DRM News

An essay titled ‘Is it OK to download music, movies and games without paying?’, was chosen as the winner in an event sponsored by The Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics and The Department of Philosophy at the University of Manitoba.

The main argument in the essay is that file sharing benefits society. If you take away the copyright issues and look at the base argument that sharing information benefits society, I think you can successfully argue that point. Almost every invention has been based upon someone else’s work. What if the man who first started a fire sent caveman lawyers (thugs with clubs) to trample other fires? What if he said that if you want to have fire, I have to be paid? We’d probably be sitting cold in a cave still.

I’m not advocating for copyright infringement, file sharing or any other types of illegal behaviour, but we are getting a little out of control with companies enforcing copyright. Yesterday the UVEX sporting supplier web page was updated with a little poem titled ‘Blonde we like wins Downhill (Last name rhymes with "Bonn")’. Why? Because the International Olympic Committee said they could not use a skier’s name, someone who they have sponsored, on their website. They even had to take down old articles with her name included. A little bit of overkill.

Or you may have heard about Google taking down music blogs because of supposed ‘copyright infringement’, even though some of those blogs had permission from the labels to put them up.

You’re reading this right: Five years of Lipold’s labor of love was deleted, in part, because he posted a track with full permission of a label, and the track apparently wasn’t even online by the time the IFPI filed its complaint.

The argument from companies is that they lose money, and in the essay that is covered.

Recall, too, that a downloaded copy does not necessarily equate to a lost sale. Much of the material is downloaded to sample, and is subsequently deleted. This hardly suggests that downloaders would have been willing to pay for the material if it hadn’t been available free online.

The file sharing audience is being threatened for taking advantage of innovative technology that allows us to sample and enjoy media free of charge; but we are also contributing to the sales of all media via alternative methods. A recently published, three-year study on online music sharing concluded that 95 per cent of all downloads were illegal, yet the worldwide digital music business grew by 25 per cent in 2008 — the sixth year in a row that it has increased. File sharing, far from destroying the industry, could save it. And largely unknown artists now have at least some chance of being listened to. The same goes for those who create movies and games.

Overall a well done essay with some good points. Still not an excuse to pirate, but does make a case that copyright holders need to change their business model.

The essay in full can be read here.