tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6513247322821379490.post4759323675121160268..comments2023-12-07T00:42:01.910-08:00Comments on Modern Copyright: It's Not About Copyright; It's About Copyright EnforcementMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12307786486278816300noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6513247322821379490.post-44561908805023266022013-01-27T02:21:54.872-08:002013-01-27T02:21:54.872-08:00I know this as an old post, but I only just discov...I know this as an old post, but I only just discovered it by following a link, so I'm going to comment.<br /><br />Your points:<br /><br /><i>To enforce this, I should be able to spy on everyone's private communications!</i><br /><br />One, no-one I know is actually arguing for this, and two, as from previous interactions with you, it depends on you expanding the definition of "privacy" out to mean everything anyone does online, which is just ridiculous.<br /><br />The internet is a public space — and seriously, anyone who thinks otherwise will, I think, quickly learn the error of their presumptions. I notice you sign yourself "M", suggesting that you are clearly aware of the public nature of the internet and are seeking to preserve your privacy by not linking your real name to your comments. That means this entire argument is disingenuous at best.<br /><br />Monitoring what people do in a public space is not invading their privacy, especially not when what's being monitored are commercial transactions.<br /><br /><i>To enforce this, we should scour the web and search for things that potentially violate copyright and shut them down without even a court order!</i><br /><br />And when people try to set up legal structures that would deal with web sites distributing pirated product, the tech industry screams loudly, lobbies aggressively and lies through their teeth, saying any such structures would "break the internet" — and I speak as someone who was gullible enough to believe them at the time.<br /><br />So, either you think web sites should only be shut down with a court order after due process has been observed, in which case you would support setting up appropriate legal structures so the courts could issue such orders in the right circumstances, or you're just being disingenuous again.<br /><br /><i>Therefore, we should sue single mothers and students for millions of dollars when we catch them violating copyright!</i><br /><br />Well, I agree with this one. What we should do is set up a graduated series of warnings followed by an escalating series of fines so only persistent and wilful offenders will actually suffer any financial loss. Oh, wait, that's the same conclusion that everyone else involved in the debate has adopted as well, including those arguing for copyright. So, by resurrecting this old over-reaction, you're just being disingenuous again.<br /><br />And you keep telling others that they're stuck in the past.<br /><br />You keep trying to pretend that piracy is just some single mothers and students sharing a few favourite songs, rather than acknowledging that it's an industrial level enterprise that is generating millions of dollars in revenue for people who aren't the creators of the material being pirated and who aren't paying the creators of the material being pirated.<br /><br />I don't think copyright enforcement requires anywhere near as oppressive a regime as you're postulating. As <a rel="nofollow">others have pointed out</a>, piracy flourishes on sites that enable and financially encourage it, but doesn't on sites that don't. This suggests that focusing on websites and those who run them rather than on individual users will quite sufficient to deal with the problem.<br /><br />If I'm wrong about that, then I think closing down the big industrial level pirate sites and cyber lockers would be good start and we can deal with whatever comes along after that when it actually arrives and we know what it is and can assess it's effects.<br /><br />Until then, all you're offering are apocalyptic fantasies and they're not particularly entertaining apocalyptic fantasies. Just as well that what you write for a living is software.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com