p2pnet - rss feed: p2pnet talks to Pete Ashdown
p2pnet.net News InterView:- One way or another, Orrin Hatch is on his way out and so far, we know of two people who’d dearly love to replace him as the Main Man in Utah.
One of them is Steve Urquhart whose online champion, ex-Utah PR man Phil Windley, figures the fact Urquhart has a blog qualifies him to ask you to donate “what you spend on your Internet connection in a year” towards The Cause
The other is Pete Ashdown, who started and still runs, Xmission, Utah’s first ISP firm and who seems to have a little more going for him from the points of view of the Net and p2p communities.
For one thing, he knows what DRM is. And for another, he doesn’t appear to like it.
Below is a p2pnet Q&A with the man who wants to replace Orrin Hatch.
p2pnet: Have you ever downloaded an mp3 or movie?
Ashdown: I enjoy electronic music and there are a lot of artists in that genre who realize the value in making their work available on the Internet. Some that come to mind are Biosphere, Ulrich Schnauss, and Lamprey Systems. I download whatever they make available and I buy their albums, too.
The last movie I downloaded was “The Power of Nightmares” from the BBC. The effort required in downloading and unpacking movies is more than I have time for. My satellite subscription already gives me more movies than I can watch.
p2pnet: Are you for or against ‘copy protection’?
Ashdown: In regards to “pay” music, I support systems that aren’t DRM encumbered. I’ve spent more money on Warp’s Bleep service than I care to mention.
p2pnet: What p2p applications do you use?
Ashdown: I’ve used BitTorrent from time to time. I’m also acquainted with eDonkey and Overnet.
p2pnet: What do you think of people who use p2p apps?
Ashdown: I think people are innocent until proven guilty. The majority of “collectors” I’ve met would have never purchased what they’ve downloaded and they rarely have time to watch/listen to what they’ve got. I believe most people who file-trade want to reward the artist and more often than not, they do. What I’d like to see is more money going directly to creators instead of middlemen. The Internet presents that opportunity.
p2pnet: What does the US Supreme Court Grokster v MGM decision mean to you?
Ashdown: It means that commercial models supporting file-trading will be eliminated and supplanted by free software. Their decision was not surprising at all to me. The decision on Eldred vs Ashcroft was more disappointing, but it emphasises where change needs to occur, in our congressional leadership.
p2pnet: What do you think of the music, movie and software industry campaigns against file sharers?
Ashdown: It’s an effort to attack a model of distribution they don’t understand, yet will eventually have to accept. When a market fights against a cheaper mode of distribution, the black market responds in kind. Models like Bleep demonstrate the viability of using the Internet for distribution. Netflix is also one to watch.
p2pnet: What about the DMCA?
Ashdown: From an ISP perspective, I don’t appreciate some of the provisions of the DMCA. We receive hundreds of DMCA “take-down” requests a week, most of them from automated spiders. An ISP receives no compensation for investigating these claims on behalf of the copyright holder. That needs to change.
p2pnet: Do you think $1 for an mp3 download is a fair price?
Ashdown: Depends on the artist. “Fair” is whatever the market will pay. When I buy music, I usually buy the whole album. If I like the artist $10 is more than fair for me.
p2pnet: What are your favourite online sites?
Ashdown: I read Slashdot and Fark daily. I go to some of the gaming sites like Gamespot and IGN when my RSS collector shows me something interesting. I like Penny Arcade, but Perry Bible Fellowship is funnier.
p2pnet: Do you own a mobile music player?
Ashdown: My wife and daughter own iPod Minis. I was holding out for something to play my Ogg Vorbis collection, which I ripped and encoded from my 4000+ CDs. Now I’m doing it all again, but going with FLAC for storage and MP3 for listening. I’ll probably get an iPod eventually. I have a Sony PSP and I’ve been using it to catch up on the “Daily Show” while I’m on the road. If you’re wondering, these are rips I’ve pulled off my TiVo.
p2pnet: Finally, if you were advising the entertainment and software cartels on the best approach to take with the p2p community, what would you say?
Ashdown: Use the Internet to your advantage instead of attempting to legislate it away. It isn’t going away. Convenience is the overriding factor in distribution. If they provide a more convenient model, people will use it.
p2pnet: And why should people back you?
Ashdown: If the advocates of digital rights and fair use want change, they need to back the people willing to make those changes. Talk minus action equals zero.
Ashdown’s campaign site is here.
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
See:-
Steve Urquhart - Urquhart versus Hatch, p2pnet, July 29, 2005
Pete Ashdown - Ashdown vs Hatch, p2pnet, August 2, 2005
August 2nd, 2005 at 7:51 pm
sorry jon, but this guy is a typical polical-player wannabe, who’ll maybe get into office and accept the same bribes and perks that senators and congressmen/-women accept now.
everything he said in the interview is a lie. all politicians in every country are liars. they have to lie to get into office - then they have to keep lying to stay in.
i am so glad i don’t live in the Prison States of America anymore. every country’s politicians are corrupt, but never moreso than in the PSA.
August 2nd, 2005 at 8:01 pm
you just like being contrary, guy =P
maybe ashdown is for real and to me he looks good, not that im in utah
August 2nd, 2005 at 8:07 pm
What an awful interview.
Do you like cheese?
Yes, it is very yummy.
Can you stop these pesky RIAA lawsuit?
I enjoy unencumbered DRM product.
What will happen with Grokster vs. MGM?
I like cheese.
August 2nd, 2005 at 8:17 pm
very good! LOL
who cut the cheese? ashdown of course. it smells like utah in here!
as a freshman senator, he won’t be able to get any of his own bills passed, until possibly the last quarter of his first term - unless he screws up so terribly. any major legislations from him (good or bad) won’t happen until well into his second term - if he has a second term, that is.
August 2nd, 2005 at 8:18 pm
Perhaps you could do a better job? How about showing some appreciation for someone who devotes a great deal of time to this site?
August 2nd, 2005 at 8:33 pm
I don’t live in Utah either, but it’s good to see a wannabe politician talking on a site like p2pnet.
Morg
August 3rd, 2005 at 12:21 am
This is incredible. I don’t trust politicians either but I’ve never met or read a politicians statements that had so much positive things to say about P2P and new technology. Even if he’s playing to the audience he’s the only one who’s taken a stance.
Also, so what if he’d be a freshman senator. we’ve all bee yelling about Hatch and how he’s got to go. who do you think’s going to replace him??? not a veteran, it has to be someone who can beat him in an election and that’s means a freshman. he may not be able to get many bills through but he will be able to vote. that’s one more vote and one more voice in congress suporting the internet.
And what if he’s does a complete 180, takes the industries bribes and supports all their legislation (maybe some but not likely all), he’ll have a whole lot less pull than Hatch did, thereby giving us some time to regroup.
I say let’s give these guys a chance if we want to get rid of Hatch and stop criticizing until we know different. BTW Jon’s doing great and wouldn’t put it up if it wasn’t relevant.
August 3rd, 2005 at 12:32 am
Sounds like a cool guy to me. Way better than that blowhard Orrin Hatch. Imagine having a person who actually knows stuff about tech. Man, that’d be a nice change.
August 3rd, 2005 at 12:35 am
Jon does a superb job. I’m leery of any candidate that runs under the Republican or Democratic parties. Both of these parties are hopelessly corrupt. I’d like to see someone from the Constitution or Libertarian parties run against Hatch. But if a Democrat or Republican is all I have to choose from, then I guess a newby senator is less harmful than a veteran.
August 3rd, 2005 at 12:35 am
right on. at least the guys has made statements in black and white.
August 3rd, 2005 at 12:38 am
Ok, perhaps he is playing to audience, dancing around this way and that to look better rather than saying straight out his position. (I loved the cheese post by the way) Even a dancer is better than the incumbent now holding the chair. Simply Oral (down the) Hatch has to go. In this case better the devil you don’t know than the one you can be sure of. Oral has been responcible for some of the most atrocious and restrictive laws passed in favor of the cartels. Being nothing short of a placebo for the cartels presence in the agenda of setting national bills into law that do nothing for the public that put him there but rather support the interests of a limited group. The state of Utah has a distinct odor to the political scene there and the odor is associated with the color brown. Damn shame that the state has the ability to continually send someone they should be absolutely ashamed of to a position that influances the rest of the nation in such an ackward and backward way. Were I from Utah, I would be dying of embarressment from such representation being seen by the nation.
One thing is for sure, change would be far better for all of us that what is now there.
August 3rd, 2005 at 12:40 am
“Finally, if you were advising the entertainment and software cartels on the best approach to take with the p2p community, what would you say?”
“Use the Internet to your advantage instead of attempting to legislate it away.”
While this is great advise to the entertainment industry as a whole, it isn’t a message for the cartels or the “software manufacturing” monopolists. We need to remember that any future that works well for the vast majority of the economy will be bad for them. Times have and will change, and I simply do not see a future for these unnecessary middle men.
On the software side I believe people are going to get fed up with the lack of accountability and transparency in the “code” that governs many aspects of their online lives. Like citizens under a dictatorship they will eventually revolt, although in this case the switch from “software manufacturing” to fully commercially supported Free/Libre software is an invisible and painless choice for most people and not a revolt.
August 3rd, 2005 at 4:28 am
This guy’s ISP hosts maddox’s homepage, which has to be by far the funniest thing on the web.
I say this guy is legit. I’d be beyond elated if he won. I’d treat all my friends to a bottle of grey goose, and throw a party which would last 3 solid days.
Of course I don’t hold much hope for that.. nobody elects COMPETENT leaders (T_T), but I urge him to shoot for it!
August 3rd, 2005 at 6:06 am
I presume you are talking about my answer in regards to copy protection. Let me clarify, as I answered that question in respect to music only. In the past 25 years of using computers, I’ve never seen a copy protection scheme that has not been broken. Copy protection punishes the innocent and does little to prevent piracy. My kids chew through movie, music, and game media. I attempt to keep them out of their hands as much as possible. Breaking the copy protection for “Fair Use” is the only way that is accomplished. People should not be criminalized for protecting their investment.
In regards to RIAA lawsuits, that question wasn’t asked, but I’ll answer it anyway. No, I can’t stop them. What can be stopped is making the Federal law enforcement the private police of copyright holders. If RIAA/MPAA want to embarrass themselves with excessive civil copyright suits, that is their problem.
What will happen with Grokster vs. MGM? That question has already been answered by the Supreme Court and by me in the interview. Commercial P2P file-sharing software will cease to exist in the United States, only to be replaced by free software.
Yes, I do like cheese. If you have any other questions email them to me or post them here. I’ll check back.
Pete
August 3rd, 2005 at 6:18 am
My business started on Solaris before Linux was to the point of stability. Even so, I used mostly open source on Sun dating back to 1993 when I started.
Now XMission is 99% Linux. The servers run Debian and I run Ubuntu on my desktops at home and at work. I have always realized the value of open source in my business.
I advocate the use of FOSS, especially in government. The US is falling behind Linux adoption, while the rest of the world is rapidly understanding its value.
Will closed-source software companies continue to survive? Most likely. I would not be in favor of active legislation against them. The market can make that decision. Athough I think mass adoption of the open source model will happen, it won’t happen in my lifetime.
August 3rd, 2005 at 10:40 am
I wished I was a citizen of Utah to vote for you. Sadly I am not and it isn’t in my future to be there.
I have seen from one of your comments that you support the FOSS software. Well, I am just discovering that. I got fed up with the security issues of windoze, the expense to protect the OS, and the hobbling of my ability to attempt a fix on my own. As of a couple of months ago, I run Suse on one machine and I run Ubuntu on another. I see nothing in the future that leads me to believe I will need Microsucks products as an OS down the road. The monopoly has gotten to big. Much like the music cartels, it has denied us all the advances that would have been present through anticompetive measures. That denial has lead to a lot of extra expense to the average consumer. As was mentioned it was one of the driving forces that led me to Linux. Cost is also a driving factor that is driving other countries to Linux as the government OS. Even the pentagon has put in orders for Linux, planning on a more secure computing enviroment than can be provided by Microsucks.
Anyway more important than all of that is I am glad to see your presence here. That you are here is winning you some good points with the readership here. You’re here to defend and make plain your stance. That’s sort of a rare thing now-a-days. Through that act alone, you have increased considerably my respect for you from the post I made above.
August 3rd, 2005 at 1:13 pm
“Ashdown: If the advocates of digital rights and fair use want change, they need to back the people willing to make those changes. Talk minus action equals zero.”
Sounds like …..
If you want change you need to “donate” more cash than
the other guys. Laws don’t grow without proper “watering”.
August 3rd, 2005 at 7:39 pm
Kudos to Ashdown for having the smarts to want to talk directly to some of the peopel who will help him to get in. And kudos to Jon for doing the Q&A.
August 3rd, 2005 at 7:46 pm
I wonder about the other guy. People have been asked to donate to his cause the cost of their internet connection for a year. Why exactly should we do that? What does he know about the internet and P2P? I’ve heard nothing from him that makes me think he should be supported. I haven’t even made the effort to remember his name.
Mr Ashdown, however, is possibly the first politician I’ve heard who appears to have any understanding of the issues surrounding P2P. If he wants people to act to support him, fine. At least we actually have some reason to do so.
Even if Pete Ashdown is unable to present any bills in our favour, at least he can be a starting point for others in government supportive of P2P.
BTW, I’m from England so what happens in the U.S. is of little concern to me, except that the laws of the rest of the world tend to follow what happens in America.
August 4th, 2005 at 2:27 am
Can anybody remember the last time a candidate actually took the time to clarify their position after questioned on a public internet forum?
Also, remember who Ashdown is up against. Orrin Hatch makes no secret that he backs the RIAA and MPAA in their campaign to sue ordinary people for the heinous act of sharing .mp3s. You would have a hard time finding anybody WORSE than Orrin Hatch.
It is right and propper to question a candidate’s motives (call it voter’s “due diligence”), but from the way Pete Ashdown is talking I can see him being a valuable member of the U.S. Senate for anyone who takes their digital rights seriously.
August 4th, 2005 at 3:53 am
“I was holding out for something to play my Ogg Vorbis collection, which I ripped and encoded from my 4000+ CDs. Now I’m doing it all again, but going with FLAC for storage and MP3 for listening. I’ll probably get an iPod eventually.”
It’s good to hear someone like yourself talk about the ripping they do. 4000+ CD’s though! I definitely don’t envy you, I thought my 400+ CD” were plenty enough lol. But at least your using FLAC this time around which is great to hear. Storage space if very cheap these days, so that really isn’t a very good excuse not to choose lossless. I would have recommened a Rio Karma for playing OGG Vorbis, or perhaps an iRiver H140 with the latest Rockboxx firmware, but both of those players are really hard to find what with being discontinued models, and unfortunately there just isn’t anything really good audio quality-wise on the market currently, nor will there be for some time I suspect. Personally I would not recommend an iPod, but you have to do what you have to do I guess. At least with FLAC you can easily transcode to any lossy format you need in the future without having to re-rip all those CD’s again.
I live in Canada and it was great to read your stance on things technological in nature, and was especially nice (and amazing) to see you take the time to post to comments in an open forum such as this one. Even more amazing is that you obviously do understand all the things you are talking about. I sure wish more politicians were as open and clear as you’ve chosen to be. It would make voting so much easier. Like another poster here said, whom was from Britain I believe, other nations tend to follow what America does when it comes to law making, so in that way you winning does matter to folks like myself. Personally I really hope you win and wish you the best of luck.
August 4th, 2005 at 8:46 pm
I forgot to mention that I would have been happy to contribute some cash to your campaign, but unfortunately the rules state that one must be an American citizen, or a permanent residence alien. Thus, sadly, I cannot contribute since I’m in Canada. Can someone explain why this rule is? Probably something obvious that I’m missing heh.
August 4th, 2005 at 11:10 pm
Thanks for your offer. I think the rule is supposed to limit foreign influence on American politics. Not that it doesn’t happen anyway, but I suppose some effort is better than no effort.
Help spread the word to your American friends. One thing I’ve learned from this site is the influence American law has on the rest of the world. Thanks for that.
August 5th, 2005 at 7:38 pm
Thanks for your offer. I think the rule is supposed to limit foreign influence on American politics. Not that it doesn’t happen anyway, but I suppose some effort is better than no effort.
Yeah right, like that law actually has any teeth. I wonder just what percentage of the media cartels in influenced by foreigner or worse yet disloyal Americans who have sold out to globalism.
Mr. Ashdown, if you are for real, I wish you all the luck in the world. I don’t like the Democrat-Republican party, but there are a few honest people who work within it. If you are one of them, please keep up the good work. I will do some research to check out your stance on Constitutional issues. If you are for protecting the Constitution, then I’m for you and will give to your campaign.
April 21st, 2006 at 7:34 pm
I’m voting for him and I know of 5 other people that are doing so this year too. It’s not much but it’s a start. He has some great views and if you look into his history with XMission I highly doubt he will be selling out any time soon since he has refused to sell or outsource xmission for the past decade!