The French government is on its way to barring the downloading of material that is deemed pirated or illegal.
This means that if they catch you downloading (through torrents or any other way) material that is regarded as pirated, and violating anti piracy legislation, your internet access gets cut.
There are millions of people (composers, artists, authors etc…) that are
entitled to have efficient and fluid protection when it comes to guarding their intellectual property. Granted!
The way that this is tackled by governments however leaves much to be desired.
For example say I buy a book. When I buy a book I buy the right to read the book but in many ways NOT to copy and distribute, plagiarize or change the contents of the book in any way (unless I have the specific ok from the publisher and/or author depending on the contract the author has with the publisher).
If someone copies the book, illegally and gives me a photocopied version then if I do proceed to photocopy the photocopy (remember I don’t have the book; I have an illegal copy of the book) then I may be or may not be breaking a law.
Now say that I memorize the book (and it is possible since the Greeks for ages were reciting memorized versions of the Iliad and Odyssey before Pissistratos put the stuff down in written form) and recite its contents (ie. distribution through word of mouth) to other interested parties who geometrically do the same thing to others. Am I breaking a law? Yes? Sez who? I am breaking no law and if someone tries to stop me from expressing my right to speech then they are stepping over my basic freedom of speech.
When I illegally copy a dvd (ie. I crack and rip) then the way things stand I am breaking copyright laws and infringing on intellectual property rights (the same applies if I scan a book onto hard disk). If I get caught in the process then indeed I am eligible for litigation. Of course if someone caught me doing this on my pc then they are violating my privacy and they are also eligible for a mighty lawsuit.
So it is virtually impossible to catch someone ripping or illegally copying material without violating that someone’s right to privacy.
The minute the material is in digital form, then I am not so sure one can persecute the person actually violating the copyright laws. Remember what we said above about the Iliad and the Odyssey?
So the problem is that governments are taking measures to tackle a problem that exists as a problem because the whole approach is wrong. Governments are trying to use outdated legislation and practices to address new issues that come from new situations. In the same way that prohibition addressed an issue that could’ve been addressed in a better way if some thought was put into the matter beforehand, and if the government was in touch with the times (and perhaps avoided the Great Depression altogether).
Besides, restricting internet access on pirate downloads means that some smart guy will come up with a piece of code that will somehow fool Big Brother into not detecting that you’re actually downloading the pirated stuff. So, as in prohibition, a new industry will flourish that will probably facilitate illegal downloads.
So protecting intellectual property rights is important. It will remain to be seen whether the current way of approaching this issue bears fruit.
