Jul 28
Here is another helping of politics and news, but this time it’s on a topic that will actually affect you. Am I the only one who finds these occasional doses of reality thoroughly depressing?
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that software companies can be held liable for copyright infringement when individuals use their technology to download songs and movies illegally. Justice Souter wrote,
“We hold that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties.”
And then the very next day…
Senate Republicans on Tuesday moved the National Rifle Association’s top priority ahead of a $491 billion defense bill, setting up a vote on legislation to shield firearms manufacturers and dealers from lawsuits over gun crimes. White House spokesman Scott McClellan defended the bill,
“The president believes that the manufacturer of a legal product should not be held liable for the criminal misuse of that product by others,”
To be fair, I haven’t settled on a position as to the ethics of P2P, but the hypocrisy of this situation is staggering to the point of absurdity. As RadicalRuss so cleverly described,
“Got that? If a company makes a product that is inappropriately used to illegally copy a movie, that company is liable. If a company makes a product that is inappropriately used to illegally kill a human, that company is not liable… Welcome to your government of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations, where a pirated copy of “Hollywood Homicide”* is bigger threat than an actual Hollywood homicide.”
In my ever humble opinion, gun manufacturers should not be held responsible for handgun deaths, just as Grokster should not be held responsible for copyright infringement. However, I am also of the belief that creators of any new technology should not carry the blame for the application of the technology, regardless of it’s intended effect. I tend to carry this sentiment to a degree where I have on several occasions found myself alone in opinion. The creators of the atomic bomb do not carry blame for the deaths at Hiroshima. Geneticists do not carry blame for the resulting difficulties brought about by cloning. I don’t blame the guy who invented the electric chair, though I may fault those who elect to use it. In my mind the nature of discovery is inherently pure. Technology must be pursued, boundaries must be pushed, and though a particular advancement may have sinister application (perhaps ONLY sinister application) it is naiive and irresponsible to shy from that advancement and act as though it does not exist. Einstein warned against the development of the atomic bomb, despite greatly assisting in it’s research.
Obviously peer-to-peer is not nearly so extreme in its effects. The casualties of Morpheus and LimeWire are lost sales and fallen revenue (though the extent of that is up to much debate as well). Still, while I don’t assign fault to Grokster, I can’t honestly claim that the rampant stealing is a good thing. Sure, I enjoy it – abuse it, really – but I want to be careful that my active involvement in the system doesn’t keep me from seeing the forest for the trees. Something needs to be done, yes, but we must first recognize this issue stems from a flaw in the system, not a flaw of the technology or even those applying it.
Sure guns can kill people, but they can also kill other things… like Iraqi insurgents. Maybe if Grokster used P2P to spread Freedom the way it spreads music we wouldn’t even be having this discussion.