LawMeme LawMeme Yale Law School  
LawMeme
Search LawMeme [ Advanced Search ]
 
 
 
 
Links: Have the RIAA Lawsuits Affected Copynorms?
Posted by Steven Wu on Friday, September 19 @ 01:27:56 EDT File Sharing
Back in August, Professor Lawrence Solum expressed skepticism about the ability of the RIAA lawsuits to affect copynorms--the norms regarding the legality or propriety of copying or sharing intellectual property. (See collected links.)

The New York Times today notes that, despite the lawsuits, music file sharers continue to share. The article observes:
Fear of being sued or fined can help shape a new moral sensibility--as happened with sexual harassment laws, seat belt requirements and no- smoking laws--despite considerable initial public skepticism. Some legal experts and ethicists say the music industry's enforcement of copyright law against Internet file sharers may eventually catalyze a similar change in attitudes. But many experts argue that legal prohibition alone is rarely effective in getting people to behave differently if it runs counter to strong societal beliefs.
While there is plenty of anecdotal evidence about people refraining from downloading or sharing music due to the RIAA's shotgun-style lawsuits, this initial salvo seems to be only slightly denting the prevailing copynorms.

Read the story here.
 
Related Links
· More about File Sharing
· News by Steven Wu


Most read story about File Sharing:
Compulsory Licensing - The Death of Gnutella and the Triumph of Google

Options

 Printer Friendly Page  Printer Friendly Page

 Send to a Friend  Send to a Friend

Threshold
  
The comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content.

Leges humanae nascuntur, vivunt, moriuntur
Human laws are born, live, and die

Contributors retain copyright interests in all stories, comments and submissions.
Everything else copyright (c) 2002 by the Information Society Project.

This material may be distributed only subject to the terms and conditions
set forth in the Open Publication License, v1.0 or later.
The latest version is currently available at http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/.

You can syndicate our news with backend.php

Page Generation: 0.182 Seconds