billf wrote:You can say whatever you want James, it is your board. But jumping all over me for trying to start a discussion doesn't seem right. I've been here long enough that people know I don't believe in stealing. That said, I will reiterate my main points, and then I will shut up:
Well thanks, bill... I will say whatever I want. I didn't jump all over you. I stated my views forcefully and with conviction. If that bothers you, that's not my problem.
1. Technology has changed the rules of the game. None of us here might like that fact, but it is a fact.
I'm not disputing that. File that one under "obvious." It's repeated so often, yet it's supposed to be profound. I understand this. But just because technology has made it easier to steal music on a widespread and somewhat anonymous basis, doesn't mean I have to like it, does it?
2. The RIAA tactics are doing nothing to help me or you.
No more so than people illegally downloading music is.
Their tactics are awful and just shy of extortion.
Going after people who ARE stealing isn't extortion. Charging money for a CD isn't extortion either.
I personally know people who have been sued by them who haven't downloaded a thing and purchase their music on CD's still. You can call these people thieves, but you don't know them and you don't know the facts of the situation.
I wouldn't call THOSE people THIEVES, bill. I'm not talking about them. Where in my remarks did I condone suing innocent people? I'm against prosecuting innocent people as a rule. Every year, innocent people are probably prosecuted and wrongly convicted of rape. Does that mean I feel the government should stop prosecuting rape? No. So if innocent people are being sued, and the RIAA is filing lawsuits against random citizens, then I'm certainly very much against that.
How would you feel if you got sued by a large corporate entity for something you didn't do? Would you have the money to fight it? Where is the fairness?
1) Upset. 2) Probably not. 3) There is none. But that's not what I was arguing.
3. We can either figure out a new model or not. Like I said, I don't have the answers, but it seems to me that more fighting and acrimony will solve nothing.
I don't see the acrimony coming from me, bill. I see it coming from you. You suggest I'm for the wholesale prosecutiion and roundup of innocents. That's preposterous. However, if those who pirate music, movies, computer software are either sued or prosecuted, I'm not that upset. What I have insisted on is that we don't overlook the basic principle, as inconvenient as it may be, that stealing is stealing. At some point, perhaps, theft of intellectual property might become so widespread that we are supposed to just give it up and declare it all "FREE." Or perhaps make it so cheap that it reduces the incentive for theft.
What also troubles me is that while this "new business model" that we speak about in abstract terms is being worked out, the financial impact of widespread theft of intellectual property continues, and until this panacea arrives, stanching the bleeding via lawsuit or criminal prosecution may actually be necessary. Again, I'm NOT FOR PROSECUTING INNOCENT PEOPLE. That's ludicrous to suggest I would be.
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