A bill is making its way through the levels of the British parliament’s upper house that would grant holders of copyrighted material to mandate injunctions against websites that post pirated files. According to one BusinessWeek article, “The proposed law would allow copyright-holders to seek injunctions blocking Web sites alleged to be hosting pirated content.” This possible decree does not sit well with some of the internet’s most influential organizations. Google, Yahoo, eBay, and Virgin, joined by various scholars, composed a letter to the Financial Times. In this written entreat, the band of websites claims that the injunctions will grossly compromise our right to freedom of speech and the abilities the internet currently possesses aided by this right.
While I do not think the posting of downloadable content is protected under our freedom of speech, I do believe that by shutting down these websites or stripping them of their content this bill is slicing the principle of the open internet. Instead of simply hacking down these websites like entangled weeds, the companies seeking to halt their practices should work with websites and institutions like BitTorrent or The Pirate Bay to develop deals that would either bring about fewer downloadable items (and possibly more streaming as an alternative) or added incentives to buying the items (special features).
BusinessWeek article (http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9EBR9180.htm)
No comments:
Post a Comment