This is the bane of new things: some people don’t understand it. This is especially the case of the geriatrics that line the various Senates. This means that they are allowed to introduce ridiculous bills that, if passed in any other field, would raise an incredible uproar.
What if you invented something? Potentially something incredibly mindblowing and useful! Everyone would use it on a daily basis to make their lives easier! But that unfortunately that thing was also used by a minority for illegal activities? Should you be liable? Should you be jailed? Sued?
California seems thinks so in a new bill they introduced.
The bill specifically targets makers of P2P software, which by its own uninformed definition includes Internet Browsers, E-Mail Clients, and Internet Radios. However, apply the logic anywhere else and you’ll realise how little sense the bill makes:
– Should Ford be liable because one of their cars, driven by a drunk driver, killed someone?
– Should a utensil maker be liable because someone used one of their forks to stab someone?
Now if the bill were applied anywhere else, one would see a notable stifling in innovation. People wouldn’t want to invent the new great things anymore. So what do you think this is doing to P2P? I’ll remind you that P2P is the foundation of the Internet: the Internet itself is a P2P and we need the innovations in this department to make the network overall more efficient and thus faster. If we are to sue everyone that makes leeways in this respect because of the abuse of some of their products by a few, what will that do for us?
The Recording Industry are the ones responsible for getting this bill in. Ironically, they’re shooting themselves in the foot with this. Though some people use P2P for piracy, alot more use it for legitimate commercial purposes [iTunes, Napster 2.0]. By stifling innovation in this field, it wouldn’t help the online industry who already struggles trying to pay the RIAA the exhorbitant and disporportionate royalties demanded of them. The people don’t benefit. The RIAA doesn’t ultimately benefit from this. The geriatrics won’t benefit from this. Who will?
Way to go California.