[TAG] [Fwd:] In RI federal court -- Harvard vs. the RIAA

[Jimmy O'Regan]

2008/12/16 Ben Okopnik <ben at linuxgazette.net>:
> On Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 01:21:48PM +0000, Jimmy O'Regan wrote:
>> 2008/12/16 Ben Okopnik <ben at linuxgazette.net>:
>> >
>> >                  HARVARD PROFESSOR & STUDENTS FIGHT THE RIAA:
>> >                       COME TO RHODE ISLAND FEDERAL COURT
>> >                         TO PROTECT DEFENDANT'S FAMILY
>>
>> http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/dec/02/defense-attacks-song-swap-ban-as-unconstitutional/
>>
>> 'Mr. Nesson argues that the Digital Theft Deterrence and Copyright
>> Damages Improvement Act of 1999 is unconstitutional because it
>> effectively lets a private group - the Recording Industry Association
>> of America, or RIAA - carry out civil enforcement of a criminal law.'
>
> RIAA is simply carrying on a long and honorable tradition. I mean,
> really - why would you expect them to surrender their most basic,
> inalienable rights? _Ius_primae_noctis_, chiefage, _corvee_, tallage...
>

Actually, I just finished reading 'The Public Domain: Enclosing the
Commons of the Mind' by James Boyle (http://www.thepublicdomain.org/)
and the most surprising thing to me was that he manages to explain the
'opposite' viewpoint in a way that doesn't seem *completely*
unreasonable--that there's more to it than just monopolists clinging
to their monopoly, there's a very real aversion to the notion of the
public domain (I, for one, had never appreciated that to be the case).