There is a lot to think about here.
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There is a lot to think about here.
I never expected to find out that Steve Ballmer would sign off on a letter PROTESTING these efforts by the entertainment industry, but here it is in black and white. I copied the below in quotes from eweek magazine, and am including a link also.
July 22, 2002
The Buzz: July 22, 2002
CEOs: Don't Stifle Innovation
"Much of the debate about anti-piracy has centered on the entertainment industry's attempts to quell the technology that allows users to record music and movies.
Now the technology industry is pushing back. In a sharply worded letter to some of the largest entertainment conglomerates—including Disney, Viacom and AOL Time Warner— 10 big-name, high-tech CEOs last week warned that attempts to stop piracy should not also quash technological innovation.
"Any solutions ... must not compromise the innovations this [peer-to-peer] functionality has to offer," said the CEOs, including Carly Fiorina of Hewlett-Packard, Michael Dell of Dell, Craig Barrett of Intel, Steve Ballmer of Microsoft and Joe Tucci of EMC.
The letter was sent in response to an April 12 letter sent by entertainment moguls concerning piracy and technology"
That pretty well sums it up, but you can have a look for yourself at http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,390977,00.asp
I'm not going to get into the morality argument...we all know it is wrong to steal. But by the same token, it's wrong for law enforcement to bash down the door of my house so they can look around for signs of illegal activity. So someone please tell me WHY the entertainment industry should have the legal right to kick down my front door (hack my firewall) and search my house (hard drive)? If I'm running a FTP site and robbing them, then let them present the evidence to a judge and get a warrant...that is the system that we have been using and it seems to work fine, IMHO. If they are granted this ability, the abuses that they could institute are endless. Imagine the poor novelist who has been shopping a book around for months only to see his hard work show up on the silver screen all because he had a copy of the manuscript on his hard drive. And he never sees a DIME of compensation for his effort. Or the politician who finds himself beholden to Hollywood because of some juicy little tidbit they found on his hard drive. Sound far-fetched? I think not...the past few weeks have given us all an in-depth look at the total lack of morality of corporate America. Get with it folks....Hollywood wants a license to rob you of your privacy. Are you going to let them become BIG BROTHER??
why is hollywood worried about these peer to peer networks when just about every piece of media is pirated in china, new deli ,etc there are dvd's of resident evil, blade 2, ocean's eleven, spiderman, etc hollywood just see this as a way to make more money believe me it all about the benjamins!
Ballmer is against it because he wants MS to control the content.
The problem with the MPAA and RIAA is that they are trying to put the genii back in the bottle by suppressing technology. Right or wrong P2P is here and they haven't figured out how to control it (make money off it). Instead of spending so much time and money trying to stop sharing from happening they should share certain works and put out a greater variety of artists.
Broadcasting is gone, narrowcasting can work. There is a market for smaller targeted distribution of works by artists that will never make it to the mass market, but it takes too much work for mega corporations to find it. There are ten companies that control ~90 percent of the media outlets in the USA if they don't want you to see or hear something it becomes hard to find.
Want to see what a recording artist thinks of P2P? Take a look at this thread and get the perspective they don't want you to hear!
http://www.antionline.com/showthread...hreadid=232818
Look, recording artists have a right to be outraged, but here is one of my bigger problems, how do I protect myself against a DoS attack from a big corp like that? They probably have more bandwidth at their disposal than my ISP. And how about if they strike outside of their own countries? Can they?
That is an excellent question, Khakis. While I cannot provide a technical answer to the question, I can say this...WE THE PEOPLE are the first line of defense in this matter. I have taken the liberty of writing a generic email for concerned members to use to protest this piece of legislation. I am also re-posting the links that will get people in contact with their congress-person. Feel free to use the attached document as you see fit, make any changes you deem needed, whatever. The main thing is that you USE it, make your voice heard. To quote the motto of my own state, "United we stand, divided...we FALL."
U.S. Senate:
http://www.senate.gov/senators/senator_by_state.cfm
U.S. House of Representatives:
http://clerk.house.gov/members/index.php