ReasonedResponse.com

The Financial Times today reports that France is planning to take a hard line against downloaders of copyrighted materials - basically, a "three strikes and you're out" policy that will cut off Internet access for habitual offenders.

This news follows an op-ed by HDNet CEO and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who asks ISPs and networks to throttle back on Internet piracy because he doesn't want their illegal activities cutting into his bandwidth.  I agree.  In fact, had I had this blog up and running in time I would have beaten Cuban to the punch with my own support for Comcast and other networks that are managing traffic to keep all of us up and running.

For nearly two decades, I've defended file sharing for all of its legitimate purposes.  I have testified before Congress that those who would destroy a technology just to stop a few lawbreakers are wrong.  I have objected to characterizations of P2P as a tool of terrorism or a venue for child pornography.  And I have helped to unmask and criticize the tactics of the RIAA and MPAA as unwarranted and counter-productive.

I still support P2P as a technology, and still believe the RIAA and MPAA are being hysterically wrong.  But there is another side to this issue, and it needs to be said:  the dominant use of P2P file sharing is not the noble pursuit of science or the battle cry of freedom.  It is theft.

Early abusers of the P2P technology had a lot of ways to justify their theft - the arrogance and financial chicanery of the music industry; the fact that everyone else was doing it; the lack of legitimate online sources from which to buy music and video; and copyright laws that seemed to protect not the artists themselves but the selfish financial interests of their heirs and corporations. 

Still, it was and is stealing.  And it is made all the worse because today they are stealing from you and me.  It's not just a quick con to swindle some large corporation - it's more like Robin Hood deciding to steal from the poor.  These crooks are literally stealing the bandwidth I have paid for and that my family needs for our own uses.  Shame on them for doing so, and shame on those who wrap themselves in the banner of freedom to justify it.