BU’s IT Director noted in yesterday’s file-sharing that RIAA lawsuits are “working” and have had a “chilling effect.” I think the irony must have been missed. A chilling effect, in legal terms, is when speech is stifled because of fear of punishment. For instance, free speech is often self-censored out of fear of an expensive libel suit. This chilling effects are occurring because of the RIAA suits, but they are not a good thing.
Let’s clarify a few things, Mr. Stone: 1) File sharing is not per se illegal. There really are a wide variety of artists who support file-sharing, from popular groups like Michelle Branch to independent artists. It’s one hundred percent legal to download and share in these cases – in fact, the artist encourages it! The RIAA lawsuits have chilled these types of legal downloads.
2) The legal alternatives are unacceptable to consumers right now. Take Movielink, where you can download movies, usually for five bucks. These movies delete themselves after 24 hours, are nowhere near DVD quality, aren’t available until 45 days after they hit video stores (if ever), are are significantly more expensive than going to Blockbuster. We all know it’s much cheaper to distribute the film over the internet than through the stores, so how stupid does the MPAA think we are? Apple’s iTunes or Napster 2.0 are slightly better, but they’re still no cheaper than buying a CD, and the selection is far less than your average Virgin Megastore, let alone Kazaa or Soulseek.
3) No matter what one’s stance on downloading is, it seems strange that BU’s IT Director (essentially the director of our ISP) is calling for even more lawsuits against his customers (remember, we paid $100 for the network to combat the “high cost” of file sharing last year). Rather than act against the interests of your studetns, how about if BU acted like commercial ISP’s and lobbied Congress for a more just copyright law that keeps an incentive for musicians to produce while disallowing the oligopolic partial competition and collusion of the music industry to rip off consumers?
Kevin Bryan CAS 06 6172307042