ACTA Unveiled
This looked quite interesting, partially because I’m getting the odd feeling that with this in the news, the RIAA might start using the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement model (even thought it appears to be simply an international agreement) as vindication of what they have been doing or as a means to continue their aggressive policy towards file-sharing. Now don’t get me wrong, I do agree that with the initial premise behind the ACTA to combat physical forms of piracy related to the mediums of CDs and actual large-scale copyright infringement is good (as those attempting to distribute and make money off of ripping people off should be prosecuted and shutdown), a reading of what little information there seems to be on it seems to me to leave a large wide-open gap as to whether this agreement will apply to online file-sharing as well.
And if it does apply, then we run the real risk of continuing to have organizations such as the RIAA pursue litigation against anyone and their dog, rather than adapt to a changing market environment in the distribution of music as they should do if they value the free market system. I mean, we already have Radiohead releasing their album online where people can pay whatever they choose for it, other artists either advocating or encouraging music downloads, and even journal articles* on the subject of online music sharing. I’m wary to see legislation going in the opposite direction and ignore the reality individual file sharing has in musical purchases.
~Shaun
*Sources related:
- Whatever happened to payola? An empirical analysis of online music sharing, Marsden, J.R.; Bhattacharjee, S.; Gopal, R.; Lertwachara, K., Decision Support Systems,vol.42,no.1,pp.104-120,Oct. 2006
- Do Artists Benefit from Online Music Sharing? Gopal, Ram D; Bhattacharjee, Sudip; Sanders, G Lawrence, The Journal of Business [Chicago], vol.79, no.3, pp.1503-1533, 2006
- Covering music file-sharing and the future of innovation, Russell, Adrienne, First Monday, vol. 11, no. 9, pp. np, Sep 2006
- The Anti-competitive Music Industry and the Case for Compulsory Licensing in the Digital Distribution of Music. Srivastava, Ankur, Touro Law Review, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 375-472, 2006
