Use the FBI and prison-time to stop file-sharing?

[magickyleo101]

The Songwriter's Guild has come out with the suggestion that file sharing is worse than bank robbery and that intellectual property rights should be given criminal law enforcement through the FBI.

Songwriters: piracy "dwarfs bank robbery," FBI must act

The Songwriters Guild of America has a message for the government: start prosecuting file-sharers, both criminally and civilly, because file-sharing is much worse than bank robbery.

"There are numerous economic crimes of much lesser magnitude (such as bank robbery) that are routinely and fully investigated, for which law enforcement agencies such as the FBI have significant resources," complains the Guild (PDF). "By contrast, online copyright piracy dwarfs bank robbery in causing economic losses, yet the FBI has limited criminal investigative interest and no civil mandate whatsoever to pursue this devastating economic harm. This inequity must change."

Now, regardless of whether or not file-sharing should be policed by the FBI (a bit silly), I do agree with the songwriters guild that there should be something of a paradigm shift in intellectual property right enforcement, away from private lawsuits and towards the criminal justice system. Intellectual property rights have been ghettoized in the way that such rights are viewed by the public and enforced by the government, and that trend should be reversed.

In other words, downloading a $15 dollar movie should carry the same punishment that shoplifting a $15 shirt would.

[Simon Cashmere]

In other words, downloading a $15 dollar movie should carry the same punishment that shoplifting a $15 shirt would.

Except that file stealing is much harder to detect and apprehend, and the stolen merchandise is moved more easily across state and international boundaries.

[magickyleo101]

Except that file stealing is much harder to detect and apprehend, and the stolen merchandise is moved more easily across state and international boundaries.

I agree with your premise, but I'm not sure what you think this says about enforcement or punishment.

[Armenum]

This is the information age. It's going to be very hard to subdue the file-sharing community. People will go to great lengths to get their free music/applications and ones with basic knowledge of computer security can achieve this easily.

[magickyleo101]

This is the information age. It's going to be very hard to subdue the file-sharing community. People will go to great lengths to get their free music/applications and ones with basic knowledge of computer security can achieve this easily.

If anything, that's all the more reason to increase the severity of punishment for people who engage in file sharing.

Also, it's easier to catch people running big distribution websites like icefilms than it is to catch individual users or people burning cds for their friends.

[chilon]

If anything, that's all the more reason to increase the severity of punishment for people who engage in file sharing.

Huh?

You can't force markets by threats of police and jail.

It seems like Songwriters Guild and RIAA want USA to be like Nazi-land =X

[Yosemite]

I agree with your premise, but I'm not sure what you think this says about enforcement or punishment.

you are just asking for big brother

[cfmonkey45]

The Songwriter's Guild has come out with the suggestion that file sharing is worse than bank robbery and that intellectual property rights should be given criminal law enforcement through the FBI.

Now, regardless of whether or not file-sharing should be policed by the FBI (a bit silly), I do agree with the songwriters guild that there should be something of a paradigm shift in intellectual property right enforcement, away from private lawsuits and towards the criminal justice system. Intellectual property rights have been ghettoized in the way that such rights are viewed by the public and enforced by the government, and that trend should be reversed.

You mean like how the music industry already sues filesharers in courts of law and force them to pay obscene amounts of cash for some corporation, who's already making millions of dollars selling the crap back to them?

http://www.switched.com/2009/06/19/w...ding-24-songs/
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/...7311267748048/
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...oryId=15037223

Yeah, I agree.

In other words, downloading a $15 dollar movie should carry the same punishment that shoplifting a $15 shirt would.

I doubt it would work. It's extremely difficult to track these things, and even more so to prosecute them. I think the music industry is better off redirecting their income towards concerts and such and sort of ignoring this type of problem. It's not going away any time soon.

[Strelok]

In technicality it isn't stealing at all. You don't steal the data - you copy it. So it's copyright infringment but not theft. EDIT: Nevermind, misread file-sharers as file-stealers.

Now, regardless of whether or not file-sharing should be policed by the FBI

More than extreme.

In other words, downloading a $15 dollar movie should carry the same punishment that shoplifting a $15 shirt would.

Sounds well and dandy. It's gonna be hard to enforce, though.

[Khalid]

For it to be theft, it requires the loss of an existing asset. It's their failed Business Model that's the problem, not the Pirates.

In other words, downloading a $15 dollar movie should carry the same punishment that shoplifting a $15 shirt would.

Not the same thing as theft.

[Mangalore]

The music industry has dropped the ball on this already years back. There is plainly a fundamental problem if an illegal distribution system (aside of being free) is simply more accomodating than the services of the industry.

Harsher punishment can only be one side of the medal, the other being to finally reform your industry to accept that there is this new thing called internet which makes tons of stuff readily available and thus difficult to charge without alot of additional candy.

[Sphere]

I don't know the true statistics but....

If a law makes half(?) a nations citizens criminals, there is probably something wrong with the law and not the citizens.

[MathiasOfAthens]

I don't know the true statistics but....

If a law makes half(?) a nations citizens criminals, there is probably something wrong with the law and not the citizens.

Half, prob 3/4^ths.


Sorry doubled post, I hate myself.

[Plan C]

Hmmm... Media producers seem to believe that they can paper over even the biggest of cracks in their business model.
What really annoys me is that their profits are on the up anyway. It seems that most people actually do pay for music they download.

Good luck trying to stop file-sharing I say. Trying to crack down hard on file sharing is likely to have the same effect as "fighting" PC gaming piracy i.e. legit users get all the cr@p and pirates enjoy a better experience with cracked games. Instead of being thanked for your purchase, you're greeted with a list of restrictions and made immediately aware of the fact that what you have bought is not actually yours at all.

[priam11]

It is not like our jails are already packed enough as it is.

[Kjertesvein]

Song writers guild should use another format, and stop the sissy complaining. Jeez, they drov in this mess and spilled their work in the open, people naturally use what theyr find - and now they want the state to do their pick up job for our tax money. Kiss my shiny white ***!

[Alba gu Brath]

The music industry needs a new business model, criminal punishment isn't going to make the problem go away.

[God-Emperor of Mankind]

Comparing it to a bank robbery is a wrong term to use IMO.
The proper crime to compare it to is counterfeit money.
Which makes this:

downloading a $15 dollar movie should carry the same punishment that shoplifting a $15 shirt would

Also wrong since it's more like someone went into the cloth store and made a exact copy of the shirt.
The original shirt however is still in the store.

As for the rest, well seems like the FBI have better things to do like catch serial killers rather then go after teenagers just because a industry refuse to adapt to the new technology.

[chilon]

The music industry needs a new business model, criminal punishment isn't going to make the problem go away.

There are new business models emerging already but the mass mainstream media has not been up to date on it of course.


China has music industry model now, c.2010, that is based on free music (no surprise there)

and even Western bands like Radiohead have already pioneered new business models.

Its really just RIAA make-believe that allowed them to exist as long as they have already. "Big Music" is not a natural industry at all.

[Yosemite]

China has music industry model now, c.2010, that is based on free music (no surprise there)

got anything to expand on this