‘Houston, we have a problem …’
p2pnet news view P2P:- Here’s the intro to a recent p2pnet post »»»
RIAA spinster Cary Sherman describes the brutalisation of music fans by Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music’s RIAA as ‘tough love”. Another RIAA lawyer says it’s a “fascinating and challenging time” as the “record industry is swept up in a sea of change”.
Sitting on top of a pile of equine excreta, would be more like it.
Making the second statement was Steve Marks … who also claims the Big 4 extortion unit has “embraced” the change.
Would Jammie Thomas, and innocent mother who’ll soon have to endure a second round of RIAA attacks, or a student who seriously thought about killing herself because she couldn’t cope with Big 4 extortion demands, agree, one wonders?
Now, in a mealie-mouthed ‘OpEd’ published by Ars Technica, Marks belittles Harvard lawyer Charles Nesson who’s leading a team of university students in defence of Joel Tenenbaum, accused by the RIAA of being a heinous copyright infringer.
Marks also says, “Yet even with this emerging legal landscape, the rights of artists, songwriters, and record labels deserve protection. Unfortunately, there are those who seem to overlook that fact, including a Harvard law school professor, his class, and their client Joel Tenenbaum, a defendant in one of our illegal music downloading cases.”
In a Reader’s Write, “When they say ‘The artists’ rights need protecting’ they mean ‘The publishers’ privileges (monopolies) need protecting’,” says Crosbie Fitch (right), continuing »»»
As I’ve pointed out a few times before, language has changed in the last few centuries. The term ‘privilege’ was soon described as a ‘legal right’ and then shortened to simply ‘right’. Meanwhile the original term, ‘natural right’ that ‘right’ used to describe without needing qualification, has now to be qualified as ‘natural right’ to distinguish it from ‘legal right’.
Consequently, the labels are always very happy to say ‘our rights must be protected’, because as we all know, rights are good. Er no, only natural rights are good. Legal rights (aka privileges) are, as Thomas Paine would say, an injustice.
- Liberty = right (natural right) to copy and build upon one’s own possessions (even if originally produced by someone else)
- Copyright = privilege (’legal right’) to suspend the aforementioned, excluding others from making or distributing copies/derivatives of what they have.
So, Houston, we have a problem: the record labels and the people both want their rights protected.
Plainly one of these ‘rights’ to be protected can’t actually be a natural right, but must be a privilege. This is because privileges reserve a right from the many to the one. That’s why the privilege of copyright is in direct opposition to the right to copy.
Which do you think is the natural right? The one mankind’s had since he copied his fellows to learn the art of making baskets and painting on cave walls, or the one created in the 18th century for printers?
The right to copy, or the privilege of excluding others from making copies?
You can see why the privileged would like to call their privilege a right can’t you? They don’t want you to notice that it isn’t actually a right in the natural sense of the word.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_Man
Human rights originate in Nature, thus, rights cannot be granted via political charter, because that implies that rights are legally revocable, hence, would be privileges:
It is a perversion of terms to say that a charter gives rights. It operates by a contrary effect — that of taking rights away. Rights are inherently in all the inhabitants; but charters, by annulling those rights, in the majority, leave the right, by exclusion, in the hands of a few . . . They . . . consequently are instruments of injustice.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
June, 2009
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June 24th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
I’m really glad you posted that comment. It may be one of the best things I’ve read this year. Thank you.
June 25th, 2009 at 10:41 am
thanks Crosbie, I am no longer a ‘dont know’. I grasp the understanding of privilege as compared to natural right.
and infuriates me even more that the MAFIAA think their definition of privilege equates to rights, that overcome my ACTUAL right, not privilege.