http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-piracy3may03,0,7675823.story
EDITORIAL
A Tough Bunch of Pirates

May 3, 2005

Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales came to Southern California last week to caution youngsters about digital piracy. He left knowing how Nancy Reagan might have felt after advising a previous generation of youngsters to "just say no" to drugs. The high school students who attended UCLA's daylong seminar were deeply skeptical, one going so far as to sport a pirate-style eye patch and bandanna.

If that's the attitude of students in Southern California — many of them with parents who work in the very music and film industries Gonzales is trying to protect — it's going to be a long uphill struggle to change young hearts and minds in the rest of the country.

Encouraging young people to do the right thing isn't enough. Stepped-up prosecution and enforcement, as well as civil suits like the 725 claims against alleged pirates filed Friday by the Recording Industry Assn. of America, will be needed to make the message resonate.

Legislators in the United States and abroad must also create barriers against digital pirates. The Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005, which Congress recently passed, was a step in that direction. The bill makes it a felony to record a movie as it is being projected in a traditional movie theater (for subsequent online sale), in addition to barring newer-fangled digital theft.

Legislation, lawsuits and lectures are useful sticks, but there should be carrots too. Companies that create what pirates crave could start by making it easier and cheaper for consumers to legally acquire, enjoy and share music, movies and other fare. Today's pirates are tomorrow's customers. It could prove shortsighted to simply order them to walk the plank.

There's a lovely idea. Let the FBI and Justice Department be trend-setters. "That's hot," cries Gonzales.

Look how successful the War on Drugs has been.

If anyone from the record label side pleads the Libertarian mantra, "Don't ask the government to intervene on setting rates or defining obscenity!" there's something even worse. Which is get in bed with the Police State.

"Encouraging young people to do the right thing isn't enough. Stepped-up prosecution and enforcement, as well as civil suits like the 725 claims against alleged pirates filed Friday by the Recording Industry Assn. of America, will be needed to make the message resonate."

Oh really? Gee in the sixties putting protestors in jail really worked, didn't it? All putting people in jail for doing what they feel should be legal will do is create MORE RESENTMENT. It's like prohibition all over again. It didn't work then, and it won't work now.

"Today's pirates are tomorrow's customers. "

Only if you don't SUE 'em first!
ROFLMFAO!!!!!

" The home town paper of record says tough love and jail terms will straighten out young people who use computer devices."

Just like the death penalty deters murderers and speed cameras and fines deter speeding motorists right?

I think that if the RIAA wants to "make the message resonate," it's going to actually have to prove a case in court based on evidence instead of blather. Right now the only resonating theme I hear is extortion by the thieves who stole from the artists.

Today's pirates are yesterday's customers who found out where the money goes.

It doesn't matter..they are all jerks anyways. A band around from where I live just put out a CD and they sold it by the stacks.

As home and basement recording gets easier and more pro sounding, artists are producing their stuff all by themselves. It has never been easier until now. It's the revloution that will change the music industry..not the people trading RIAA music over the web.

People by the communities across the globe are starting to become fans of bands in their own home towns. Soon labels will just become a piece of history.

So even if they are able to stop RIAA music from spreading across P2P...it ain't gonna matter. It's not what people are starting to want anyways.

"Today's pirates are tomorrow's customers."

Many of these pirates already are customers. People that file share also buy albums.

Nicely said zxilton, labels, are a thing of the past now, we also record in the basement. Record companies just have a lot more money to push an artist so kids will buy Jessica Simpson, 50 cent, or Justin Timberlake, thats all my kids ever hear anyway, so thats all they buy- oh, did I call those people artists? oops!

I think the correct word would be "entertainers", joenmelice. In todays artifically made artists, there isn't time to be bothered with the learning of a craft to perfect it. A very good example of this is the debacle of the Ashley (who?) Simpson. Where blatent lipsyncing was displayed on national broadcast and fans were once again shown that it isn't talent that got them there. Anytime stage performers can go through a rigorous dance routine and at the same time sing and sound "just like the cd" without losing breath in the process, common sense tells you the fan is paying to see a dance routine and not an artist performing. To the amazement of many fans, the sound engineers and others of the industry couldn't understand what the flap was about. That is how common this practice of lip syncing is. So who wants to pay the price of a concert ticket to see a dance routine? I always thought it was about seeing an artist perform their music. Again this demonstrates just how out of touch the music industry is with its consumers.

Mr. Gonzales came prepared to spout the industry line. He didn't come prepared to address the issues. He didn't come prepared to talk real life. He didn't check to see what sort of audience he would address and and what level of competence they might be at concerning the use of a computer. In short he was caught far short for lack of preparation. Since his title will most likely lead him into circles where he garners all sorts of "importance" within those he circulates among, it was probably a good eye opener to see that with the kids it doesn't cut any ice. That self-importance got deflated so the best he can come up with is a firing back at those who put a straight pin in that ballon of his self-image.

"Mr. Gonzales...didn't come prepared to talk real life... In short he was caught far short for lack of preparation."
Well said, wet1. He underestimated his audience - just as so many "performers" and the RIAA have done.

You all have to remember one thing. Gonzales lives in Dubya's alternate universe. When it clashes with the real world, they don't know how to handle it.

The DOJ is loosing the battle in fighting the drug war and terrorism. So I guess its easier to go after the young people because its so easy. Typical law enforcement mentality.