[mythtv-users] A prediction is coming true, faster than I thought

Joe Borne joe.borne at gmail.com
Tue Jul 17 15:41:16 UTC 2007


A while back we had a discussion of how the current plight of the RIAA
concerning enforcement of piracy/DRM might affect MythTV, and
specifially the 5C encryption of channels.

I've maintained from the start that the RIAA's path was suicidal and
would eventually cost them more than it was worth. But up until now
they have either intimidated people who were ignorant of their legal
rights into paying, or they were simply stymied in court.

But today all of that changed. As of today, someone has successfully
fought the RIAA and then forced them to pay out for the malicious
prosecution - to the tune of $68,000.

http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2007/07/judge-awards-68000-in-attorneys-fees.html

You can bet the MPAA is watching this. So are the ISP's, the cable
companies and the content providers. Anyone else who gets sued by the
RIAA will know about this with a simple google search.

I thought it would be another 18 months before we saw this. It's good
news it's happening now.

I'm willing to bet that the RIAA will get their clocks cleaned 4 or 5
more times in the next 12 months and then the lawsuits will stop. Most
likely, someone will form a class action suit and hit them to the tune
of several million. (Any ambitious lawyers out there want some nice
juicy RIAA money?)

The MPAA will most likely never pursue this tactic as a result.

Keep an eye on the iTunes "no DRM music" situation. Our next clue will
come from there. If the DRM'd versions of songs slowly die out on the
iTunes music store, replaced by the non-DRM'd versions that are in
more demand, we will be seeing the beginning of the end of DRM and
draconian copyright enforcement.

Market pressures will determine the outcome of this issue, not the courts.


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