[LINK] Does copyright have a future? [WAS: iinet wins!!]

[Frank O'Connor]

At 4:40 PM +1100 10/2/10, Craig Sanders wrote:
>
>fines of hundreds of thousands or millions for "making available" a
>handful of songs are absurd, they bring the law into disrepute, and
>inspire civil disobediance.

Mmmm ... the problem for the copyright zealots is that they seem to 
be oblivious as to how political cycles work in democracies.

PR machines and the like get into gear and produce campaigns full of 
blatant lies, Australian governments (lead by weasels like Conroy) do 
pretty much whatever the US government wants them to do, the US is 
run on an economic theory that basically states they don't have to 
produce any more - everybody can live off all the IP that has been 
bought up from the creative, and magically 'create wealth', and they 
can prosecute those evil pirates who don't pay for IP.

Then one too many grannies gets nailed for a debt she can't pay, a 
kid commits suicide because of the pressure the copyright industry is 
putting on him, somebody looks at the economic statistics of the last 
10 years (when the US has supposedly been doing so well out of its 
IP) and finds that the US has been running huge deficits for the 
whole period the 'new economy' has been in force, we have an economic 
downturn and people start to feel the pinch ... and a new cycle of 
public opinion stars.

Then the copyright industry no longer gets a carte blanche from 
government, the IP industry generally (copyright and patent holders) 
starts getting asked some hard questions by the press, governments 
review their legislative frameworks, start to get anxious about 
appealing to the 'little bloke' who is supposed to vote them in and 
realise how little in the way of votes, revenue and benefits the 
copyright industry delivers ..

Bottom line: Worms turn. It's the way of the world.