"File-sharing is done for free. Piracy is not. When someone burns several copies of a popular movie and sells the copies for profit, they’re pirating software. If he or she goes to a street corner and hands the bootlegs out for free, that’s file-sharing."
The same thing applies to sharing digital music, movie or other digital files online via the p2p networks or individual web pages.
And the distinction, one of the best yet, comes in Brian Fontenot's post on Louisiana's Independent Tigerweekly.
But file sharing isn't all Fontenot is discussing. He also complains about policies for CDs, saying they should be like any other product – returnable under appropriate circumstances.
"What happens when someone gets that movie or album they think they wanted, opens it, and hates it?" – he asks. "Anyone who has ever tried to return opened digital media to a store knows the answer. They have to have a receipt and they can only get an exact copy of what they are trying to return and only if it is defective. And this is simply not right.
"We should have the right to return a product, with a valid receipt, whether it is open or not. But, digital media manages to slip by us for some reason. And this creates quite the absurd situation where an individual can return a half eaten cake to their grocery store for a full refund, but won’t ever see their money again if they make the mistake of opening a 'Kingdom of Heaven' DVD. We are, to varying degrees, able to do this with everything from movie theater tickets to haircuts to clothing to cars."
If we consider the self-righteous crackdown on “illegal downloading,” we can see just how poorly we, the consumer, are being treated. Organizations like RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and Disney do nothing but harp about the evils of downloading. Disney even went so far as to have a cartoon where music downloading led to the virtual downfall of the music industry.
Those people who happened to purchase the Velvet Revolver album, “Contraband,” would have been treated to quite the nasty surprise when they put it into their PCs/Macs. If the CD is auto-run by the computer’s CD-ROM, a file is installed on the computer without the consent or knowledge of the computer’s owner. This file causes any copies of the album made on the computer to be garbled. Of course, this measure was called a copyright security measure and not what it really was, a computer virus.
A lot of people aren’t really informed about file-sharing, even those who use it. A downloaded file is not guaranteed to be the file it says it is. The encoding of the file is rarely done by a professional and often at substandard or wastefully high bit rates. And some media being swapped online has actually been released by the creators. File-sharing is also the digital equivalent of “promiscuity” and the “health problems” which may arise from numerous swapping, regardless of the protection in place.
Certain ethical problems arise, as well. It is not considered stealing for two roommates to share the movies, music, and games they individually buy. It is not considered stealing for someone to rip a music CD to mp3s to put on their iPod. And no one has ever been arrested for listening to their roommate’s CD collection, while their roommate is studying at the library, listening to all the music from their collection on their iPod. This is file-sharing, but it’s not illegal.
Furthermore, the law has turned a blind eye to what is probably the longest running and most widely used fire-sharing program, AOL Instant Messenger. It is not nearly as convenient or on such a large scale as say Napster was, but friends can still transfer movies and music files. And, AIM is still up, running, and hasn’t been sued.
We also need to distinguish piracy from file-sharing. File-sharing is done for free. Piracy is not. When someone burns several copies of a popular movie and sells the copies for profit, they’re pirating software. If he or she goes to a street corner and hands the bootlegs out for free, that’s file-sharing. The policies and laws preventing stores from refunding your money to you, because the movie you purchased was terrible were put in place to defeat piracy. The CD-keys protecting Windows XP discs were developed to thwart piracy. Copying media isn’t something new to the world.
Clamping down on Internet file-sharing, while not making revisions to existing policies, however, is new. Despite logic, file-sharing is illegal and people have been prosecuted. The whole point of shutting down file-sharing is to keep the media industries from losing profit. But, the other end of things isn’t being adjusted. Law abiding citizens don’t download media, they purchase it. But, they are treated like potential pirates, each time they are refused a refund.
The media industry shouldn’t be allowed to have it both ways and force the consumer into the equivalent of grab-bag shopping. Even with stores and Web sites offering song samples and playing movies, the consumer still can’t make an informed decision. For example, Amazon.com has a sample for Coheed & Cambria’s hit single, “The Suffering,” but the sample doesn’t include the song’s chorus. And good luck to anyone trying to listen to a sample of lesser known or older album in their local Barnes & Noble, as only the music the store is trying to sell is going to be available to listen to. With movies, especially re-releases of older titles, it can be next to impossible to see what the extra footage is actually included in say the international version of “Supergirl.”
The solution is simple. Give us refunds or gives us file-sharing. Until then, the media industry deserves no sympathy from us, and it certainly doesn’t deserve our money. It’s bad enough a we have to pay $15 for a CD when we can walk a few aisles over and buy a blank CD-R for roughly $0.35, which can hold nearly 10 of the $15 CDs on it in .mp3 format.
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around.Don't buy their 'product'. Do bug your local political representatives. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you're into organizing, organize petitions, o
