The End Of The Original Three Strikes Program, And Other Stories About Online Infringement From On The Media

from the listen-up dept

I'm an avid listener of the radio show On the Media, and the latest episode touched on a variety of topics concerning copyright infringement online that may interest some folks here (after their discussion of how the press reported on Anthony Weiner's latest Weinering and the UK porn filter). The section on infringement kicked off with a fantastic segment with our own Glyn Moody discussing the end of the original Hadopi program, which will no longer be kicking people off the internet, and has shut down the costly bureaucracy that ran such a program (moving some of the people into another agency). He also discusses how increasing evidence has shown that having legal alternatives reduces infringement.

The other story that caught my attention was a brief interview with Alex Winter about his new documentary called Downloaded which I've been meaning to watch. From everything I've heard, Winter does a great job telling the story of the original Napster and its battles, while also profiling those who lined up against it. The documentary doesn't "take one side," but shows that the story was a lot more complex and nuanced than many made out at the time. If you enjoy that, you might also like a much longer interview with Winter (who, you might also know as "Bill" alongside Keanu Reeve's "Ted" in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure) that was aired recently on The Nerdist.

Among the other segments is one report on the Joel Tenenbaum case that includes interesting interviews with Tenenbaum himself, his main lawyer Charles Nesson who crafted the disastrous and ill-thought-out strategy of his legal campaign, and also the judge in the original district court trial, Nancy Gertner, talking about how she couldn't believe how frequently the RIAA was taking advantage of clueless kids doing some file sharing. Also, a discussion with author Peter Mountford about helping a Russian translator make an unauthorized translation of his book (a story we covered as well), and finally the show checked with the FBI about how truthful the FBI warning is at the beginning of every DVD you watch (answer: not very).

As always, lots of good stuff.

Filed Under: alex winter, copyright, downloading, infringement, peter mountford, three strikes