Digital Millenium

Yet another story of a guardian getting the lawsuit for a child's Kazaa downloading.

Intellectual property lawyers who have the upbringing and understanding of digital issues may still be too young to make a difference in the courtroom, so it is disheartening to see the media (generally considered younger and hipper) failing so miserably to alter perception of file-sharing. Stories of people too stupid to make a plausible argument only make the broader battle more difficult.

The lady in the story above, for instance, has decided that her best vocal defense is to ignore the issue altogether... As if pretending she doesn't have to settle or fight will make the lawsuit disappear. How zen.

Grandparents, working class moms, 12 year old teeny-boppers... these faces are meant to elicit sympathy against the big bad wolf of the RIAA... but it's not what we need. Watching straw and stick huts fall isn't going to spark people. Make a story out of a house made of brick; somebody who's standing their ground and might actually have a shot at holding their own. There's gotta be such a case somewhere... The anti-share defense is so simple and so ignorant of legal sharing that I find it hard believe that someone in the position to do so is not closing in on not just a loophole but a solid legal stance for peer-to-peer.