What Has The Free Speech Coalition Been Up To Lately

[Fausty]

Originally Posted by tony404

Have you ever had your sweat and blood given away by someone who had no right?

Actually, something similar. I've had content that I busted my ass to create and distribute, for free, to the community - complete with watermarks and notice of ownership of copyright - end up packaged up in paid commercial websites. Not once, but many times. I learned the hard way that putting copyright info in a small notice on the bottom of photos or video doesn't work - the paysite scammers will just cut that part off and sell it anyway.

I think that's somewhat similar to having something one owns and sells be stolen and mis-used by someone else. I didn't lose money in the process, by my express intentions as a content creator were actively subverted and I was left holding the bag. It kind of sucks, so I think I can empathize.

So, yes, I have been in this situation myself. I am not some "information is free" cyber-hippie advocating for any and all manner of content ripping. Perhaps I wasn't clear enough in stating that, but it's really true.

Point being: this issue has NOTHING to do with "free speech." Nothing. Nobody's ability to speak freely is being infringed if their intellectual property is mis-used by someone else. Apple, meet orange - two different issues.

. . .

In terms of the "battle against filesharing," my own position (for what it's worth) is twofold. First, the entire framing of the discussion is malformed: just like having a "war on terror" borders on self-parody (as The Daily Show remarked, declaring war on adjectives is epistimologically problematic), so is battling a basic element of electronic networks: sharing files. Chasing after widely-deployed technologies - rather than the more specific problems that their use has created during the development of the overall ecosystem in which they reside - misses the forest for the trees.

Second, continuing to pursue strategies that have proven to be absolute, total, irredeemable failures isn't a smart plan. Whether failed efforts against IP mis-use "make sense" or "should work" or whatever, if they have FAILED then perhaps it's time to try something else. The worst-case scenario is that the new effort fails as well - no worse than before. If heavy-handed fear campaigns worked, the mainstream music conglomerates would still be rolling in cash. They aren't - it didn't work. Time for a different plan - any different plan.

Closing the doors to the barn after the cows have already left may feel good. It may even feel "right." Locking them tightly, and posting signs ("note to cows, do NOT try to leave this barn") doesn't lessen the ineffectiveness of the ex post facto door-closing. However, going out to search for the cows is a much more useful strategy, at that point - and perhaps sitting down to think about ways to avoid such problems in the future by changing fundamental barn management procedures. Being mad about the open doors won't bring the cows home safely, no matter how mad one gets nor how much it is true that it "wasn't my fault" the doors might have been left open in the first place.

One more time: the fact that the FSC has taken a stance on the issue of filesharing and IP protection is hardly inappropriate (athough I, personally, think that their stance is not terribly effective). However, the simple fact remains: it is not a "free speech" issue, not even close.

Regards,

Fausty