Joel fights Back
Friday, October 9, 2009 by Unknown
After hearing the story of Joel Tenenbaum and how the RIAA sued him for $675,000 after he illegally downloaded music off of Napster, it’s safe to say I’m a little scared. As confirmed by class participation, downloading illegal media is a popular crime. ‘Popular,’ actually might be an understatement because I cannot recall anybody who isn’t part or has never been a part of a file sharing network. However low the percentage of getting caught, I can’t help thinking about a program on the Discovery Channel showing huge amounts of fish herded together and then getting completely massacred by dolphins. It just shows that safety isn’t always in numbers. It scares me to know that, like Joel, I have used Kazaa in the past. I came across a website talking about another person, Jammie Thomas, who got hooked with a huge fine after using Kazaa: http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2007/10/08/jammie-thomas-plans-to-pay-riaa-fine-on-her-own
I felt a little reassured when Luke talked about how the RIAA had recently switched its strategy, because prosecuting individuals was an investment black hole, to targeting or working with school and other public networks to prevent the operations of file sharing networks. In this past week’s lecture, it made sense to me that crimes ten years ago and before aren’t comparable to today’s internet crimes because of the change in our generation’s culture. Downloading something illegally isn’t the same as stealing out of a store; instead of taking something, we are duplicating something. . Even so, this still doesn’t help Joel, who is still in serious trouble. I came across the website http://joelfightsback.com/ which talks about Joel’s ongoing battle with the RIAA. I found out on this site that Charles Nesson, a Harvard Professor of Law, and students are helping defend Joel, which is reassuring. Still, I don’t think this will stop me from file-sharing, but I know I get a sense of relief after successfully downloading something without receiving some kind of threatening message.
I felt a little reassured when Luke talked about how the RIAA had recently switched its strategy, because prosecuting individuals was an investment black hole, to targeting or working with school and other public networks to prevent the operations of file sharing networks. In this past week’s lecture, it made sense to me that crimes ten years ago and before aren’t comparable to today’s internet crimes because of the change in our generation’s culture. Downloading something illegally isn’t the same as stealing out of a store; instead of taking something, we are duplicating something. . Even so, this still doesn’t help Joel, who is still in serious trouble. I came across the website http://joelfightsback.com/ which talks about Joel’s ongoing battle with the RIAA. I found out on this site that Charles Nesson, a Harvard Professor of Law, and students are helping defend Joel, which is reassuring. Still, I don’t think this will stop me from file-sharing, but I know I get a sense of relief after successfully downloading something without receiving some kind of threatening message.