These are 2 very interesting and useful sites. Use the sections on these site to view the NFO's (information text files) that come with every pirated release. These contain basic source information on the release. It’s also interesting to read the NFO's of pirated media that are released online illegally before the actual public release date, they sometimes include how they did it to some degree. These 2 sites are handy for assignments on piracy and researching the pirated history of a release.
-Karl
posted by Anonymous at 12:11 pm
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