>Recent GGUYS example: While it may seem that peer to peer sharing of >pirated movies is a victim-less win-win free Xmas gift type of thing, it >isn't if you look more deeply at the situation. Not only are the >artists defrauded of their means of income but fellow users of >broadband often can't reasonably access the service they paid for for >email and browsing purposes because the movie down loaders figured out a >new way to hog the vast majority of available bandwidth with bit torrent >software designed and set with aggressive functional parameters.
The programming I download via the Internet is either free or paid for. If I got that content via cable (which I don't) it would have the same detrimental impact on other cable users as the situation you describe. So "thinking critically" I observe you painting downloaders with a very broad brush. The problem is not the downloaders. The problem is the liars who run the cable company. They have under-invested and are pushing a poor technology that can't carry the content. Instead of fixing it, they lie about what they are able to deliver and whip up hysteria against peer to peer sharing. Then they impose caps and are making moves to control the content on the network. If, as you say, the crime is made worse by the asymmetry in power between parties, then isn't the relationship between a greedy corportaion that has a local monopoly or near-monopoly vs. individuals and small businesses similarly asymmetrical? ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
