Mark of Caine for file traders
p2pnet.net News Opinion:- California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law Bill 1506 that will require California file traders to wear the Star of David sewn to their lapels.
If that comment seems offensive, then you have a sense of my reaction when I heard of the new state law that makes it a crime for that state’s file traders to use a service like KaZaa or eDonkey without giving their email addresses to the state.
Maybe it’s misfortunate that I use the above analogy because that will only allow the record industry to dismiss my comment by calling me an anti-semite, or something, when the opposite is true.
In both cases, a powerful entity is using the government to bully a weaker one, imposing a law that forces the innocent to identify themselves in the open for easy identification and destruction.
In Germany it was the Nazis, in California it is the copyright cartel.
Forcing file traders to tattoo themselves will make it easy for the likes of the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to persecute 12-year-old girls, like Brianna LaHara, or 50-year-old school drivers like Nancy Davis, or financially teetering students like Charli Johnson.
California State Bill 1506 is now law. Under it, file traders can go to jail just for keeping their emails to themselves. The RIAA doesn’t even have to file their usual charges of copyright infringement. They can save that for another trial.
You have to admit the tactic is cruelly clever. The governor is indebted to the movie industry for the wealth and fame it gave him – fame that made him an easy winner in a distraught California election recall. He’s returning that favor but, sadly, in a misguided way.
The entertainment industry now has an insider holding the most powerful office in the biggest state in the nation.
So far Governor Schwarzenegger has proven to be an effective statesman, which is why this law passed so quickly and below the radar of non west coast Americans.
He’s now a politician and like all politicians, serves the powerful constituencies that give him support. What he just did is make it easier for corporate bullies to pick on individuals for doing what many pundits feel is nothing for that exercising their right of fair use.
They aren’t the only ones being attacked through others abuse of government.
There are the recent troubles of Yusuf Islam, the former Cat Stevens who was recently plucked from an airplane and arrested for deportation. I couldn’t help but think of Charlie Chaplin who was likewise tossed out of this country in the 50s as a communist sympathizer.
Chaplin was the victim of McCarthy’s bullying communist witch hunts that the Senator used as a vehicle to gain power and influence. It didn’t matter that Chaplin raised a fortune in war bonds during WW I and II and was very loyal to his adopted country (even though sentiment prevented him from renouncing his citizenship from his native country England).
Like Chaplin, Yusuf Islam helped raise money for the victims of 911, but because he’s an orthodox Islamic and has been critical of the US government since Vietnam, he’s been labeled a terrorist by someone in office and thrown on the “list” as a terrorist.
I’m sorry. I’m not convinced he presents a threat to this country and I find his recent appearance on that list dubious. If you want to talk about racism I suspect this makes a good example. And where’s the powerful record industry with their political connections? For Yusuf Islam they are missing in action.
This only shows again how the record industry cares only for the corporate coffers and not for the artists whose creations they profit from. If Cat Steven’s old records sell big because of his public humiliation the record industry will make some good money.
As for Yusuf Islam, all he seems destined to get from the record industry is a tiny check followed by a bill for artist development.
Rich Menta, MP3newswire
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See:-
recent troubles – Cat Stevens denied US entry, p2pnet, September 22, 2004
go to jail – SB 1506: Jail time for minors?, p2pnet, May 22, 2004
September 24th, 2004 at 3:46 pm
How exactly would the system work whereby the email address was given to the state? Also, how hard would it be to set up fake email accounts? There are free services that will create valid working email account redirects that will expire after a certain time, so you could get the confirmation email or whatever and then poof a week later the email account is gone…
September 24th, 2004 at 8:06 pm
Is there a provision for those who have no e-mail address?
What if you decide to use communal e-mail address?
If all the citizens of california were to agree on just ~ONE address
accessible to anyone from california but none outside of it
(even if they do not use it nor read or write anything through it)
then the state would be faced with the same problem as before.
How to identify one from the mass?
And so anonimity would be served.
All they need is an address like california@something.org
and happy file sharing!
September 25th, 2004 at 7:13 pm
Silly, useless law. A lot of warez “pirates” give out an email address. So what? Unless it’s something that pins down your identity like your company email address, no one will know who you are if you use ANY free email website. (and to be extra safe, a proxy for protection against IP lookup) Unless they use a proxy or anonymous P2P network like Freenet, P2P file sharers are easily identifiable by simply looking up their IP address.
But then maybe this law is really a stealth promotion for Peer2Mail – a new P2P application that transfers files by sending them as email attachments. By very definition, every user of Peer2Mail will be in compliance with this law.
January 23rd, 2007 at 10:20 am