Pending what could be a lengthy appeal, at least the recent guilty verdict issued in the Pirate Bay case by a Swedish court is a sign that action is being taken against P2P piracy, including precedent-setting jail time (the longest levied under Swedish copyright law) for the administrators of the site. If France can get its “three strikes” legislation through and the UK can achieve its goal of cutting illegal downloading by 70%-80% by 2011 we’ll have made even more strides to implement anti-piracy legislation and protect the copyrights of artists. The key is to do so in such way that individuals’ basic freedom to communicate on the Internet is not compromised. I am a staunch proponent of protecting copyright owners’ rights to receive remuneration from their creative works. I was appalled recently to overhear a young man declare in public after admitting to illegally downloading U2 tunes, “Sure I did. They won’t miss the money.” I wonder how this person would have responded to someone stealing his paycheck! There was a self-centered arrogance in his feigned attempt to be cool and and to get away with not paying for the songs. What was much more evident was his very un-cool regard for the people who wrote, performed and recorded those songs. Stealing artists’ income is not cool.
Filled Under: P2P Piracy