Cohen: Not sure what you mean. They’re quite happy with their paying customers.”

Wow…no followup to this question? tsk tsk…

Ha…he totaly pwned p2pnet…

How many Canadians reading this have went to http://digital-copyright.ca and sent a letter to their member of parliament?

No different than privat citizens selling out to the MAFFIAA by continuing to enjoy their entertainment rather than switching to alternatives where there are not the same problem.

With the new Canadian Music Creators Coalition, will Canadian music fans be boycotting the music of any musician who is not a member of the coaltiion? Not boycotting is a massive sell-out as far as I’m concerned!

Sorry — but I see far too much “passing the buck” when the people in these lists have influence that few seem to be exerting.

The primary problem is software patents which are highly controversial. There are many legal experts that believe that we should either abolish software patents, or create a “fair use” regime that would allow people to implement patents without permission for cases such as implementation of standards or for the authoring of FLOSS (Where royalties don’t exist, and thus RAND licensing is not possible).

*MOST* people are entirely unaware of the lack of evidence in the cases that the Recording and motion picture industry associations are bringing forward. They don’t know that the lawsuits are often launched without any evidence that works that they are copyright holders of have been infringed.

This lack of understanding extends to many of the comments I’ve seen on this site from people who think that unauthorized P2P sharing of music in Canada is legal. This is based on a misinterpretation of the BMG vs. 29 Does cases where the major labels lost due to lack of evidence, not because unauthorized sharing of music was legal.

While we may have been watching the cases in the USA, it is quite reasonable that Bram — who spends his time authoring software, not dealing with law or politics — would have no idea.

The same type of thing can be said of Linus Torvalds (lead coordinator for Linux) who doesn’t understand the issues with DRM. He thinks it has something to do with people using digital locks (technical protection measures) to protect things which they own (something quite reasonable), rather than the reality which is that DRM is use of digital locks by copyright holder to lock down things which they do not own (our computers, PDA’s, MP3 players, sterios, etc).

Is Linus Torvalds “bought and paid for by the cartels”?

As to whether unauthorized sharing of music and movies via P2P is illegal (IE: is a copyright infringement), the answer is *YES*, under current law in both in Canada where I live and the USA where Bram lives.

Am *I* bought and paid for by the cartels?

Whether it *should* be illegal is an entirely different question. I happen to believe that unauthorized non-commercial sharing of movies and music over the Internet should be legalized and monetized the same way as unauthorized playing of music over the radio or retransmission of television over cable: with a levy that the sender pays that means they no longer require the permission of the copyright holder.

Then again, most people don’t realize that there is an exception to copyright for communication of music over the radio or retransmission of television over cable. They incorrectly believe that all copyright holders are the same, and think that if you need permission to make a copy of a book that you should need permission to share music. The copyright act is full of exceptions to the general rule of requiring permission from the copyright holder.

why are these SOBs so greedy? the only reason they’re popular is because of the free content!

In any case, Bram Cohen in their pockets or not, these Cartels can’t win on a global scale. Sure they bought US legislation, legislators, politicians and what have you. But they’re up against the world, cultures where capitalism isn’t the be all, end all and an internet that was designed to be libre.

With all due respect to our friends in America, don’t be surprised to find yourselves boxed in at some point down the highway (it’s already started). When that time comes, you’ll have huge decisions to make. Americans have been through this before during prohibition and other issues, when they push back they mean it.

I did think about holding the Q&A until he was able to respond, but I’m going to be in Europe (more on that Sunday or Monday) until May 8 so rather than hang around, I posted as-was.

Cheers!

=========================

Bram: I’m not sure what you’re referring to, and of course am not involved in suing anybody.

Me: I wasn’t suggesting you personally are going after anyone, man, woman or child. But here’s one instance – http://www.p2pnet.net/story/7942. And there are others

AND

Bram: It certainly is illegal.

Me: That’s debatable, but are the MPAA and RIAA right to call them criminals and thieves?

Paul

Can’t fault the guy for wanting to make a buck…
Actually, yes I can. Bram, you sold out to the worst of the a-holes and became one in the process.

Pretty sad really.

on sueing children:

“I’m not sure what you’re referring to”

on an accord between the cartels and the customers who pay their salaries:

“Not sure what you mean.”

on sharing legally purchased “product” for no profit and calling filesharers criminals:

“It certainly is illegal.”

bram, your ass was bought and paid for by the cartels. go away and play sudoku.