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18 Jun 2009 03:07
6/18 Japan just fell in line with other copyright industry friendly countries - the latest amendment to their copyright law makes downloading of content uploaded without the authors consent illegal, although enforcement is a bit tricky as the user needs to know that the files were illegally uploaded.
From the "I want my cake and eat it" department: if they're not busy calling traditional radio a form of piracy, they want the FCC to investigate those pirate stations for not participating in piracy (ehm, not playing the music of artists that support taxation of radio stations (that money would go to the labels of course.. no, I swear that has nothing to do with it, it's all about the artists)
So, the music industry is being decimated by piracy, or so goes the industry's favorite argument for stricter copyright law. Less money means less incentive for artists to create art is the argument. So, how come the number of albums released since Napster made online copyright infringement easy has more than doubled?
Besides cutting people off from the Internet without due process and suing their customers, the RIAA also loves the idea of ISPs blocking any content the industry doesn't approve of. So, their latest move comes in Norway where they are threatening to sue the largest ISP Telenor - you have 14 days to block the site or we'll enter your ship you dirty pirate enablers is the line they're using. Telenor's response: that would be like if the postal service opened all letters, read them and decided which ones to deliver - needless to say that this wouldn't be such a bad idea either.. so you can catch pirates using good old fashioned technology, too ;)
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