pkust
join:2001-08-09
Houston, TX
| Ruling is a red herring
Worrying about Grokster et al getting sued for distributing copyrighted material only takes away from the real problem, which is the way that Hollywood and the music industry have twisted the principle of copyright way beyond anything resembling its original purpose.
The idea of copyrights was crafted to give creative people protection against others co-opting their work without just compensation. The earliest copyright statute, the Statute of Anne (1710), explicitly states this in its opening sentences:
"Whereas Printers, Booksellers, and other Persons, have of late frequently taken the Liberty of Printing, Reprinting, and Publishing, or causing to be Printed, Reprinted, and Published Books, and other Writings, without the Consent of the Authors or Proprietors of such Books and Writings, to their very great Detriment, and too often to the Ruin of them and their Families:"
Travesties of law such as DMC and CTEA, which automatically extended for an additional 20 years all copyrights currently in place, allows Hollywood and the RIAA unwarranted power to control what artistic works may be made available to the public by locking all creative work up for nearly a century AFTER the original creator's death (post CTEA, copyrights are life of the author plus 70 years).
If copyrights were returned to their original purpose of protecting the capacity of artists to make a living from their creative genius, and not used as a lever for a corrupt and rapacious recording industry to pry still more dollars from the buying public, the legal issues raised by p2p and file-sharing programs would, I think, be moot.
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Cordially,
Peter Nayland Kust
pkust@tekmedia.com
TEKMedia Communications, Inc.
www.tekmedia.com |
