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Kids Say The Darndest Things... About File Sharing
from the kids-get-it dept
The NY Times is running a nice little piece where they sent a reporter into a classroom full of 13 and 14-year-old kids and asked their opinion on file sharing. The responses are pretty interesting - and not good if you're in the recording industry. For the most part, these kids seem to get it. They realize that they're supporting musicians they like through other means - concerts and merchandise, and that file sharing has allowed them to find new artists they like. To them, music is a promotional item for the band itself, and all that goes along with the band. They also point out that they're not making any money off of what they're doing, and don't see why it should be a big crime. They understand the argument of the music industry, but they simply don't buy it. So, unlike the industry's claims - this is not just an educational issue. The kids are educated, but they disagree with what they're being told. They admit that maybe those who are constantly downloading music are going too far, but to just use Kazaa to find a few songs seems perfectly harmless to them. Also, even though the media would have you believe that no kids actually buy CDs any more - these kids say that when they find a band they like, they often go out and buy the CD.
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The only rebuttal I had was with the teacher: she was trying to push that it was a black-and-white law, and not the students' opinion of gradation from a little to a lot.
Copyright law, and the doctrine of Fair Use itself, has at its core, a judgement of threshold: copy a significant amount and it's infringement, copy a representative or focused sampling and it's not. (This is assuming the other criteria are also met.)
The Congress and industry would like to believe that things can always be made black and white. That's why we have a Judiciary-- the world of law must be interpreted and tailored according to the written law, the intent of the legislators, the precedent by other judgements, and the nature and character of the parties in the dispute.
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