[plug] ABC 7:30 Report - comments anyone?

Onno Benschop onno at itmaze.com.au
Mon Feb 16 05:06:49 WST 2004


Included in this message is the transcript of a story broadcast on ABC's
7:30 report last Thursday. When I saw the story I thought that it was a
pretty biased view of peer-to-peer file sharing and I felt the need to
send some feedback to the ABC.

I decided to sit on it for a few days and let it stew. Before I send off
any comments to the ABC, has anyone any points to make about this story
- one way or the other...

Please note that this transcript is likely subject to copyright and
included only for your reference.

        Australian Broadcasting Corporation
        
        TV PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT
        
        LOCATION: http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2004/s1043987.htm
        
        Broadcast: 12/02/2004
        
        
        Kazaa in legal battle
        Reporter: 
        
        
        KERRY O'BRIEN: Now to the Australian company at the epicentre of
        a global legal battle with enormous implications for the future
        of the world record industry.
        
        For almost two years, millions of Internet users around the
        world have exchanged songs through the Sydney-based Internet
        service Kazaa, which allows users to share their computer files
        online.
        
        This week five major record labels have joined forces to take
        Kazaa to court, claiming copyright infringement.
        
        Last year the Dutch Supreme Court dismissed a similar case,
        while an American court is still considering the record
        companies case.
        
        While the record companies argue that Kazaa is profiting by
        piracy, Kazaa counters that it provides nothing more than a
        connection between Internet users.
        
        Andrew Geoghegan reports.
        
        SEAN ROBINSON: It doesn't cost anything.
        
        I don't have to go down to the shop now the shop is pretty much
        in my house.
        
        It's that virtual shopfront.
        
        ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: This is how 18-year-old Sean Robinson shops
        for his music.
        
        Logging on to a file-sharing website such as Kazaa allows him to
        download music millions of Internet users around the world are
        willing to share for free.
        
        SEAN ROBINSON: Kazaa and P2P networks are good because they
        allow me to access music that I may not be able to get because I
        cannot afford it or find it.
        
        For a multitude of reasons it is good.
        
        TIM DEAN, EDITOR PC AUTHORITY: As you can see, we are connected
        now.
        
        There are 2.8 millions users online.
        
        They are sharing 450 million files and that comes to 3.7 million
        gigabytes in information.
        
        So that is a staggering number of people on there just right
        now.
        
        ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: IT writer Tim Dean explains why file sharing
        has exploded in popularity.
        
        TIM DEAN: All it takes for me to use a P2P file sharing system
        is to turn on my PC, sit down and type in my name.
        
        I can download it and listen to it within five to 10 minutes of
        me hearing it on the radio.
        
        ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: Peer to peer software means there is no
        central site for distributing information.
        
        Instead, Internet users log on to a program such as Kazaa to
        connect directly with each other.
        
        This allows them to search for and swap digital information.
        
        DAVID CASSELMAN, SHAMAN NETWORKS: Everything from independent
        music and movies and dating services and video games and many,
        many more applications that are are being developed daily and
        that's why it's been downloaded 300 million times more than any
        other software application in history.
        
        ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: The popularity of free music websites such as
        Kazaa has the music industry worried and for good reason.
        
        In the past year, CD music sales have fallen more than 17 per
        cent while the industry claims it's losing $200 million a month
        in royalties.
        
        MICHAEL SPECK, MUSIC INDUSTRY PIRACY INVESTIGATIONS: It's very
        clear that an industry cannot compete against another
        corporation that takes their property without permission for
        their own benefit.
        
        ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: The major recording labels call it piracy and
        it's prompted them to take legal action against the Australian
        company Sharman Networks, owner of Kazaa, the world's most
        popular music sharing site.
        
        Michael Speck heads the music industry's piracy investigations
        unit.
        
        MICHAEL SPECK: Quite simply, they have established in Australia
        a global operation that is a clear-cut infringement of
        copyright.
        
        They trade in other people's music.
        
        It's for their benefit.
        
        They know it's wrong.
        
        They acknowledge it's wrong and it's time for it to stop.
        
        ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: Frustrated, the Australian recording industry
        has resorted to legal means.
        
        A Federal Court order allowing the industry to raid the offices
        of Sharman Networks and seize documents to use in a civil action
        to stop the distribution of unlicensed music.
        
        DAVID CASSELMAN: They contend that because we facilitated in the
        sense that it's possible that we're responsible for what end
        users do.
        
        ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: It is well known you can log on to Kazaa and
        download songs for free.
        
        Are you not fostering piracy?
        
        DAVID CASSELMAN: no more than Google is fostering piracy because
        you can search on Google and find songs.
        
        AOL Instant Messenger allows you to transfer.
        
        HP's CD burner allows you to burn.
        
        Are they fostering?
        
        You can go to the Xerox machines.
        
        There are a million technologies that are in the loop.
        
        ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: But you are not actively discouraging, are
        you?
        
        DAVID CASSELMAN: We do not promote it or release it.
        
        Sharman, the Kazaa website, requires every user to sign an end
        user license agreement that they will not violate the copyright
        laws of any country in which they are using the software.
        
        ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: Sharman Networks has offered to cut a deal
        with the recording industry to supply fully licensed music but
        the record companies aren't interested.
        
        MICHAEL SPECK: It's important that when Kazaa's illegal activity
        is finally stopped people do go somewhere else.
        
        We believe that with pirates out of the marketplace they'll go
        to the legitimate operators and allow artists and music
        businesses to flourish.
        
        ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: Unlike the music industry distributor Napster,
        which was closed down by the recording industry, Kazaa does not
        have a library of music.
        
        Sharman Networks is fighting back by working to remove record
        companies from the whole equation of producing and distributing
        artists.
        
        DAVID CASSELMAN: All of their music will be created through
        producers and artists and straight to Kazaa, the idea being that
        this is the most efficient way to distribute it and they don't
        need the studios.
        
        ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: But up-and-coming artists are sceptical.
        
        NICK NEAL, MUSICIAN: I don't think things like file sharing with
        Kazaa really promote sort of lesser-known bands.
        
        I think the sort of records that are on the shelves that HMV
        that people are buying a lot of copies of are the ones being
        download a lot.
        
        ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: Nick Neal, bass band player with the band
        Starky, says aspiring chart toppers need music listeners to pay
        CD prices for their music to fund their work.
        
        NICK NEAL: If I found out people were downloading thousands and
        thousands of copies of our album off the Net, that is affecting
        our income and us paying back our advances to our record label.
        
        Obviously that is going to limit what sort of future I have as a
        musician, really.
        
        ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: But artists may have little choice but to join
        the cyberspace bandwagon if they're to make it in the real
        world.
        
        TIM DEAN: There are a lot of other file sharing applications out
        there.
        
        Some of them are decentralised and cannot be brought down.
        
        The record industry will have a constant battle against these
        kind of things.
        
        They will never be able to wipe them out totally.
        
        SEAN ROBINSON: There will be another person who will make
        another one that they will try and close.
        
        You just can't close something like this.
        
        It would be better if they work with it instead of against it.

Onno Benschop 

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