Sinabro

On WIRED blog:

Don’t believe Cary Sherman, the president of the Recording Industry Association of America, when he told a National Public Radio audience that Sony BMG’s anti-piracy chief had misspoken during her testimony in the copyright infringement trial against Jammie Thomas.

And if Sherman was telling the truth during that NPR interview, Thomas was the victim of a miscarriage of justice—despite the mountain of evidence against her.

Oh, so recording industry spokespeople can answer to questions that they “believe” were asked, rather than the ones that they were actually asked, and not face perjury charges, eh? After all, people shouldn’t care about whether they understood the question when they are testifying under oath!

If that’s the standard to which that they are held, what grounds do they have to stand on when I tell them, straight-faced, that I believed I was downloading a legal copy? That I believed I had permission to make as many copies as I want, because that’s what my computer does in playing a CD—it makes a copy of the WAV in memory! Or are they saying that since making a copy is somehow a crime and wrong, that I can’t legally play a CD that I bought (that is, if I’m lame enough to buy CD).

On Deoxy.org:

There is a strong case for opposing intellectual property. Among other things, it often retards innovation and exploits Third World peoples. Most of the usual arguments for intellectual property do not hold up under scrutiny. In particular, the metaphor of the marketplace of ideas provides no justification for ownership of ideas. The alternative to intellectual property is that intellectual products not be owned, as in the case of everyday language. Strategies against intellectual property include civil disobedience, promotion of non-owned information, and fostering of a more cooperative society.

I know that Lessig makes a more nuanced argument and doesn’t try to push people too much. If you agree with him, then fine, you aren’t at least my enemy.

But, arguments laid out in this essay is much closer to what I believe. I have a dream that one day ideas will no longer be falsely claimed as properties. I have a dream that one day a man will abhor to commit a crime against humanity by claiming to own a part of culture. I dream of a copyright- and patent-free society.

As far as its usefulness goes, copyright served out its purpose and its welcome. And like slave labor, it must go.