Illegal Downloads: David Loftus

There’s an array of issues here, each with its own set of complications. First, if employers want to monitor their employees’ Web activity more closely, they should. They have every right to. On the other hand, the time and expense to do so will likely be prohibitive for most companies. And when employees are able to look up travel options or read the morning news on the Internet (as opposed to performing illegal downloads), that’s a nice office perk that eases the workday grind and likely keeps workers from becoming any more discontented than they normally would be.

Second, illegal downloads are wrong. I have no sympathy for the entertainment industry and its cries over lost profits -- as Harlan Ellison says, Warner Brothers isn’t on the street begging with an eyepatch and tin cup -- but acquiring the creative work of others that you haven’t paid for is stealing, pure and simple. Over the years I’ve done a lot of writing and acting for free, but it was my choice going in, every time. To work in the expectation of some compensation if your product turns out to be popular, and to have people acquire it without paying for it is to be a victim of theft, pure and simple. How many of the rest of you are content to load a truck, type a document, drive a taxi, pour concrete, or serve food for someone else for no pay?

But do I believe there should be a “more severe crackdown” on illegal downloads? Not exactly. The crackdown should be more broad, more active, but not more severe. So far, much of the commercial reaction to illegal downloading has been clumsy and heavy-handed. If it were possible to pinpoint illegal downloading activity more precisely and quickly, and administer fees and fines immediately -- say, three or four times the retail cost of the good or service -- then I think that would be far more appropriate than using the sledgehammer of the courts. Assuming the secure technology to do this is feasible, the results would be happier all around: downloaders would either be content to pay the extra cost when they got caught or stop trying, and owners of content would see a healthy income from it. Internet suppliers partly have themselves to blame for this mess, having made it so easy for people to gain access to and purchase music and videos online. If they don’t like bleeding so much product, then maybe now’s the time to tighten up the screws.