Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Interesting Supreme Court hearing today

The case of file-sharing company Grokster versus the film studios and record labels is hard for the average person to understand, made harder by an unrelenting propoganda campaign. But this issue isn't as simple as the film and music companies argue. They conveniently forget to mention that they fight almost every technology advance. And when they lose, as they did against the VCR 20 years ago, they still end up winning big.


"In 1984, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling unleashed what became the $24 billion home-video market. Two decades later, the court is again set to shape the future of the entertainment business."


Interesting take on the issue by David Byrne, formerly of the Talking Heads, via Boing Boing.