Guilty Until Proven Innocent

The Luddites at the MPAA are at it again. The same people who fought to stop the commercialization of the VCR are trying to convince a judge that they should be able to sure the users of peer-to-peer networks WITHOUT proof that any wrongdoing was committed.

Check out the original article from Wired.

The MPAA argument is that is is "technologically infeasible" to prove that infringement took place, so they shouldn't have to. They should be able to assume that because someone has a movie in a folder capable of being shared, they have infringed a copyright. As a writer, I'm a big fan of copyright protection. I believe wholeheartedly that people who create books, music, movies, television shows, etc. should be fairly compensated for their work and not have it stolen. But this?

You can't sue someone for what they might have done. They actually have to commit the offense they are being held responsible for. Furthermore, the response that it is technologically infeasible tells me the MPAA is just lazy. It used by technologically infeasible to record a movie to a DVD. It used to be technologically infeasible to broadcast television signals in high-definition. It used to be technologically infeasible to create computer generated special effects in summer blockbusters. Somehow all these things happened.

Instead of fighting emerging technologies, which has been the MPAA's modus operandi since the days of Betamax, learn about them. That VCR the MPAA wanted banned turned into a huge revenue stream for them. How do they know peer-to-peer networks won't? Or maybe some hot-shot computer programmer will develop a way to tell when a file has been illegally shared. But you never know what will happen until you try.