Technology breeds change. Even though things are created to make our lives easier, it allows us the freedom to concentrate on other things. Hopefully the things left open to concentrate on benefit society. However, what if it does benefit society, but it also violates the law. You know a modern day Robin Hood, robbing from the rich to give to the poor.
So, who suffers more – the people who need the “illegal” technology or the people who the law violates. I know copyright laws are in existence to protect the copyright holder, but does copyright also provide a hindrance. Times have changed. We now share information differently, as well as communicate and share thoughts and ideas with people thousand miles away. So, programs were created for people distances apart were able to share the things they liked with the people they liked.
It helped recreate sharing the hottest single with your best friend. However instead of going down the street with the song, you can now send it thousands of miles without stepping one foot outside your door. So, miles apart you and your friend can relive the “good old days” by still sharing your likes and dislikes.
Unfortunately, record companies didn’t get all warm and toasty inside. All they saw was a technology being invented that was losing them revenue. Why allow us to share with our friends when our friends should be paying for the privilege. However, before the digital era, everyone was sharing music without adding revenue to companies. It just wasn’t being transferred digitally over thousands of miles. I can burn a CD of a song and send it a friend via the mail, but I can’t send it digitally.
What makes new technology so enforceable? Is it the traceable breadcrumb trail? Is it the detailed lost revenue trail that computers leave? Is it not realized making digital sharing illegal is hurting them more. By my not sharing things I like with others, how I can I make someone else interested. Potential customers and consumers are being lost. But how can one measure the benefit and/or the lost.
You can’t. However one of the fundamental rules that is being violated we learned in Kindergarten – Sharing Is Caring.
