p2pnet news view RIAA | Freedom | P2P:- If a post by Robert X. Cringely on my NCSC, RIAA comic: The Case of Internet Piracy story is right, I’m wrong.

“America’s National Center for State Courts (NCSC) has an intriguing project in hand,” I said yesterday, going on:

“Its Justice Case Files, described as a series of illustrated novels designed to, ‘educate the public’ about how US courts work, how judges make decisions and how courts are accountable to the law.

“Guess what the first one is all about? Called the Case of Internet Piracy, Part 1, ‘tells the story of Megan, a college freshman charged with theft for downloading music …’.”

The ‘novel’ is so seriously skewed and contains so many errors I thought it just had to be a product of Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG’s RIAA.

But for his The RIAA’s comic crusade, Cringely spoke with Lorri Montgomery, director of communications for the NCSC, who, he says, was able to explain one or two things, to wit »»»

 She says the reason they chose file swapping and eminent domain for their first comic was the desire to appeal to both young and old audiences – not some nefarious scheme by the RIAA. She says Megan’s case was not based on any real world cases or particular state laws, but general state laws about theft (and not copyright, which is the basis for the RIAA suits).

The book was reviewed by several legal scholars (also not affiliated with the recording industry). The books are used in jury rooms to instruct jurors on the differences between civil and criminal cases and to teach young people that the courts are “fair and impartial,” Montgomery says. It’s not used in cases that involve eminent domain or file swapping.

Oh, well, that’s OK, then.

But is it?

Not used in cases that involve … file swapping?

What’s the point, then?

Cringely kicks off with »»»

 The Recording Industry Association of America probably sees itself as a band of caped crusaders fighting for truth, justice and the American way. (And in this case, “American Way” translates into propping up a dying cartel seeking to squeeze as many pennies out of consumers as possible before they sink into the ooze.)

Now those masked men and women have found a new way to spread the mantra about the evils of file swapping — via comic books. Even weirder is the ally they’re roped into this scheme: the National Center for State Courts, an organization founded in the early 1970s by then Chief Justice Warren Burger “to improve the administration of justice through leadership and service to state courts.”

The NCSC has begun publishing a series of graphic novels titled Justice Case Files to “provide a detailed, easy-to-digest explanation of how the criminal- and civil-justice systems work.” Their first colorfully illustrated 24-page file? The Case of Internet Piracy. (Download an 11MB PDF version here).

The “graphic novel” was created by Layne Morgan Media, “a tiny ad agency in Springfield, Missouri, that specializes in comic books of a conservative persuasion,” says the story, going on, “Other Layne Morgan titles include ‘Think Before You Drink,’ a tome warning against the evils of teen drinking, and ‘To Wait is to Win,’ where ‘readers can learn about the importance of abstinence.’ As P2Pnet’s Jon Newton points out, however, the comic book appears to have been drawn with the invisible hands of the RIAA guiding the pen.

Cringely continues »»»

 The alleged point of the Case File is to point out the differences between civil cases (the eminent domain dispute) and criminal cases (the evil file swapper). So far I’ve found one example of a state prosecuting someone for illegal downloads (in Arizona), while the RIAA has sued an estimated 40,000 people in civil actions under the DMCA. What’s wrong with that picture?

The real point, of course, is to scare people who are likely to read comic books – ie, tweens and young teens – into thinking the police are going to bust down their doors if they start downloading music from “several Internet Websites.” It’s propaganda aimed at people who get their life guidance from comic books, which probably includes a significant percentage of office holders in Washington, DC.

Or as Newton puts it:

…the NCSC comic book is yet another blatant example of how the corporate entertainment cartels are able to abuse official American agencies and use taxpayer money to raise purely commercial issues to the level of serious crime at the expense of far more important matters which as a direct result are left by the wayside.

You might even say it’s comical.

So you won’t have to wait for hours for the NCSC .pdf to download, below are the two remaining panels. Judge for yourself who Layne Morgan Media did a good job for —- the public or the RIAA?

Because IMHO, far from instructing jurors, “on the differences between civil and criminal cases” and teaching, “young people that the courts are ‘fair and impartial’,” it does the exact opposite, confusing and blurring the important differences between civil and criminal cases.

Or put another way, it’s a load of old bollocks which thoroughly distorts reality.

Pray no civil jury tasked with rendering a fair verdict in an RIAA case gets to read this thing.

Stay tuned.

Jon Newton – p2pnet

(PS – I still think the RIAA had a hand in this somewhere, somehow )

(PPS – If you want your very own copy or copies, 5,000, $6,435 = $1.29/copy; 10,000, $8,778 = $0.88/copy; 15,000, $11,208 = $0.75/copy; 20,000, $13,544 = $0.67/copy; or, 50,000 $27,204 = $0.54/copy. 50,000? Are they kidding?)

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 at 10:08 am and is filed under Freedom, P2P, RIAA News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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