Treating Downloads Like Drug Deals

TREATING DOWNLOADS LIKE DRUG DEALS
[SOURCE: Business Week, AUTHOR: Gigi Sohn, Public Knowledge]
[Commentary] The good news about recent proposals from the Justice Dept -- regarding the enforcement of intellectual property protection -- is that they show the DOJ is committed to recycling. The bad news is that it's recycling ideas that were bad in 2005 when they first appeared, and continue to be ill-conceived today. The proposal clearly demonstrates the dreams of many in the content community, including trade groups such as the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America. For the rest of us, and for technology companies like Google, Cablevision, Sling Media, or TiVo, the proposals are a nightmare. We support the enforcement of copyright law and the protection of copyright holders' rights. But we are concerned that the DOJ proposals would enforce copyright law in ways never before contemplated. Indeed, the DOJ is better suited to chasing down drug dealers and terrorists than it is to dealing with small tech companies or individual computer users. This proposal even drags the Homeland Security Dept. into copyright enforcement.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2007/tc20070605_037315...