Consumer Web Access Could Be Shut Down For Sharing Illegal Content

Have you ever downloaded a song or movie without paying for it? Maybe you thought it wasn't really stealing because when you think about it, music seems like its free right? You hear it in your car, free right? In stores while you shop, free right? At the restaurants and clubs...all free right?

Not on your life. Music is not free. Most of the music you hear is paid for whether its on the radio or in a store, you may not be aware of this because as you run around in your day, music is being gifted to you. What you don't realize is the Recording Industry is losing billions in sales because that 'gift' of music somehow actively encourages unlawful peer-to-peer file swapping. Individual sense of entitlement creeps in and Record companies are big ugly money mongers anyways, right?

A new 3-way piracy system recently implemented in France is about the change everything. This groundbreaking agreement between ISPs, the French government and the music and film industries puts France at the forefront of an intense battle on piracy. Basically, if a user has high traffic file sharing, s/he would be reported to an enforcement body, after the third warning the user would no longer have access to the web. Sound scary? It does to me. I can't imagine a life without the web.

I'd have to say one must give Kudos to President Nicolas Sarkozy who backed the plan despite getting some heat from his own parliament about infringement of civil liberties. Somehow, I can't fully understand that, so one should have right to steal music and movies? How does that infringe on civil liberties?

As an Artist myself, I want to see support from consumers of the Art that takes so much time, energy and heart to create. It's that old unquenchable appetite, that human desire for possession that turns blind to respectful, restrained consumerism. So, what does all this wanton exploitation really mean? Well, I think, that is a whole another conversation but for now thank God someone is doing something to perseve the integrity of Art.

Comments

[rowenacherry]

Thank you, Mira Veda, for stimulating a very useful and interesting discussion.

Authors of books have been watching the woes of the music industry for some time, (I'm an author). Many of the same arguments apply, I imagine, but in the authors' case, the book is the only product, book sales are the only source of income.

Authors aren't paid to give the literary equivalent of a rock concert. Imagine!

Anyway, I am enjoying this discussion.

Best wishes,
Rowena Cherry

[MrsManarlican]

I was watching the History of Rock and Roll and many of the artists interviewed said that the major labels being bought out by corporations in the seventies brought upon the music listening public the horror of disco and the downfall of real artistry as we know it. Now they are leading us to believe that downloading a few songs, for which the actual artist would only have made pennies while the labels themselves pocketed millions, is some sort of immoral act punishable by internet death or something. I am sick and tired of corporations weaseling every hard-earned dollar out of me. If the artist wants to get paid for the songs I may or may not download, they should provide their personal address so that I can send a check directly to them to pay for my "gift." I would rather pay the artist than a weaseling fat cat in some corporate office park smoking cigars and drinking liquor that cost more than my weekly paycheck.

[drblack]

I use file sharing and NEVER steal music. I want to pay the artists I like.
The music being offered by record labels and promoted on radio, TV etc is trash.
Music produced by record labels died a slow death at the hands of MTV.
There is so much great music being offered for free for those who aren't sheep.
The best and most creative cutting edge art is always from the underground.

[realitytrumpsbull]

I think they're looking for a reason to shut
down the Internets anyway...

[Crowhaul]

France wants to guarrantee that the middle class continue to be the consumer class, pure and simple.

Big business needs you to be the consumer you are meant to be and how dare you think otherwise...

[Pandu]

I don't like 99.9% of the music that I happen to hear at the gas station or in stores. This music is not a gift; it's pollution.

[OneFish]

private share groups and encrypted content will put an end to the issue of snoops on the wire

[Sundialsvc4]

When I see every imaginable song being offered on the Internet, and being stolen when it isn't being sold, then I know that the record-companies have missed the technological (and marketing) boat. Demand for their product is huge, and they're not meeting it. They're still weirdly in love with "little plastic disks," even though printing and shipping and warehousing those now-useless pieces of plastic are costing them a fortune.

In three to five years, "huge downloads" will be commonplace because that will finally be how ALL forms of music and movies will be ... SOLD.

Yes, sold.

Quit bellyaching, RIAA. Get busy. You've missed the bus.

[jvarga]

Just because you use file sharing does not mean that you use it for copyrighted works.

Congrats on criminalizing completely innocent acts.

[Robbul]

Mira,

I'll occasionally look for songs by people that I read about and become curious about. If I become a fan and attend a show I always buy CDs to support the musicians.
I've never heard of you and I'm not familiar with your stuff. Should I look for something of yours or move along?

[JulieWaters]

Welcome to 2002. You've done a very good job of taking a very complicated issue that's half a decade old and explaining it in a fashion which completely eliminates all depth from the discussion.

On the plus side, you've provided us with some great talking points from the recording industry, without any evidence whatsoever to support them (did you pay them for the use of their ideas?), and you've successfully ignored the many benefits of high-volume file sharing systems that have nothing to do with downloading music without permission.

Perhaps if you actually bothered to research a subject before writing about it, you could come up with something useful or original to say.

[casers]

If an artist produces a good album, people will buy it. For every great Pearl Jam/Rolling Stones/Franz Ferdinand album, there is a great many more albums with only one song worth a dime. Is it worth 18 dollars to get a back street boys album for one catchy tune? I wouldn't buy it. Albums have become commercialized. Neil Young creates albums that are carefully arranged to make a larger picture. People buy that. Most albums on the market aren't worth the high price tag, especially when you only like one song.

MP3s are a decent selling tool as well. I have been introduced to many artists through friend's computers or sharing that I would have never been exposed to otherwise. If they are good, they may gain a concert ticket, an album sale, or a fan. Without sharing, they would have had nothing.

The writer's strike has brought attention to the fact that royalties are negligible. Artists like Metallica are justified to rail against file sharing because they own their own company, it hurts their profits. Many artists make pennies on the dollar for sales. File sharing creates new fans and feeds concert crowds which enrich artists much more than the scraps the record companies leave them.

What France is purposing pits the rights of people vs. the rights of corporations. How pro-American

[Tommymac]

Bah.

I pay $60 a month to access the Web...to have the priveledge to be bombarded by pop up ads...to have Flash ads screeching at me from every page...to have text ads inserted into the middle of articles on News sites...what the heck is different about the Web than listening to commercial radio or watching commercial TV? If the 'artists' can't build a business model to take advantage of the existing ad revenue stream of the web...then tough.

Our Human Rights are mmore important than royalties. Develop a new model or get off the pot.

[OneTop]

"What you don't realize is the Recording Industry is losing billions in sales because that 'gift' of music somehow actively encourages unlawful peer-to-peer file swapping. Individual sense of entitlement creeps in and Record companies are big ugly money mongers anyways, right?"

MIRA VEDA:

I would just love to see the evidence of this huge loss ?

If you have it, please present it, or if you cannot, which would not surprise anyone, have a read through this;

http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/04.15/09-filesharing.html

Good luck :)

[seatech1]

Okay, so what if I download a song that I already paid for? Say that I bought a vinyl record years ago, and it wore out or it no longer exists. Did I lose the right to own that music that I paid for? I know that I have the right to make a copy of a recorded song for my own use, as long as I do not distribute it and only listen to one copy at a time. So if I download a song that I already own, I'm legal; correct?
Now, how can they say that anyone has not already paid for a song that they are downloading? If they interfere with the downloading, are they not depriving me of my right?
Any legal eagles out there that can answer this?