“The Supreme Court has given the entertainment cartel and emerging broadband duopoly just what they wanted. You, and innovation, lost,” writes media analyst Dan Gillmor at his new blog hangout, Bayosphere.
- “The high court said that Grokster and other file-sharing companies can be sued if their products are designed for copyright infringement and don’t have safeguards to protect copyrighted material.” [More analysis follows.]
- “[T]he court also came down on the wrong side in the so-called “Brand X” matter, saying cable Internet access providers companies don’t have to provide access to third party ISPs. They own the cable, so they get to decide what data gets sent, in what order. Given that there are only two ‘broadband’ providers in most communities — if that many — this is an invitation to a media consolidation that makes the current one look pale. …”
Gillmor charges us up:
If you care, fight back. Call, and especially write, your member of the U.S. House and U.S. senators. Tell them that the law is now grossly out of balance in the hands of the entertainment cartel and data duopoly. They won’t pay much attention if you’re the only one who calls, but they may begin to wake up if enough people care.
I will call. I will also continue to use BitTorrent, my current favorite file-sharing software, for finding and distributing content that doesn’t come from the cartel and its minions. I will keep recommending it.
What will you do? (Emphases mine.)
Gillmor also provides these links:
Lots of links
- How Appealing
- Copyfight
- LA Times (Hollywood’s hometown cheering section)
- Did I mention BitTorrent?
And, you can comment at his <a href="“>blog.