Downloading is legal
p2pnet.net News Feature:- It’s official.
Downloading music from the Internet isn’t illegal.
The New York Times says so.
File-sharing isn’t illegal either, statements from Jay Berman, Hilary Rosen, Mitch Bainwol, Cary Sherman and all the other Big Four record label cartel mouthpersons past and present and their legions of paid and unpaid supporters notwithstanding.
They also maintain that:
- RIAA lawsuits are having a marked impact on file sharing
- The number of file sharers is declining
- File sharing is causing dramatic CD sales losses
- The entertainment industry’s Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities (JCHEEC) exists to help students
- The RIAA is a model of honesty and integrity
These are, however, but lifts from the Big Music stockpile of falacies-and-falsehoods used by the teams of skilled spinsters and lawyers whose sole job it is to convince the mainstream media that black is white. Their efforts are helped by the fact that the entertainment industry controls significant numbers of the print and electronic media outlets in the first place.
It’s therefore a pleasant change to read, “Plenty of music available online is not just free but also easily available, legal and – most important – worth hearing,” as Jon Parles says in his New York Times article, confirming that the real world of online music is very different from the fantasies offered up by RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) president Cary Sherman and other entertainment industry truth realignment specialists.
Parles quotes Lucas Gonze, whose amazing webjay.org features loads of playlists to go, not to mention the Collaborative Playlists/Trial Balloon, as describing free Net music as, “a flea market the size of Valhalla”.
That fact, “may come as a surprise after highly publicized lawsuits by the Recording Industry Association of America, representing major labels, against fans using peer-to-peer programs like Grokster and EDonkey to collect music on the Web,” he goes on in an article which drives home the fact that at last, some segments of the mainstream media are starting to do their own work and are getting it right rather than parroting self-serving, innacurate RIAA ‘facts’ as though they come from credible sources.
“[...] the fine print of those lawsuits makes clear that fans are being sued not for downloading but for unauthorized distribution: leaving music in a shared folder for other peer-to-peer users to take.”
The lawsuits – not one of which has ever been tested in court because Big Music’s victims always settle rather than face Big Music with its bottomless pockets and regiments of high-powered lawyers – centre on alleged copyright infringement, not downloading.
And although “unauthorized distribution: leaving music in a shared folder for other peer-to-peer users to take” may be OK for US civil actions, it’s not OK across the border in Canada and elsewhere in the world, although the members of the Big Four cartel are doing their damndest to change that reality.
In Canada, justice Konrad von Finckenstein ruled that putting music into a computer directory that might be shared remotely by someone else doesn’t constitute copyright infringement under Canadian law.
Parles points out that Big Music prayers were recently swept away when, in the MGM v Grokster decision, an appeal panel ruled p2p operators aren’t responsible for their users’ online file-swapping activities.
He also mentions the INDUCE Act which represents another prong of the entertainment industry’s ongoing efforts to bring file sharers and the p2p networks to heel – its heel.
But, “While the recording business litigates and lobbies over music being given away online, countless musicians are taking advantage of the Internet to get their music heard,” he concludes.
“They are betting that if they give away a song or two, they will build audiences, promote live shows and sell more recordings.”
That maybe so, but they have a long way to go before they’ll make a dent in what’s happening in the real world of online music.
Parles’ article concludes with useful ideas of where to go, online, and what to look for. Check them out.
Then fire up your favourite search engine and see for yourself.
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See:-
JCHEEC - University p2p ‘report’, p2pnet, August 25, 2004
controls – Pissing off the labels: Part II, p2pnet, September 10, 2004
New York Times – No Fears: Laptop D.J.’s Have a Feast, September 10, 2004
webjay.org – Site
Trial Balloon – Site
Canadian Law - Keep on swapping! Cdn file sharers told, p2pnet, March 31, 2004
MGM v Grokster - Studios and labels lose p2p fight, p2pnet, August 21, 2004
INDUCE Act - INDUCE chases Marybeth Peters, p2pnet, August 21, 2004
