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Posted on Monday, September 8th, 2003 at 21:00.
Wired News: Schoolgirl Settles With RIAA: Notice how little (OK, none) of the public debate is substantive: whether people should be allowed to download music for listening purposes; whether the interests of media providers outweigh the privacy interests of citizens; whether it’s fair to allow the RIAA to charge people $15,000 – or even imprison them, or destroy their computers – in defense of fifty-year-old music tracks. It’s just assumed that the RIAA has the right to lash out in order to protect its license to Johnny B. Goode. It looks like [Brianna LaHara's] single mother will be paying a $2,000 fine to the RIAA for her daughter’s song-swapping, which they had thought was legal. This kid is living in public housing. The RIAA is not only extorting 2,000. It’s $2000 they probably desperately need. What a relief this must be for the Rolling Stones.
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Wired News: Just Say No to Viruses and Worms: Of course the government’s approach to this problem is to create more harsh punishment for Microsoft’s inability to create secure software.
