On a somewhat related note, a whole lot of rights-holders, 'watchdog' groups, technologists, entrepreneurs and at least one member of the adult industry recently weighed in on the subject of "Copyright Policy, Creativity, and Innovation in the Internet Economy" in response to an
inquiry from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's Internet Policy Task Force.
It's pretty interesting to read through the
comments submitted and to see the same issues that are frequently discussed here examined by the likes of the
MPAA and how their perspective differs from the
Center for Democracy and Technology and other similar entities.
A couple things that the vast majority of the respondents whose comments I have read so far appear to agree on: the current laws and regulations are insufficient to deal with the issue of online content piracy, and altering those laws has to be done with care in order to ensure that technological development isn't stifled as a byproduct of improving the ability of rights-holders to enforce their intellectual property rights.
Not too surprisingly, most of the content creators whose comments I have read thus far support the establishment of the Combating Online Infringment and Counterfits Act (not all do, though - the Entertainment Software Association is against it, for example), and most of the technology companies/developers I've read oppose that bill being passed.
Damian: thanks again for taking part in the end-user litigation panel discussion at Internext. Thanks to some not-so-deft management on the part of the show's organizers, the whole thing turned into a bit of a clusterfuck, but you and the rest of the panel did a fine job, nonetheless. I was pleased to see that there was minimal acrimony involved, and quite a bit of substantive discussion... and, happily, more agreement between Matt Zimmerman from EFF and the other attorneys present (including those who are actively, currently suing end-users) than I thought there might be.