- 2003.12.12
The other day I heard a couple of students discussing downloading
songs and witnessed the RIAA's worst nightmare. "Man, ever since they
started suing people, LimeWire's gotten really slow,"
says the one kid. "What's LimeWire?" says the other, and thus the
infection of file swapping (file stealing, says the RIAA) spreads.
Several years ago, I predicted the demise of Napster (to my students, not in
print, alas) because it was essentially a conduit for illegal
file-sharing. My students scoffed at the time, but eventually Napster
sank (until its recent reanimation from the dead).
Like the reanimation of the dead in a Stephen King book, the thing
you get back isn't always as the thing you buried.
I'm ready to go out on a limb and declare the same thing for this
Jon Lech Johansen character; sooner or later he's either going to wind
up jailed or fined so much he will be discouraged from providing the
tools he does.
Johansen is the kid who broke the DVD
encryption code a while back and has recently posted a little
program that lets iTunes Music Store users - at least, those on the PC
side - swap files without restriction.
He maintains in his
blog that Mac users who are complaining about his new toy are
ignorant of copyright law. "None of the posters address copyright law
at all," he smirks in a recent post.
What Johansen and other would-be Robin Hoods fail to realize is that
there is plenty of precedent for society to place a law against the use
of property that is injurious to others and to society as a whole. For
example, when you buy a car, you assume certain responsibilities. You
are expected to drive the car in a safe manner, not crashing into trees
and people at random - once you own it, you can't do anything you want
with it.
There is right, and there is wrong, and what Johansen has done is
wrong.
I personally have no idea if the RIAA's assertion that downloading
is killing CD sales is true or not. What I do know is that the
musicians have spent many hours creating their works, and they deserve
to have a way to ensure that they are paid for their work.
The restrictions Apple has placed on the use of iTunes files are
entirely reasonable, because they give you wide latitude in the way you
can use the files. The only real restriction is precisely the one that
Johansen has cracked - and that is not only legally but morally
wrong.
Johansen and those like him are misguided because they believe they
are serving the greater good by challenging copyright precedents set by
the DMCA. If they are ultimately successful, there will be no
professional studio music left on the Internet (or in the few remaining
music stores) because only amateurs would bother giving it away for
free.
They would serve us far better by challenging the ongoing hijacking of the
expiration of copyright by Disney, which is clearly against the
public interest.
But that wouldn't be as smirk-worthy, would it?
is a longtime Mac user. He was using digital sensors on Apple II computers in the 1980's and has networked computers in his classroom since before the internet existed. In 2006 he was selected at the California Computer Using Educator's teacher of the year. His students have used NASA space probes and regularly participate in piloting new materials for NASA. He is the author of two books and numerous articles and scientific papers. He currently teaches astronomy and physics in California, where he lives with his twin sons, Jony and Ben.< And there's still a Mac G3 in his classroom which finds occasional use.
