BoingBoing has reported a new twist in the fight against Internet music piracy:
I was just alerted that the House of Reps has passed HR 4279, with the lovely name, PRO-IP (Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2008). Like the doublespeak PATRIOT Act and Peacekeeper missiles, PRO-IP puts local law enforcement in a position to demand the forfeiture in criminal proceedings of stuff used to violate copyright. Which means that instead of the RIAA simply trying to collect fines, they can also incite local authorities to collect all the computers and related gear that was used to pirate.
This sounds, to me at least, like yet another example of governments failing to properly address the issue of music piracy, and instead of helping to find a happy medium between the end users (listeners of music) and producers (record companies), inflict horrible new Orwelian laws which, in my experience (see Anonymous) will only provoke downloaders, hackers and pirates further.
On a brighter note, our interview with Trey Spruance has begun to provoke an interesting, and more productive, discussion on how music could be handled in the light of piracy, check this link to join the discussion.
I think that is a subject we’ll be covering more in the future.