Bye bye Kazaa

Another Boing Boing piece.

Seems a settlement has been reached between the movie and music industries and the owner of Kazaa, the latest trendy file-sharing service.

It would appear Sharman Networks will fork over $155M and promise to filter out copyrighted works from the service. (Good luck)

While I'm shocked file-sharing proponent Cory Doctorow was not the contributor who posted this article (along with another diatribe as to why it was absolutely the wrong decision and steps on the God-given right of computer users to download an artist's material) I was pleased by the news.

This
Is.
The.
Right.
Decision.

(Although, granted, I was not privy to the arguments)

Look, you can argue all you want that file-sharing should be allowed. But in the end, you'd have to change copyright law in order to make it legal. Fair use CLEARLY does not cover Joe Blow downloading stuff off the net for his own kicks and making it available for his buddies to rip from him (and once again highlights how the Beatmax decision was flawed and short-sighted). It's the economy, stupid: things have to have value or the world goes to shit. If I write and record a song or shoot a movie, I have to have the right to control the distribution of that work. That's how I make money from putting in the effort and how the work retains value. If we all got everything for free, no one would work and there'd be nothing to get for free. Comprende, amigo?


That ain't workin'. That's the way you do it. Get your money for nothing, and your chicks for free.
- Dire Straights (1988)