P2P file sharing: helping to defeat crime
p2pnet news view Crime | P2P:- Two ploys used ad nauseum by the vested-interest entertainment cartels in their continuing efforts to dominate the internet and turn it into an exclusive corporate pipeline are »»»
- P2P file sharing is responsible for “massive devastation” to the multi-billion-dollar movie and recording industries
- P2P file sharing funds the international narcotics trade, prostitution, white-slave trafficking, etc, etc …
But maybe it’s the other way around, suggests Australian economist and p2pnet contributor Tom Koltai.
In a Reader’s Write to the p2pnet story on how, in an amazing triumph, Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music’s IFPI (International Federation of Phornographic Industry) suborned Spain into launching an operation involving 100 police officers against copyright-infringing jukeboxes (Yes – you read that correctly), “I just wrote an article about how file sharing was positively impacting crime statistics in the USA (decreasing it) resulting in over 3 million less americans in jail than before the internet went commercial,” says Tom.
He’s referring to his post in Perceptric in which he states, “Free-speech via the social networks and P2P would appear to be assisting in lowering the crime rate.”
“1992 was the year that competition hit the USA with tremendous growth in pay-based online services, like Prodigy, GEnie. AOL and Compuserve,” he says, going on »»»
Compuserve introduced the first known WYSIWYG e-mail content and forum posts, with forums growing rapidly to allow individuals to post opinions and commentary on a wide variety of subjects.
The Compusurve (and other competitive offerings) forums evolved into the present day Blogshere and social networking that has taken the Internet by storm and gave the people of the world a non edited conduit to their peers.
1992, was curiously also the year that crime rates started to drop in the USA; and 1998 was the year that another noticeable dip occurred. The year that Napster was born.
Of course this is anecdotal at this stage. (I’m an Economist, not a social-behavioral Psychologist.) But it would seem that when the population have an alternative (economically priced entertainment) they turn away from crime.
On that basis, since the Internet “commercialised” in the USA, the US Government have saved an estimated $58,151,289,000 (Calc @$50 p/day) on prisoner accommodation costs alone, with obvious additional monies saved in transportation, arraignment, trial and public attorney fees.
Source: http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm
(Calculation based on 3,186,372 prisoners not serving one year or 365 days in prison between 1992 and 2007.)
Nor, Tom notes, does this include insurance monies saved, the decreased crime rate effect on consumer psychological well being, or lives and property saved.
Stay tuned.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
p2pnet - Big Music Spanish triumph, July 23, 2009
Perceptric – P2P is aiding in lowering Crime, July 25, 2009
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July 25th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
It depends how crime is defined. If non-commercial copyright infringement is included, it could be argued that the internet has sparked the greatest crime explosion in history.
July 25th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
“Non-commercial copyright infringement” isn’t crime. It’s infringement, non-commercial, commercial, or otherwise.
Or do you mean counterfeiting?
Cheers!
July 25th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Although it wasn’t even considered a crime before the internet existed, today no other “non-crime” has been given such priority by law enforcement as “non-commercial copyright infringement.” Even the US Secret Service has been called to action to fight this (apparent) threat to national security.
July 25th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
lol
Millions (billions?) of dollars are being spent on the secret service to fight their won citizens on the internet. Meanwhile go look at the homeless teens in a town near you.
July 25th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
“Although it wasnât even considered a crime”
It still isn’t, except by the lamescream media, the bought-and-paid-for politicians and people who haven’t logged on yet and who therefore don’t know any better
Cheers!
July 25th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
One word for the lot of them, COCKS.
July 26th, 2009 at 1:19 am
Copyright infringment was included in the form of IDC program piracy.
however, I do not believe that music downloads and video downloads were included. After all it is only in the last three months that the FBI have become involved as “researchers” for the content industry.
Until that event, p2p for personal use was always considered by the courts to be a civil matter.
It would now appear to becoming a criminal matter.
Every American needs to ask themselves if they gave that mandate to their elected officials. i.e.: Please Senator, make downloading a criminal action so that my kids and yours can end up with a criminal record.
The Spanish courts appear to have the right legal interpretation. Downloading for personal consumption with no (financial) reward is not a crime.
Possibly this is why Spain is one of the world innovation leaders.
July 26th, 2009 at 2:53 am
@Tom:
Exactly!
And its not just in the US.
In Canada, we’re seeing lots of evidence that our Government is being tampered with by Big Media.
It’s this type of behaviour by authorities that proves there is a different agenda at work than the one presented by a Government to its People. This is why we don’t trust the CRTC, or any of the monopolistic corporates that have our Parliament in their pockets. Sure, its looks to those outside our borders that we all get to put in our “2 Cents”, but even when an overwhelming segment of the population say they support a certain way of doing things, the result is always the opposite.
Here are 2 supposedly sovereign countries whose Constitutions have been trashed by their own governments.