RIAA chief proposes copyright filters for installation on private property
Well aren’t I the prescient one? I’ve been saying to anyone who will listen that it’s only a matter of time before RIAA and its allies start pushing for this kind of measure and here it is, in all its glorious predictability. Cary Sherman, the head of the Recording Industry Association of America, thinks that installing copyright filters on privately owned computers is probably the way forward. That’s right, monitoring devices installed on private property, to prevent that property’s owner from violating copyright held by the Association’s members.
Is there any substantive difference between this and, say, the police demanding to install a listening device on each and every telephone and mobile handset in case their owners ever feel like talking about something illegal? Well, yes there is. The police force, at least here in the UK, is a reasonably accountable organization that is ultimately answerable to parliament. RIAA is neither of these. The police could at least claim that any such action was “in the public interest”, at least where particularly serious crime such as terrorism, kidnap, human trafficking, etc are concerned. I don’t think anyone could claim much moral equivalence between such matters and copyright violation.
Do I claim any kind of kudos for my prediction? Of course not. It’s been obvious that RIAA was going to suggest measures like this sooner or later. I’m sure many thousands of others have made predictions along exactly the same lines. Why was it so obvious? Because RIAA has already taken the decision to go to war with its members’ customers. The revenue model they are trying desperately to preserve leaves them with little choice given the technology available to consumers. It’s a logical development. What else can they do to plug the perceived profit leaks? The organization’s attitude that its members’ profit is more important than consumer rights or individual privacy has been plain for all to see for some time now. And crucially, it clearly has sympathy on Capitol Hill.
Think of the ramifications of any such measure. Like Diebold voting machines, no one would know exactly what they were dealing with. It would be a black box sending information from your machine to a private organization. Would the information stay within RIAA, would it be analyzed by any other companies, organizations or government agencies? You’d just have to take it on trust that the data was being collected for only the reasons stated and was being shared with no other agency. What accountability would exist with regard to such a measure imposed by an organization like the RIAA?
RIAA won’t be able to easily force such measures upon the free *nix community, so instead they will connive with other businesses and organizations, such as AT&T and Microsoft to deny access to data networks and network services (e.g. the pending Yahoosoft! Mail) to anyone not able to demonstrate that they have the requisite software installed. Smaller web companies offering less ubiquitous services will be leaned upon to cooperate, perhaps finding the large network carriers becoming increasingly reluctant to give them network access if they refuse to comply. The network universe for *nix users will start becoming dark, and they will be inexorably marginalized and outlawed. Without ready network connectivity and access to online services, the community will whither to the point where it becomes irrelevant and the reduced numbers will render those who remain more vulnerable, at least statistically, to legal action and harrassment.
A doomsday scenario perhaps, but it’s not as if there aren’t forces with powerful political and business allies who wouldn’t benefit from any toehold gained on private computers. Those with the rights to easily digitized, copyrighted materials as well as those with closed software business models, would stand to benefit, or at least draw encouragement from any any success by RIAA along these lines. I’m convinced that certain large proprietary software companies and copyright holders are girding their loins before lobbying lawmakers and the public at large to accept that “unregulated” computer use (that’s you FOSS OS and application users) be outlawed. Extreme prediction? Let’s see. We’ve all been warned by this latest pronouncement.
It doesn’t matter that there might be (almost certainly will be) technical means to circumvent any such filtering, the fact that an organization such as RIAA is prepared to promote such extreme measures (and no doubt already has been behind the scenes) is a major individual rights, consumer rights and privacy red flag.
This is definitely line in the sand stuff. Sherman, you want me to hand you control of a portion of my computer? From my cold dead hands. Seriously!