Peer-meme, a daily gathering of news and commentary on the copyright wars and the file-sharing world.
Brad / Think Blog
The PROTECT IP Act: What You Need to Know
I stumbled across this blog, normally devoted to Experience Designers, because it had a very good, succinct post about the dangers of the PROTECT IP Act, written for a broad, not-necessarily-techie audience. It is a shame that the complicated nature of what the Act will do makes it hard to easily explain why so many people need to speak out about it, but I’m glad to see people trying nonetheless.
Rafe Needleman / CNET
“Go the F*** to Sleep” author: I don’t support piracy
Adam Mansbach, the author of the underground sensation, “Go the F*** to Sleep” tells Needleman that despite that fact that unauthorized distribution of his book has propelled it to number 1 on the Amazon charts, he’s against piracy. I think Mansbach’s argument is a bit confused, as he admits that piracy worked in this case, and that he knows obscurity is a far bigger problem with his literary novels. I think it is understandable that so many creators and artists have a difficult time conceptually with the idea of piracy having benefits, as it strikes at the heart of their notion of the relationship between author and work. And it can seem like a very personal injury for readers to engage with the work in ways the author deems inappropriate, but the reality is, or should be I guess, that engagement is what is ultimately the most important. Consumers of cultural goods never actually receive the work the way it is intended, but create their own meanings for it, sometimes in ways that would horrify authors. That fact has now extended even to the way they acquire the work.
Mike McCurry / Politico
Congress must combat online theft
To get a sense of the kind of language and “facts” the content industry uses to convince lawmakers to support legislation, like the PROTECT IP Act, it would like to see passed, just take a look at this piece from paid lobbyist McCurry. Wild claims and ridiculously unsupported figures make up the scary scenario the content industry would have you believe. They claim that 2.5 million jobs have been lost because of copyright infringement. Where does that number come from? How could it possibly be true? Don’t expect to find out from these kinds of propaganda pieces.
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Bruce, you hit the nail on the head. When legislation is written in such arcane and inaccessible language it’s bad enough. Then there are additional technical, legal, and, business-oriented complications when you deal with something like PROTECT IP. I truly believe that one of the first steps to improving the experience of government is making legislation real and meaningful to the people it will impact most. We’ll see what happens with this bill. Hopefully Senator Wyden can help to stop this wrong-headed bill in its tracked like he did with COICA.
If you or your readers feel strongly about this, please tell your representatives in Washington (if you haven’t done so already).