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Here's the thing

Posted by J (A) on March 24, 2007 at 13:47:03

In Reply to: Great post J posted by Sordidman on March 23, 2007 at 20:23:00:

Thank you, Sordid, and also for complimenting other posts of mine where I might not respond directly to yr posts. I'd like to make it clear that I think that there's probably a lot more agreement here than disagreement. However, being nuanced, even if it's to the point where someone might consider it to be anal, and being specific about semantics is absolutely crucial to this discussion.

I like Mark a lot & respect him probably as much as anyone else on this site--although, on this one issue, I have to take issue with the one-dimensional view of considering this issue to be about whether or not one is willing to 'steal,' and little, or nothing, else. And that if anything else is mentioned, that it's a rationalization that puts you on the side of those engaged in illegal file-sharing. To wit: 'if you bring the conduct of the RIAA's members or the music industry at large into this debate, then you're just rationalizing theft.' Well, no, not if that conduct is brought in the debate merely for context. Tom is very wrong, there IS a big picture, and to reject the idea that it deserves mention is not something I'm going to accept when the 'fuckee,' as he puts it, the person who takes responsibility for signing the bad deal, is not the only one who gets f*cked.

Something else that deserves to be mentioned is that those who engage in this discussion and do offer the rationalizations about the conduct of the record labels always seem to dance around the issue of whether or not sales have actually been affected. Uh, it's time for those protesting the figures trotted out by the RIAA--and I sure never trusted them--to admit that sales have been affected. BIG time. The issue of whether or not illegal file-sharing spurs sales is a very secondary matter, more like tertiary. There is truth in the idea that there is an entire generation of youngsters for whom music has been devalued. The idea that 'you can't compete with free' is valid, and anyone denying that is being...dishonest. Period. I do believe there are a few different things going on here--a relatively productive use of file-sharing, illegal as it may be, where music consumers preview tracks that they're actually going to buy, or are going to spur them to purchase a ticket to see an act in live performance. It is on the behalf of that type of person that I used to assign more validity to the rationalizations, because they were logical. They were never logical when it came to kids downloading teen pop singles. But then there were those who were busy downloading tracks they would never have paid money for. And so, a few years ago, I remember a newspaper piece written by Jerry Lieber (or Stoller, I can't recall exactly) that complained of lost sales, and therefore lost income. None other than Thomas Sowell responded that this was, economically speaking, a fallacy, since you cannot assume sales, and, as a matter of fact, data was emerging that showed that those engaged in illegal file-sharing were a group that included quite a few folks who did state that they did download tracks that they never would have paid for.

This is about 5 years ago at this point.

Obviously things have changed to an extent. Sales ARE down, and they're down dramatically, and you can point to how the nature of the business has changed as it's leaned towards the blockbuster and so forth, but if you deny that illegal file-sharing has had an impact...sorry. Wrong.

Now, Mark, if you're reading this, I know that you're sick of this whole thing, but you know what? I don't care. Just so you know, I happen to run a business where I purchase used CDs for resale. My bottom line has decreased sharply over the past couple of years. So it's just as valid for me to say that illegal file-sharing impacts negatively on me. And when you're in that position, being moralized to is, yes, insulting. Because I choose to try to take a measured view of this instead of dismissing anything other than whether or not people are willing, or programmed, to 'steal?' That's unfair, sir.

For that reason, I continue this discussion, because I think it's worthy. Even though you've chosen to seemingly put little stock in any of what's discussed in the links I've provided, I'm going to introduce a new issue, whether you want to expand this any further or not, and, of course, you are free to not read, not respond, ignore as you wish. But I would appeal to you as a gentleman and a player to consider what I have to say, a little more than you have in this thread.

I am not an expert, and I don't present myself as one. I'm merely an interested party, though my interest is perhaps more significant than a layman, particularly since I do occupy a remote, tiny--microscopic--corner of the business, as anyone still reading this probably does as well. Or, depending on circustances, perhaps it's more than just a corner for you, but that's how I describe myself so that I don't present my involvement in any more of a self-important fashion than it needs to be. On this board, I never want to be anything more than a fan of music, and I do not speak of my own accomplishments when it comes to playing, because it has no bearing on the discussions I participate in on this board. I know how to play--big deal. Don't mean squat, and if I have to lean on how I'm a player, then most of the time I'm probably on the wrong side of the discussion, so I just don't do it.

Now, Mark, I asked you a post or two ago if you had a router, a wireless network in your home. Do you? How serious are you about security?

I got serious about security after the Sony BMG rootkit issue. Not long after that, I saw that my neighbor was on my home network, and I prioritized securing my system. However, in the months that my network was not secured, I unknowingly ran the risk of having a neighbor utilize file-sharing programs to illegally download music files. As time has passed, and wireless networks have become more common over the past few years, we are seeing, more and more, what appears to be an increasing volume of problems in the RIAA lawsuits. Three and a half years on, they're starting to hit people who have never had file-sharing software on their computers. And, like each and every day brings more interest, more articles, more blog entries, each and every day is leading towards a significantly higher volume of RIAA lawsuits directed at people who are simply not guilty of what they're being sued for.

(We can forget about the inconvenient detail that the RIAA is doing everything they can in such cases to resist compensating wrongly accused parties for their legal fees. Mark might call that a rationalization.)

Microsoft hired a Windows expert nearly a year ago, a fellow named Mark Russinovich. It's been said that he knows more about Windows than anyone else on the planet. Prior to his employment with Microsoft, he was probably best known for his software, designed to detect rootkits, and his blog, Sysinternals. Again, if you're reading this, you probably know that in late October of 2005, he ran his software on his computer after he saw something that didn't seem quite right. And he uncovered the presence of the rootkit in all CDs sold with XCP copy protection, and other issues in CDs that were copy-protected with MediaMax. As I previously mentioned, I had fouled my own box with a MediaMax disc (if you're reading this, Tom, that's an exception to yr response to Sordid about how you have no gripe with the music industry because you pay for recordings...and you get them). As it happens, I came pretty close to putting an XCP CD on my computer--the XCP with the rootkit, that is. I had actually had a disc with an earlier version of XCP that planted no rootkit. It did not, however, play in my computer--or ANY of my devices that play CDs, including a discman, a DVD player, and a dedicated, one-disc, reliable, 10-year-old CD player. It played only in an alternate CD player.

When I pay for a redbook CD that's DRM'd up the wazoo to the point where I cannot use it, then right there I feel I have the right to examine aspects of the discussion that are dismissed by others as 'rationalizations.' If I'm wrong on this, please let me know why.

There was an aspect of the Sony rootkit issue that I only saw discussed on a couple of blogs & message boards. Again, I'm no expert, but the way it was explained, it seems that Mr. Russinovich was in violation of certain provisions in the DMCA. Specifically, it was illegal for him to search his computer for a rootkit. It was illegal to identify it. It was illegal to try to remove it. So I ask a ridiculous question: why was Mr. Russinovich not prosecuted for violating provisions of the DMCA?

Now I ask a far more reasonable one: why the hell is it so difficult, Mark, to admit that the law has not caught up with the technology, and that, until this horribly constructed law undergoes a sorely-needed overhaul, that the attorney I linked to earlier is correct in floating the proposition that until all this is sorted out, that the use of terms like 'theft,' and its legally inaccurate usage in such discussions, is not only counterproductive, but foolish?

I do not think I'm making such an unreasonable observation here, Mark. And I don't think it helps when you put up posts such as the ones in this thread. And it's not about some PC nonsense that says we shouldn't call a thief a thief. It's more like, if we take just a second to approach this more rationally, that we'll benefit from having a law better than the one that now exists. Perhaps it will classify those illegally infringing copyright as thieves, in which case I will be content to call them exactly that. This is not currently the case. I want to see a balanced law, but, within limits, I am hoping that technology will soon provide us with the ability to be more precise about identifying those engaged in illegal file-sharing. It's probably too much to hope for that the RIAA hires some hackers to work to achieve this end, because, after all, there will be another Britney Spears or Lisa Marie Presley or Ashlee Simpson album that will need to be promoted. Let them continue to file suits against an increasing number of people whose only crime was not securing their wireless network--or people whose IP addresses were in fact spoofed. I think this all trumps yr view on the subject, Mark, and I think it's sad that you don't see it that way. And I know you're a busy guy, but I am hopeful that you can spend a few minutes & sit down & tell me exactly why I'm wrong about this, and why I should see it your way.

In return, I think I have a photo of a teenaged Michael Portnoy floating around here somewhere that I'd be happy to post, if yr youngster would have any interest in seeing it (I do think you recently said Portnoy had become a fave?). I think it might be a pic of him in a marching band uniform with a bass drum strapped on, but I can't recall, I'll have to look. Hopefully I can dig it up. In any case, I do look forward to a reply.

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