More on file swapping

There’s more all around on the latest file-sharing stuff, here, here, and here.

The thing to take away from all of this is that there’s a very real possibility that file-sharing will be no more, and that burning music to a cd will become a very burdensome process in the near future. While I don’t do file-sharing and wouldn’t necessarily be put out by having that shut down, I will be put out by not being able to time and space-shift my legitimate music library, or by having every file transfer investigated for possible infringement. The reality is that a massive underground market of truly independant music and film that routes around the RIAA and MPAA and every other mismash of big capital letters, is the only way to fight this. The only way to get them out of your internet connection and out of your hardware is to get them out of your life. I wish all of you file sharers out there would just stop. If being able to file share is so important to you, and losing it is such a violation of your “freedoms” then quit supporting the music industry, quit supporting Hollywood, and go out and spend some money on truly independant artists. Put your money where your mouth is!

For the record, I personally don’t feel like we have any sort of god-given right to file sharing. We have right’s when we purchase legitimate content, “Fair Use” rights and all, but Fair Use does not extend to downloading content that you know is copyrighted. I do, and will, fight for Fair Use rights, but I’m not going to fight for your right to have free music available over Kazaa. That’s different.

On the other hand, saying that the dwindling CD sales is solely because of online piracy is sort of stupid too. 🙂

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