Why Net Neutrality Will Never Happen/The Missed Entrepreneurial Opportunity- Part 1
As a precursor to this post, I just want to let it be known that if you aren’t aware of ISP’s, copyright infringement, torrents, or the FCC, then you probably won’t care too much. On the other hand, if you’re one the 10mm people that do (myself included), who actively use the Internet and care about much of the “underground” aspects of it, then read on.
To catch the unenlightened up to date, after much speculation and debate which appeared on various tech blogs, it was shown that the FCC was planning on proposing a new set of Internet legislation dubbed “Net Neutrality”. Now I know what some of you must be asking yourselves; “isn’t the Internet already a neutral place?” Though the file sharing trends and trials are being much more publicized because of the increased tension between users, ISP’s, and the various companies such as Sony or Apple (not to mention the recent Pirate Bay mockery that was made in regards to the proposed “legalized buyout” of it’s trademark and domain) as of late, relatively few people actually know the laws that govern both sides of the argument.
In a nutshell it comes down to this: People “steal” heavily online whether it is a song or the new Dan Brown book. The companies that are allegedly losing sales want their money back… almost 10,000x fold. If you get caught you will usually be charged on just a few songs, about 13 to 26 at this point (we all know that it would be outrageous to have to pay about $130,000 dollars for the thousand songs you ACTUALLY downloaded illegally). The odds are stacked 100% against you; they have the better lawyers, a few high profile artists, and to top it off the jury happens to be people who don’t know or care about anything that has to do with downloading music online. What do you get? Screwed is the most simplistic term.
If you actually have sympathy for this grave plight that has threatened your daily Internet activity, here are some comforting facts. First, the odds of actually getting sued and having a lawsuit that goes to court (usually a $7,000 settlement out of court has occurred in many of the cease and desist incidents over the last decade) is less likely then being abducted by Aliens. It can happen, but more then likely not. Second, the ISP’s are more or less on the user side in terms of privacy. Third, there is a growing political movement that has swept the globe since the summer (all hail the Pirate Party).
With that in mind, there can be a light at the end of this bleak tunnel. A common ground can be reached, if BOTH sides are willing to compromise. Playing Devil’s advocate- let’s take the side of the record labels. Yes, intellectual property is being stolen. Yes, they are technically losing sales by this. Yes, that little FBI copyright notice that pops up before every movie you watch on DVD is actually real and enforced. Yes, there needs to be a change. There are thousands of artists and television shows/movies are being stolen everyday. As a result, the people who should get paid (artists or writers/talent of these shows, as well as production crews) don’t get their comeuppance. At the same time, we saw this just a couple of years ago when the WGA created a media frenzy over their unfair cut from internet download sales of their shows from sources such as itunes. It’s bad enough that they potentially lose royalties when their material is stolen, but on the other hand THEY don’t even get sympathy from the big corporations.
In another recent attention grabbing article I read how Sony Records in Mexico ended up breaking massive copyright laws with an ex artist on their label who then was able to seize 10,000 unauthorized CD’s. You heard me, the people bent on getting their money back still happen to be the faceless, titan, hypocrites. They can do what they want …….unless they get called on it, and yet will still win in the end. We get caught and all of a sudden it’s an automatic game over.
Now looking from the viewpoint of the infringers, it’s pretty obvious what the pros are: free content that is more then likely unfairly priced in this economy coupled with quick access to what you want, when you want it. In theory ,depending on what kind of method you’re using, you can gain access to thousands of movies and download them almost instantly onto your computer. You can finally say goodbye to DVD’s and Blu-ray discs, and file sizes are smaller and the same quality as the ones offered legally. Truth be told- this needs to be the future.
In a society that demands instant access to almost anything, it’s actually harmful to try and stop various aspects of these practices. Here’s a perfect example. A few years ago I LEGALLY bought a compilation of Marvel Comics on a DVD. The content could all be taken off the disc and opened in Adobe PDF legally, but at the same time I also wondered why it took so long for a company to do this. Essentially, an entire legacy of art, popular culture, and awesomeness was transported off the paper and into the eternally preserved digital world. What was missing? Well for starters, not every comic in the series was included; there were many omissions due to “copyright” laws, which created some gapping plot holes when later issues started depending heavily on crossover with other series.
Soon after I then discovered you could download the entire run of the same series in a torrent file, but I’m not talking about just what was on the disc, I mean EVERYTHING in a twenty plus gigabyte file. Truth be told, people at Marvel didn’t do this, everyday people who wanted to preserve the comics did. Now technically (and actually) these people are breaking copyright laws. Almost half the issues couldn’t be easily obtained (issue one of Spider-man goes for several thousand dollars) without high cost or scarcity. What might be looked at as a gross theft of intellectual property simultaneously becomes one of the biggest free archiving preservation acts of our time. But in the end is this even a justifiable practice? Is there a real entrepreneurial aspect or justified reason people could use to their advantage with this model of content distribution?
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About the Blogger: Landon David Chase is a Student at Syracuse University.
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