Regarding Julian Sanchez, the former Ars editor who is the main subject of the MPAA blog post, he committed a serious act of journalism for us back in 2008 when he showed conclusively just how bogus some of the central antipiracy figures were. His new post on the subject for Cato is also well worth a read.
I read and write a lot about copyright. Hopefully, as my time in law school has elapsed, my views have become more nuanced. I'm not a copyright maximalist, though, like many of the big digital media companies. I understand that piracy is bad and rampant and needs to be addressed. But I, like the folks at Ars Technica, don't think that playing around with how the internet fundamentally works (like SOPA would apparently do) or increasing penalties for infringement are good options.
The best way to curb piracy is to provide a supply that meets the demand. That is how piracy comes about in the first place: it's not a cabal of cheap bastards who don't want to pay for a movie or a song. It's a cabal of geeky bastards who don't want to buy a CD or a DVD they may not legally be able to copy into digital formats later.
MPAA and others are mired in their own echo chamber, making enemies of their friends and more united enemies of their enemies. They need new leadership, new priorities, and a new perspective. An open conversation with Ars and other of their critics is a good place to start. I hope they respond in good faith to Ars Technica's good-faith response to their bad-faith attack on the blog and editor/writer/scholar Julian Sanchez.
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