Tech-Me – Blogging my thoughts on gadgets, techology and web based media – chapmanmania

The digital world allows information and data to be sent around the world in a matter of seconds. Therefore allowing wild rumours to spread around the globe in considerably less time than ever before. News gets changed in the process, with such variations affecting the source of the material. Similarly, multimedia content can be sent around the net with ease via P2P networks, something that is illegal yet seems to have few criminals being notably punished. Claims of it being too hard to find people comitting the crimes aren’t completely unfounded, as the number of people doing so has increased dramatically. It seems that those who want to watch stateside TV and movies before they can even be transmitted in the UK aren’t too fussed about being caught.
I don’t think it would be that hard to find those downloading such illicit content. Especially when downloading feature length movies and HD content, the amount being downloaded should surely make them stick out from the crowd of people browsing the web and checking their inbox. Nevertheless, they continue to get away with it, most likely because it is simply too much of a fuss for the feds to do anything about what is almost a non-issue. Campaigns relating it to drugs and terrorism are all well and good, but it’s not really stopping anyone from downloading is it? When I see these ads on the beginning on films both in the cinema and on DVDs, I always wonder why they’re targetting people who have just bought the product legally.
Instead, it is the honest consumers who are made to pay. Increased prices for DVDs and cinema tickets are just two examples of how the entertainment industry strives to retain their wealth. Recently, the AACS encryption key was revealed to the world via thousands of diggs. Initially Diig revolted and prevented them from being displayed, but this example just goes to prove the power of the people when they have the Internet as their tool of choice. Digg soon allowed the diggs of the story to continue, therefore allowing anyone with enough competence to be able to decode and copy HD content.

I decided to blog about this as I’ve just read “Chan Nai-ming got three months in jail, a month each for Daredevil, Miss Congeniality and Red Planet”. This man, from Hong Kong, is the first to be imprisoned for online piracy. Something which shocked me. I knew that it was difficult to target those responsible, as servers are located where there aren’t applicable laws and the sheer number of people involved. But to be the first? That’s quite an achievement considering the amount of time that video downloading has been possible.
The reason I think that makes it almost impossible to get a successful conviction of felons in this field is the state of current law and the judicial system in general. When handling a case in regards to aledged online terrosm accusations, Judge Peter Openshaw said: “The trouble is I don’t understand the language. I don’t really understand what a Web site is.” That left me almost dumbfounded. A judge overseeing a case about events that have taken place online, something which he has little knowledge or experience of is quite frankly ridiculous. OK, I’m not saying that he should know everything, but you’d have at least thought that he’d have been briefed about the case.
The laws that are there to protect content were written years before the Internet developed, making cases against piracy online much harder to deal with than it was when someone stole a CD from Virgin Megastore. It seems that only the USA has laws that make it clearer when dealing with digital legal issues (the Digital Millennium Copyright Act) whereas the rest of the world becomes mixed up in endless legal proceedings without concrete legislative backup. Pandora, the online radio station that allows users to customise it to their needs has had to close it’s doors to anyone outside the US, whilst mine still works in the UK it won’t in other countries. That old post code trick will be reinforced with checking a users location via IP address. The DMCA clears the US for use of this, whilst other online  radio stations are ceasing broadcasting as licencing laws changed that would mean that more money would have to be paid per every song played.
The Internet was supposed to make exchanging data and information across the world so much easier. And it has. But the legal issues are still very unclear and very complex. Without a universal law that would apply to anyone in the world. Cases like this will go on as whilst the information is available, it isn’t all strictly legal anywhere in the world.
Chris Chapman
[ Read - Judge Baffled by Internet in Internet Court Case]
[Read - Bit Torrent Pirate lands in Clink]