Quote:
Originally Posted by stonetools
Interesting thread. So after two years of a tougher copyright enforcement law, what have we learned?
1. France has some how not descended into tyranny
2. A lot more people are obeying the law at a comparatively modest cost in law enforcement.
Who woulda thunk it?
Score one for law enforcement!
One of the benefits of law enforcement is that it creates space for creation of LEGAL services. There would never have been an Itunes if Napster had been allowed to flourish and would have never been a Spotify if the illegal networks had been allowed to proceed unchecked in Sweden.
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Indeed, Spotify and iTunes would never have existed if piracy existed...except that they did, with iTunes flourishing. And just as a side note, online MP3 sales really took off for iTunes when they removed DRM, much to the tantruming of media companies.
I currently subscribe to Netflix, even though pirated movies and tv shows would be almost as easy to obtain by the terabyte if I were so inclined. Even if I were concerned about the legal consequences of downloading, there are services that will encrypt my torrent data and give me an ip address from Germany (Hidemyass, Bitguard, etc.).
And it's funny actually that the old-guard media companies are constantly fighting streaming services like Spotify and Netflix. The reason you don't find more internet streamed radio stations out of the U.S. is actually because of too high licensing fees.
I take your point about enforcement, but it's naive to think that media companies are pushing for tougher and tougher laws so they can create new and interesting services - it's so they don't have to do that. There are numerous examples of copyright being used to shutdown interesting services, so don't think it's only roses and sunshine.
Frankly, it's still too early to tell what all of the effects are in France - whether it's all benefit or if the harsher laws will have negative secondary effects; I'm not saying you're necessarily wrong, just that maybe it's a little to early to sing the praises of greater government intervention just yet. I for one would prefer to see independent data and analysis out of France; the article you posted seems to just assume the law results in more sales without providing the basis for that assumption.