Your Privacy Rights At Risk

President Obama has met with other world leaders recent about many important issues. The global economic crisis has overshadowed most of the other talks going on, but in the background, a very important legal battle is being ignored. I am referring to the government attempt to give border police the right to search and seize your computer, for no reason other than they "suspect there is pirated material on it. This is a gross abuse of personal privacy, and also a VERY inefficient way to combat Internet piracy. To be frank, there is no way to combat Internet piracy, because the Internet has no nation and thus should not be subjected to the laws of any one nation. The only way I could think of would be if an international UN tribunal, or something to that effect, was established to regulate the Internet. The video I linked mentions that China, Russia, and Brazil abstaining from the treaty. Russia and China are two of the main countries that many piracy websites operate out of, precisely because the Russian and Chinese government don't want to regulate it. Ironically, China has one of the most invasive government policies with the internet with regards to the spread of information, going so far as to ban wikipedia.

I look at what the Chinese government has done with their webspace and I worry that American legislators will try to do the same thing. I think the best response to Internet piracy is to embrace it, if people want media as direct digital downloads, give it to them. If people want cheaper music, because $1 a song is ridiculous, give it to them. It's a very profitable business model for a new band to get started online, self promoting and distributing music. By cutting out the record label a band can cut out the main tax on their revenue. One of my favorite bands of recent years is The Legion of Doom. They're a couple of DJ's that make mash up songs, and they are some of the most talented remixers I have ever listened to. Their debut album was first released as an internet download, that they encouraged people to share via peer to peer software. After a couple years the band made a limited issue CD, and it sold out almost instantaneously. I bought a copy even though I already legally had all the music on the CD, I wanted to support a band I loved. I feel this business model could be emulated by many bands, if they were smart enough to try it.