[pp.int.general] belgian court ruling on filesharing

[Amelia Andersdotter]

On 04/07/07, Rick Falkvinge (Piratpartiet) <rick at piratpartiet.se> wrote:
> The common carrier principle, that the messenger is never responsible, is
> central to our potential to evolve and develop as a society. The record
> industry just claims they canceled that principle, and they're celebrating
> it. That goes to show the moral level of the enemy we're fighting.
>

Our enemy has a very high set of morals. Morals are technically just a
set of unwritten rules about what is a wrongful or rightful code of
conduct, and I would say that the the recording industry or movie
industry are conforming very well with what has been written in stone
for about 50 years.

The freeing from responsibility of the messenger is a relatively new
thing in politics. I don't think it's been around for much more than a
couple or three hundred years. However, arguing for it, it does seem
to have lots of benefits when it comes to putting the citizens' minds
at rest.

It might be good to keep in mind that the feudal society worked rather
well for rather a lot of people (in modern day Sweden about 900'000
people would have been relatively well off in a feudal society). About
8'100'00 wouldn't have been at all, but what the heck!

> If it is as IFPI claims, I don't see this ruling standing for long. On the
> other hand, IFPI have been phenomenal about lying and twisting legal facts
> to benefit them. Either way - the ruling falls, or IFPI lied from the start
> - they've shown their colors; they want to kill the common carrier.
>

The problem isn't IFPI at all. The problem is the fools who listen to
them and merrily help pushing the pillow down the common carriers
face.

//teirdes