Taking Names in the Morning …
June 10, 2009 Internet, Technology
There’s been an awful lot of back and forth between creative industries and journalists when it comes to topics as important as piracy. Creative industries in several western countries are demanding that ISPs be held responsible for monitoring people and sending letters if they’re caught (or suspected) of pirating music, movies, TV programs, software, books, and just about anything else that can be digitized and sold for a profit. People who are not part of the creative industry see this as unnecessary extra work for ISPs who, at the end of the day, are not legally responsible for what we do online. However, while I was reading Mark Sweney’s article about possible job cuts on The Guardian, I couldn’t help but wonder what the future would look like if ISPs were actually held responsible for what their customers did online. How would other industries react if governments around the world decided that businesses are ultimately responsible for how customers use their goods and services?
The Auto Industry
The auto industry would probably shut down completely if they were responsible for the actions of their customers. Companies would need to monitor their customers at all times to make sure that they weren’t speeding through school zones or drinking too much before getting behind the wheel. Offenders would need to get a strongly worded letter from the company asking them to consider the consequences and also let them know what kind of punishments might occur in the future if they didn’t heed the warning. Cars like Toyota’s Prius would need to communicate with a central database to see if it’s allowed to start up, or whether the vehicle should be restricted to a certain speed on city roads. The number of restrictions that would likely occur due to the nature of most city drivers would undoubtedly result in a lot of angry people taking public transit, car pooling, or just not going to work. The roads would be less crowded, there would be less air pollution, our traffic police would have an easier time of identifying the worst offenders, the advocates at MADD would be ecstatic, and the world would be an altogether better place because drivers would pay much more attention to how they used their vehicle.
Everybody would win … except the customer.
The Energy Industry
Similar to the auto industry, the oil industry would need to make sure that people were not breaking any laws while using their fuel. Just imagine a world where Shell is hit with a lawsuit because they sold gasoline to terrorists who used it as an incendiary device in some random suicide bombing. Not only would the oil industry pull out of every 3rd world country, but it would likely start limiting the amount of fuel each person was permitted to buy just to prevent such atrocities from happening. Insight and Prius owners wouldn’t mind much, but anyone with more than 4 cylinders under the hood would run into serious commuting problems pretty quick. Lord help you if you’re a service technician or taxi driver who spends several hours a day on the road.
But think of the benefits! Again, because people would not have access to as much fuel (whether it’s gasoline, natural gas, kerosene, or any other flammable fuel) there would be fewer people driving on the road. On top of this, there would be a surplus of oil in storage which would drive the cost of a barrel down to some ridiculously low value. The corporate kings that run these multi-billion dollar profit-earning mega-corporations would have less money to throw around which, potentially, could reduce the amount of money that terrorist organizations receive (since people seem to think that Arabian oil companies are directly financing terrorism).
The Weapons Industry
Here’s a market segment that would shut down and go underground faster than the owners of a spamming botnet. What company would want to be held legally responsible for every person that was killed by their products for reasons other than self defense?
Enough said.
The Entertainment Industry
Hmm … here’s an interesting thought. What if music companies were held responsible for all the crimes supposedly instigated by violent lyrics in the songs they promoted? What if movie and studios were held responsible for every person that said “I learned how to build this IED (Improvised Explosive Device) on CSI.” Naturally, neither the music or movie industries are suggesting we go out and murder people, employ acts of unspeakable violence, or pass the time with other illegal activities … but they sure make it look like fun!
In my mind, this is little different than ISPs allowing people to share data amongst each other … legal and otherwise. Our ISP doesn’t suggest we rent CDs, DVDs, or other media only to rip them to some digital format and share that data with hundreds or thousands of others … but they sure make it easy!
The Police Exist for a Reason
At the end of the day, it’s not the job of a provider to police their services so long as those services do not put people in harm’s way. Yes, I’ll admit that downloading content that is not under some sort of public license or in the public domain is illegal and can harm people financially, but the grossly exaggerated examples that I have listed above show that many industries let people do far worse to each other than downloading intellectual property. If people use their vehicles in an unsafe manner, a nation’s law enforcement agencies will step in to take action. If people abuse different forms of energy for purposes other than those intended, a nation’s law enforcement agencies will step in to take action. If people buy weapons and proceed to decrease the planet’s surplus human population, again, law enforcement agencies will step in to take action.
The police exist for a reason. Use them.
If a torrent site exists and it’s allowing people to distribute incredible sums of material illegally, the infringed upon company needs to inform the police and have them either shut down the website, or use the website to collect the IP addresses of several thousand pirates and take them all down. It’s not the fastest way to prevent the illegal distribution of material, but it’s the most viable option available. Is it bad for PR? Oh, yes. But so is drinking and driving and Toyota’s doing just fine.
Companies have the right to protect their work from theft, just like I have the right to protect the code I write for my employer from being illegally distributed. That said, I would never expect an ISP (or flash disk manufacturer) to help me protect that intellectual property from falling into the wrong hands.
The entertainment industry needs to calm down a little and employ some smart people to find a solution to this problem. It won’t be easy, but there are always options.