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Women's Rights
What's New? - Archive
WomenMatter will continuously post updates on all this and other issues as we monitor the continuing philosophical and practical debates nationwide.
Please check back often for updates. Past updates are available for reference on the Women's Rights Archives page.
Since Women's Rights is in many ways an umbrella issue, WomenMatter will highlight related updates from other Life Issue areas here:
Strange Brew: Legislation, Information, and Technology
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was designed to protect intellectual property rights, which are a major source of profit in our information economy.
The bill was signed into law in October of 1998, during the Clinton administration. President Clinton recruited entertainment lawyer Bruce Lehman to restructure copyright laws and make them more Internet-savvy. Due to his background, Lehman was particularly sensitive to record companies’ complaints about music file sharing, a practice that has the potential to eradicate the traditional music business.
Lehman’s solution was stiff penalties for copyright infringement. Behind this policy is the philosophy that access to intellectual property (such as a song) must be limited for that information to be profitable. In order to protect profits, government must protect access.
The ways in which people access information and other intellectual property (like music) has changed drastically since the emergence of the Internet. Regulation of the Internet is an attempt to prevent drastic market change (like the disappearance of record companies and book publishers). Under the DMCA, those who access intellectual property in a non-traditional way (for FREE through the internet) can be penalized.
Now, five years later, these penalties are beginning to be enforced.
Cracking down
On September 19, 2003, Thomas Michael Whitehead was the first person to be convicted of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The DMCA makes it illegal to create, distribute, sell, or utilize decryption software that is made to pirate commercial software. Whitehead used decryption software to forge and sell DirecTV access cards.
More convictions may be on the horizon. In late April of 2003, The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) issued music file sharers a warning to stop “stealing” music. Since then, The RIAA has issued some 900 subpoenas to Internet Service Providers (ISP) for the names and addresses of the illegal file sharers. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act makes it possible for the RIAA to then prosecute the file sharers, who face $750-$150,000 in fines.
The RIAA has already settled lawsuits against four college students who shared copyrighted songs. Most music file sharers are young people who are unable to pay the penalties. If a minor is convicted of file sharing under the DMCA, the parents are held responsible for fines.
Take but don’t give
Right now, the RIAA is targeting Internet users who share their own music files and not those who download others’ files. However, when people download music from a peer to peer (P2P) network, the music files are often stored in the user’s “shared folder,” which can be accessed by other P2P users. If downloaders want to steer clear of legal entanglements, they can simply move copyrighted music files out of their “shared folders.”
Contrary to the RIAA’s predictions, file sharing has actually gone up ten percent since their announcement to sue individual users. Wayne Rosso, the president of file-sharing network Grokster, says that users are taking refuge in the numbers. Since millions of people file share, most P2P users feel safe.
Privacy
In cyberspace, privacy is achieved through anonymity. The DMCA compromises anonymity by permitting Internet Service Providers to divulge the names and addresses of their users to the record industry. However, it is debatable that the DMCA is a direct threat to privacy.
Rather, some would argue, the Internet itself is a threat to privacy. Since much of modern life is lived in cyberspace, much of modern life is monitored. Many of our everyday activities (work, leisure, and interpersonal communication) are mediated by the Internet and therefore prone to surveillance.
Mainly, marketing companies survey internet user behavior. This allows companies to better market their products. However, Internet surveillance is not restricted to government or corporate surveillance of the Internet user. The Internet user can also examine and measure corporations and government. For example, WomenMatter helps women monitor government activity.
Gift of technology?
Technology is often used for purposes other than originally intended. This leads to creativity and innovation and, arguably, progress.
Although the Internet threatens our conventional market systems, it also provides enormous opportunity for new markets. File sharing endangers traditional information distribution, but it also allows information to spread farther and faster. It’s up to you to decide if government should attempt to slow this down.
Enjoy the benefits of the Internet: Discuss this issue with other readers in one of our online forums. Instantly access information about life issues. Or contact your representatives and let them know how you feel about Internet regulation or other important issues.
Article Posted on: 10/1/2003
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