[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       freenet-philosophy
Subject:    [Freenet-philosophy] Boies and Napster
From:       "Timm Murray" <admin () madtimes ! com>
Date:       2000-07-07 15:39:20
[Download RAW message or body]

OK, by now many of you have read about the recent Napster story on Slashdot.
For those that haven't, its at
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/07/04/0041256.  (aside--This Boies guy
is great!  He's been on the Napster defence for less then a month and
already he just ripped up the RIAA's whole defense).

Now, I know that many don't want Freenet to be thought of as "just another
file shareing tool" because it can be so much more, but I think the issues
are worth mentioning.

First, the part about "noncommercial sharing" apparently only applies to
music.  Since Freenet is likely to go beyond that, it wouldn't really apply.
However, Napster itself might get burned by this because its a for-profit
corperation, but thats all a matter of how you interpret "noncommercial
sharing."  The other arguments he puts forth will protect Napster well
enough, though.  Its clear that Freenet is not a corperation, so its clear
for all music sharing already.

(Aside:  Could Sourceforge be caught by that, since they're the ones hosting
the project?)

Now the Sony Betamax case would be a much stronger legal precedant to defend
Freenet by.  It basicly says that if it has a single ligit use, your home
free.  Its not too difficult to find a ligit use of Freenet (and Napster,
too).

Boies goes on about the abuse of copyright on the RIAA's side, thus having
them lose their rights to enforce those copyrights.  Ouch.  Not much for
defending Freenet, though, because Freenet wouldn't just be sharing RIAA
music.  It would have to be shown that anybody bringing up copyright charges
against Freenet had abused those copyrights.  That could get messy.

In any case, it looks like the Sony precedant looks like the strongest
argument for Freenet when IP issues come up.

----------------------
I have to talk to the admins running 127.0.0.1.  Their ping times are great!

Its almost as if its pluged right into my CPU!

[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]