Will FBI-Hollywood warnings work?
p2pnet.net News:- It’ll be interesting to see if the heavily publicized FBI ‘anti-pirate’ seal and warnings that are to be issued following yesterday’s announcement of collaboration between the FBI and Hollywood amount to much.
Senior EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) lawyer Fred von Lohmann doesn’t think they will. “I’m under no illusions that this kind of label is going to change public perceptions,” he’s quoted as saying dryly in an Associated Press story here.
Nor does a p2pnet reader who says, “These FBI warnings were pasted in 35mm film cans for years and I don’t think it deterred anyone at any time, especially those people who don’t happen to be residents of the USA.”
Nonetheless, he’s sure that in about six months we’ll be seeing stats proving how effective the labels are.
[Some people are so cynical - Ed]
The FBI, RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), SIIA (Software and Information Industry Association), and ESA Entertainment Software Association) say they’ve formed a “working partnership”.
FBI Cyber Division assistant director Jana Monroe speaking, appropropriately, from the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, also released an “Education Letter” designed to, “inform the public of the risks and vulnerabilities associated with sites where users exchange file information”.
This suggests certain p2p file sharing sites could find themselves on the receiving end of unwelcome attention from the FBI – with uncertain consequences.
And it’s all because the Big Five record labels, Big Seven movie studios, and software and video game makers – Hollywood, in other words – claim they’re losing $23 billion to piracy.
They don’t say how much of that is down to file sharing and how much to genuine criminal activity – that’s to say where crooks counterfeit Hollywood product for re-sale as the genuine article, or where cheap (compared to inflated retail prices) dubs are made and sold in a variety of ways on and offline.
In the meanwhile, although there are numerous criminal prosecutions going on, file sharing is so much more, well, sexy and people who exchange music online are being mentioned in the same breath as hard-core criminals.
File swappers are mostly teenagers, but include senior citizens and children. And hundreds of those labelled by Big Music’s enforcement ‘trade’ organ, the RIAA (Recording Industry Assocation sof America), are undoubtedly innocent of wrong-doing of any kind.
But we’ll never know because rather than risk the potentially enormous financial penalties they might incur if they go through America’s civil judicial systems, they settle out of court – although Michele Scimeca, a New Jersey mother, has had an interesting idea.
She’s suing the RIAA under the RICO (Racketeering Influenced & Corrupt Organizations) Act enacted in 1970 to prosecute organized crime and help victims seek compensation.
“They’re banding together to extort money, telling people they’re guilty and they will have to pay big bucks to defend their cases if they don’t pony up now,” says her lawyer, Bart Lombardo.
February 20th, 2004 at 6:46 pm
The FBI will be losing money on sthe stickers unless they have someone to pursue criminals, and they don’t.
February 20th, 2004 at 7:52 pm
Here we go again, folks!
Just a couple of questions:
Would it be a better use for the people money than defend the interest of a very wealthy industry? Public ealth, school system, …
Actors and singers live lavishly despite the losses and they brag about money all the time. Record and movie execs have even more money, but they are more discreet. Does 10 millions or 9 make that much difference? Probably so…
What’s the max penalty for stealing a CD from the store? Guess far less than 250k and 5 years in the big house
Peace
Mike Houses
February 20th, 2004 at 10:03 pm
To the Author of this article:
“File swappers are mostly teenagers, but include senior citizens and children.” This statement is partially true. As a member of the unmentioned adult world, I’d like to add that we, adults, do swap files just as much or even more than other age groups. Stop trying to blame problems on other people and admit to what we are doing. Besides, how many children and teenagers actually OWN their computers? Slim to none I might say. In fact, these computers are owned by their parents, adults. You wouldn’t let your child or teenager illegally go joyriding in with your vehicle, so why do you let them do it with your computers?