Credit where it’s due
p2pnet.net News Opinion:- The news that Big Four record labels and the major movie studios have been defeated in their attempts to swallow p2p whole will totally revitalize the independent digital media industry.
As Corante says of yesterday’s US Court of Appeals decision, “It’s a beauty. Not only do they get the technology and the law right, but also the policy.”
The bullies have finally been booted out of the schoolyard. And the triumph is down in no small part to the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) which argued on behalf of Morpheus owner StreamCast in a case, “that pitted dozens of entertainment conglomerates against two small software companies,” as it points out, going on:
“The Ninth Circuit decision is based in part on the fact that P2P networks have significant non-infringing uses, and that they can help artists earn money. The ruling is similar to the Supreme Court’s decision in the 1984 Betamax case, which determined that Sony was not liable for copyright violations by users of the Betamax VCR.
” ‘Today’s ruling will ultimately be viewed as a victory for copyright owners. As the court recognized today, the entertainment industry has been fighting new technologies for a century, only to learn again and again that these new technologies create new markets and opportunities,’ says EFF senior intellectual property attorney Fred von Lohmann.
” ‘There is no reason to think that file sharing will be any different’.”
“We are going to bleed and bleed and hemorrhage, unless this Congress at least protects one industry that is able to retrieve a surplus balance of trade and whose total future depends on its protection from the savagery and the ravages of this machine.”
The words belong to Jack Valenti, the MPAA’s ex(?)-boss. He uttered them in 1981 when the entertainment industry was being threatened with ruin and damnation by the arrival of, Yes, the Betamax VCR.
“I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone,” he intoned darkly.
August 20th, 2004 at 1:14 am
“I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone,” he intoned darkly.
- Jack Valenti
Some years later:
“Where movies make the bulk of their money is on DVD and home videos,” says Chernin. “Fifty percent of the revenues for any movie come out of home video …”
- Peter Chernin
If Jack successfully made his impression back then, fast forward today and take away 50% of Hollywood’s current revenue, and we’ll see what they say then.
August 20th, 2004 at 1:16 am
I would not savor victory just yet….
If orrin hatch and his croonies are successful in passing the induce act,this court decision will be moot.
Just like the beta max decision this court decision was not a law that passed and ratified by congress.
It’s just another fuzzy legal decision.
The 1976 copyright act says copying intellectual property is still technically illegal.
The forces of the mpaa and the riaa will not take this decision lying down.
There will be a lot pressure on members of congress to pass the induce act and since it is an election year and since it so expensive being an incumbent to reelected and members of congress shamelessly taking kickbacks and bribes from the entertainment industry ,the induce act will become law.
You could get sued for secondary liability for “inducing” people into committing acts of copyright infringement.
If this happens, all of the gains made this by this court decision will be erased.
Enjoy while you can.
It’s still illegal to make and distribute any kind of decss programs or copying programs.
August 20th, 2004 at 3:22 am
Jack or Hack as he is known doesn’t have a clue!!!!!! Hey remenber the music biz when radio started playing music over the airwaves????? Quote Nobody will buy our records if people can hear it for free over the radio!!!!!!!! When will they get a clue
August 20th, 2004 at 4:22 am
Agreed – this isn’t much more than a step along the way. But it’s a long and extremely important one.
Hollywood probably had a pretty good idea it would lose this fight, but the tide that’s been steadily turning against it is becoming more and more powerful. And it knows that too.
Perceptions are vital and the ‘perception’ of infallibility Big Music and the Studios have been at pains to foster has just been given a bloody great dent.
Nor is INDUCE a foregone conclusion. There are a lot of important and substantial interests rallied against it.
Watch this space …..
August 21st, 2004 at 9:14 pm
Jass,
Everybody wants my new stuff,…. and if it is new-music it is cool but people are disrespecting my old origanal-music and all of it came from the same source, and they don’t know it and I DO ! WELL, ANYWAY,…. MY HOME IS WITH MY FAMILY, SLIM, AND FIFTY,…… AND I THINK I AM GONNA SALE SOME CD’S ON MY WAY BACK HOME TO FIFTY AND SLIM AND SEEING HOW I GET DOWN I GOT TO WALK UP TO SLIM IN THE MORNING EMPTY HANDED WITHOUT ANYTHING UP MY SLEEVE WITHOUT NO SHIRT AND NO SLEEVES AND SHOW SLIM HOW GOOD I REALLY AM AND LEAVE HIM A HOT NEW-MUSIC ALBUM FOR A CONTRACT,… AND THEN I AM GONNA STILL GIVE HIM MORE ALBUMS THAN WHAT HE SIGNS ME FOR.
ESPEIALLY IF HE WOULD LET ME GET AWAY WITH AN ACASIONAL VIDEO OR TWO AND LETS ME GO STRAIGHT FROM THE VIDEOS INTO PRODUCING,… STRICKLY PRODUCING NEW-MUSIC I WANNA GO TO WORK AND NOW,… THAT THINGS ARE KIND OF COOLED OF A LITTLE BIT,…. I AM GONNA REALLY BE A KIND OF A HOT APPEARANCE,…. ALTHOUGH I WISH IT DONT HAPPEN LIKE THAT,…. CAUSE THE NEW-MUSIC IS GONNA BE MORE THAN HOT ENOUGH,… SEEING THAT I GOT VARIOUS STYLES OF WRITING AND RAPPING,… I WAS SCARED BECAUSE I NEEDED TIME TO GET EVERYTHING TOGETHER,… AND NOW!!!!! I GOT TO ADMITT THAT I AM FEELING CALIFORNIA FROM CHICAGO SO BADLY I CAN’T WAIT TO GET TO NEW YORK,… CAUSE I GOT TO FALL ON ATLANTA AND TAKE THEM THERE IN THE MUSIC,…. JASS I AINT LEAVING YOU,.. YOU ARE SO CRAZY,… AM I RUBBING ALL OFF ON YOU WOMAN ? I WANT YOU TO COAST THREW ABOUT THREE OR FOUR ALBUMS,.. Reading a pioneering pivod of boundaries that will not cross the borderlines with those songs, and albums that you wrote that were R&B,… seeing that you didn’t sale them all yet and you didn’t sing them all,.. so,… it isn’t any of my business, unless you are going to be my BESTFREIND AND MY WOMAN and LOVE~EE,.. OR WHAT EVER YOU WANT TO DO WITH ME,.. LIKE YOU CAN JUST KEEP ME IN YOUR POCKET OR IN THOSE CUTE LITTLE PINK HANCUFFS OR SOMETHING,… I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU GANNA END UP DOING WITH ME,… I JUST KNOW WHAT I CAN NOT DO,… AND YOU KNOW,…. SO,…. OH,.. YEAH WHAT IS BETWEEN YOU AND ME,… AINT NOBODY ELSES BUSINESS,.. AND WHAT IF SLIM AND FIFTY DON’T WANT ME,.. ALL LATE AND EVERYTHING,…. RECOVERING FROM BRAINDAMAGING THUG LOVING,… HOTTER THAN AN OVEN,… AND RUBBING AND RACING,.. EXCAPEING THE TRACEING,.. CHALKLINE TO DEFIND,.. A MINUTE OF TIME,.. SO INSANE,.. DRIVING A BIG BODY BENZ WITH A CANE,.. LIKE IT AINT NO THANG,.. ALL OFF IN THE FAST LANE,… I’M JUST JOKING,.. WHEN I AM SOAKING,.. SO EVICT THE TOKEN,..
August 21st, 2004 at 10:33 pm
Jass,
somebody put a video on about Atlanta and I WAS BORN INTO RAP IN THE ATL. THERE IS NOTHING PERSONAL ABOUT THIS MUSIC OTHER THAN I AM REPRESENTING MY FAMILY THAT HAD ME WHEN I WAS KNEE HIGH TO A DUCK,… THEY OUTKAST INTRODUCED ME TO WRITING MUSIC WHEN I WAS ONLY WRITING COMMIC BOOKS,.. YEAH LUDACRIS IS FAMILY,.. USHER IS FAMILY,… BABYFACE IS FAMILY,.. TONI BRAXTON IS FAMILY,.. AND THEY HAVE ALL SHOWED ME LOVE SINCE THE VERY FIRST DAY AND AS A MATER OF FACT IF I KNEW WHERE I COULD GO AND KICK IT WITH THEM LIKE WE USED TO I WOULD BE THERE TODAY NO DOUBT AT ALL EVER,…
I HAVE WRITEN AT THE LEASTE ONE SONG WITH ALL OF THEM,… AND I GOT MEMORIES OF THE DAYS WHEN BURT USED TO HANG OUT WITH ME BEFORE HE BECAME FAMOUS,.. NEVER FOREGET ABOUT BURT WHO ALWAYS KEPT HIS WORD NO MATTER WHAT,… FETTY
August 23rd, 2004 at 4:42 pm
Jass,
oh my gosh,… I have been here before,… when I was a child I went on a journey with CHRIST,… the journey was with our creator,…. and I received a blessing in a church I had never been to before yesterday,… your feelings and thoughts of life are like we are all walking on the surface of water,… yes, it is true we are with GOD.
Fetty