p2pnet.net special:- Last month we ran a spoof slugged RIAA, MPAA Blitz: Part II.

In it, we pretended the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) were launching Operation Santa which would supervise local police around the world in raids on public libraries offering “illegal” CDs and DVDs.

Coordinated by the US Department of Justice, it would be supported by investigators from the Department of Homeland Defence and Microsoft, as well as CIA, NSA, RSPCA, SPCA and News Corp staff, we wrote.

Libraries would have to charge borrowers, “an amount equal to 99 cents, or the local equivalent, for every track on a music CD, or $19.99 (or the local equivalent) for every movie DVD,” we went on. “Libraries which do not honour the license will be closed until they agree to fullfil their obligations to the record companies and music studios which work so hard to create and make available such superlative product.”

But, “THIS IS A SPOOF !!!!” – we had to post on November 29. That was because we’d received a number of emails, “including several from alarmed librarians,” who believed the spoof was a genuine news item in spite of all the glaring (we thought) clues.

One of the people who emailed us was LibrariNan, a very nice person who lives near the Hudson River in New York with her husband, son and pet dog, a boxer/pit bull cross.

A librarian for 17 years, “most recently as a director,” LibrariNan admits she’s, “concerned but confused” by the various acronyms plaguing her, ie, “PATRIOT ACT, CIPA, DOPA, MPAA, etc.”

We’d exchanged several emails, noting our kids (ours, a girl) were both 10, and we’d also touched on the fact Hollywood’s MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) had been able to have a California bill, which would have made pretexting illegal, killed, although it looks as though a federal law with the same purpose might be nigh.

“Jon,” emailed LibrariNan, “Well, it just keeps getting scarier. I just ‘love’ the pretexting. Who needs illegal wire taps when you’ve got this?”

Because of the Winn-Dixie movie she’d rented for her son, “I saw my first ever commercial from the MPAA on movie piracy,” she said, going on:

We all know how powerful the lobbyists are so I guess it didn’t really surprise anyone when that bill got turned down.

But I also like the assumption that Americans are all taking illegal music from the Russian site, like nobody’s honest. I guess I can see your point about needing to preserve your memories and your past so that you can share it in the future with your daughter.

I also think there’s a big difference between copying a whole album and taking a few songs, and taking a piece of something and creating a new “edition”, as it were.

My first career was as a professional storyteller. I got into it just as storytelling was being revived and seen as an art not just some thing for a library storytime. And we were all worried about preserving the integrity of the story and giving due credit to the storyteller whose story you’d heard – not telling the story without saying where you’d first heard it or read it.

Some storytellers were very particular that THEIR story should never be told by someone else. Fortunately, they were in the minority, and most of us said, Just say that you first heard the story told by so and so, or read it in this book.

The ancient point of storytelling is to pass the story on and let it grow and change. I think this is the way I generally view copyrighting: give credit to where it came from, and then use the material as you need it. (And, honestly, I’m not really keen on taking a whole book and photocopying it or downloading a movie.) So, take bits and pieces and make something your children will enjoy in years to come – of course MP3 won’t work in the future, it’ll be like 8-track!

I admit I really don’t pay a lot of attention to controversies, politics, etc, but I’m happy to dip into these issues sometimes.

I really have to pay attention to the PATRIOT Act since it violates state laws and such about the privacy of a patron’s library records.

You wouldn’t want the RIAA to be able to check your records, see what CDs (or DVDs for music videos) you’d borrowed and then raid your house because they suspected you stole songs from them. But amazingly, that’s pretty much what the PATRIOT Act allows, but for terrorist activity.

Never would I condone terrorism, but I really can’t help thinking that just because someone borrowed How to Make a Bomb from Everyday Materials doesn’t mean they’re a terrorist. The same holds true for viewing web sites about bomb making at a public library.

Have you seen the details of the PATRIOT Act and what it allows law enforcement to do? It’s scary (also) and complicated, and the lobbyists got to the renewal of it because despite the efforts of many organizations, they still didn’t remove wording that exempts (and protects) libraries and bookstores. Some changed, but not most of the pieces.

I told LibrariNan I see librarians as the guardians of the future. What I’d been thinking, although I didn’t say it in my email, was I believe ‘paper’ is the ultimate database. Everything of importance should be archived in manuscript form. How come? Electronic data are no more than e-bits and in the event of catastrophic systems failures (such as in a cyber-attack), everything electronically stored could potentially be destroyed for ever.

She said:

I like the picture of libraries and librarians as guardians of the future. I always thought we were guardians of the past and present so we could guard FOR the future. You wouldn’t want to know how many classics we’ve had to remove from our shelves to make room for the new stuff.

But so far somebody still has whatever classic you want, and it’s interlibrary loanable!

My sister wants me to write a book about wonderful forgotten books that sit waiting in libraries that Barnes and Noble has long since removed from their shelves.

Out with the new for the newer! (OK – I know I just said I have had to do that too, but I’m sure I have kept plenty more books than the average Barnes and Noble keeps!)

Thanks for sharing, LibrariNan.

Also See:
Operation Santa – RIAA, MPAA Blitz: Part II, November 28, 2006
killed – Hollywood defends ‘pretexting’, December 1, 2006
might be nigh – Anti-pretexting legislation, December 6, 2006
Computerworld – Congress may soon vote on pretexting legislation, September 29, 2006

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If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details.

And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.

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