WebliminalBlog

We’re about a decade into our own hopeless war of prohibition, this one against “peer-to-peer piracy.” The copyright industry has used every legal means within its reach (and some that may not be so legal) to stop Internet “pirates” from “sharing” copyrighted content without permission. These “copyright wars”—what the late Jack Valenti, former head of the Motion Picture Association of America, called his own “terrorist war” in which apparently the “terrorists” are our kids—have consumed an ever growing amount of legal resources. The Recording Industry Association of America alone has sued tens of thousands of individuals. These suits allege millions of dollars in damages. And schools across the nation have adopted strict policies to block activity that the Supreme Court in 2005 declared presumptively illegal.

The next time someone tries to convince you that releasing music under CC will cannibalize digital sales, remember that Ghosts I-IV broke that rule, and point them here.