RE: I wish I'd said it.

["Rick Anderson" <rickand@unr.edu>]

> It is radically and completely alien to expectations we have in
> this country
> anyway for separation of powers, for fair processes.

First of all, this issue has nothing to do with separation of powers.
Second of all, I may well be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that the RIAA is
acting within the law.  That's what makes one part of Deutsch's comments
foolish and wrong.  The RIAA can't "grant itself" legal power.  It 
either has the legal right to pursue those who copy and distribute 
copyrighted material or it doesn't.  The courts, which have so far 
sided with the RIAA and against the phone companies in this particular 
matter, will make the final determination on that score.  (The other 
thing that makes her comments foolish is her unwise invocation 
of "privacy rights."  That's a handy scare-phrase, but I'm pretty sure 
the Constitution does not guarantee anyone the right to use an ISP to 
breach someone else's copyrights without fear of discovery and 
prosecution.)

>We let known criminals free on technicalities, like violations of 
>their rights, egregious procedureal errors, illegally gathered ?
>evidence-we believe not only in the rule of law but fairness.

So you're arguing that because criminals sometimes get away with their
crimes on technicalities, we should therefore grant people who copy and
distribute copyrighted material immunity from discovery as long as they 
use a third-party service to do so?  I see neither the connection 
between the two propositions nor the logic of the conclusion.

>And an economically motivated big brother snooping around with police
>discovery powers-apparently discovering all sorts of things in the 
>name of commerce, isn't in our traditions.

Neither is large-scale copyright violation.

Does this mean the RIAA ought to be aggressively targeting twelve-year-
olds who download the occasional illegal copy of a song?  No; they're 
idiots for doing so, IMHO.  On the other hand, does it mean that they 
ought to be able to get the names of those who are uploading and 
downloading copyrighted songs by the thousands and distributing them to 
thousands of other people, in clear contravention of even the most 
liberal interpretations of fair use?  That seems pretty reasonable to 
me, and so far, the courts seem to agree.

-------------
Rick Anderson
Director of Resource Acquisition
University of Nevada, Reno Libraries
(775) 784-6500 x273
rickand@unr.edu




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