Piracy, Technology, Media

In nostalgic continuance of winter term, I stumbled upon a Huffington Post commentary The End of Hollywood as We Know It. It argues that "this is not a happy time to be an entertainment industry executive", because technology allows people to defeat advertising, leads to piracy, and perpetuates the idea that content should be free. Googled anyone?


The argument is supported by a hyper-linked news story that was reported by the Post that day: Limewire, the world's largest content-sharing network, was determined by a New York Federal Judge to be held responsible for copyright infringement for not cracking down on Limewire user's sharing of copyrighted content (the downloading of which makes up a bulk of its traffic).


The implications of this ruling are great - social networking and chat such as Google Wave/Chat, Facebook, Windows Live Messenger/Spaces, Yahoo may also face suits by media industries for not cracking down on the  sharing of copyrighted songs or photos. Will email also soon become required to include screening for copyrighted content sharing? What does this mean for internet privacy? 


Just two weeks ago, in a news story buried pages deep, in a tiny column, on the New York Times, the internet-control power-grab by the FCC was said to have moved forward after it used the tactic of reclassifying the internet broadband as traditional phone networks. This gives it the power to regulate broadband distribution, without congressional approval, despite having been denied that right after a Federal Court of Appeals case, Comcast vs. FCC, in April. Under these guidelines, it does not have the power to regulate content, but it certainly does have the power to regulate content distribution - such as copyrighted material. I'm no legal scholar, but does the FCC have the capacity to take the initiative and become a federal executive-branch internet policeman? It seems so. 


What about content? A the Columbia Basin Herald put it "have no fear, for FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski...has said that “FCC policies should not include regulating Internet content.” There's nothing more reassuring than when a federal official asks you to rest your trust in federal self-restriction and moderation. 


Not to blow the story out of proportion, but the implications of the Limewire-piracy lawsuit and FCC power grab may be signaling a change in how the free media ecosystems interact with our human need for control. Excuse the pun, but is this a change to be hoped for?