Wednesday, March 10, 2004

Victory for EFF Creates Problems for EFF's Filesharing Solution. Ernest Miller spot on as ever.

"Pennsylvania Federal judge has ordered the RIAA lawsuit charging 203 Comcast subscribers with copyright infringement be broken up into 203 separate lawsuits...

This is certainly a victory for the rights of those accused of copyright infringement, providing a high degree of protection to those who may have been falsely accused. It also greatly complicates the ability of copyright owners to prosecute wide spread infringement and places a greater burden on our court system. A reasonable tradeoff, but it also has other effects as well. For example, it also makes it almost impossible to enforce EFF's voluntary collective music licensing scheme on an individual basis...

In short, why would the majority of filesharers pay $5/month when they can get everything free from the minority of people who do pay? This latest victory, however, makes EFF's position virtually impossible to enforce on an individual basis..."

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