[Infowarrior] - More on... RIAA wins its first piracy trial

[Richard Forno]

My comments to Dave Farber on the current RIAA discussion, reposted here as
an FYI.......-rf

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Frankly from my view, the entertainment industry's dogmatic refusal to
accept the changing face of society and realize that emerging technologies
have, and continue to, change the paradigm of industry, social control, and
information exchange continues to baffle me.  I think it's only a matter of
time before their refusal to accept reality and redefine their role in the
information age will be their undoing.

To wit: They try to control the content (watermarking); they try to control
the endpoints (hardware and software); they attack any hint of a paradigm
shift that endangers their social status in the world (Napster, DeCSS,
Kazaa, BitTorrent); they conduct pre-emptive profit strikes on customers in
the form of taxing hard drives and media that *could* be used for piracy
activities (the iPod tax); and constantly seek out new laws to restrict
technological change and innovation under the guise of protecting 'their"
material (DMCA, WIPO) when it's all about preserving their failing industry
business model in an age where they're becoming more irrelevant with each
passing year.  I really think these folks would prefer it be 1998 all over
again.

>From where I sit, I can count the number of movies I see in theaters or have
purchased on DVD in recent years, or new music I've bought or even had a
desire to buy.  Not only is there not enough stuff produced that interests
me, but I refuse to support an industry that, when you get right down to it,
considers and treats ALL customers as criminals for no other reason than to
preserve its rapidly-aging business model.   From an anthropological
perspective, they just do NOT want to change with the times --- it's too
hard to relinquish power when you've had it for so long, and also
frightening to know that you're being seriously-challenged by entities far
outside your direct ability to constrain.  Hence, the industry lashes out in
all directions in what clearly is a panicked 'death throes' flailing action
to try and control/influence/constrain anything that might present a danger
to their existing business models in the hope that they can head off the
inevitable -- namely, the global reduction in their marketplace legitimacy
and hegemony.

It's all about marketplace control.  Marketplace control is all about
profits.  And profits is all about control of your resources offered for
sale.  Unfortunately, unlike controlling of other resources such as power,
water, or oil, efforts to exert control over "their" digital information
resources has the consequence of providing them with the ability to
influence or control most other digital information resources, including
information resources and data they have no right of ownership -- such as
unsigned bands, indie movies, and other nonprofit or personal data.

It's all about control.

-Rick
Infowarrior.org

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