5.5.2004  More on P2P and the FTC  To segue from the preceding item on Apple, it is clear that the two-thirds of the music now lying in vaults will not be made available unless it can be protected from promiscuous filesharing. The investment in finding it, filtering out the dreck, navigating the sharp shoals of complex copyrights that bedevil the music industry, and digitizing the material must be recoverable. To this end, the music industry continues its assault on the marketers of P2P file-sharing software. Last week, a petition was filed with the FTC suggesting that the agency commence an investigation of consumer deception in the P2P area. Yesterday, Senators Leahy, Hatch, Boxer, Stevens, and Smith dispatched a letter to the FTC Commissioners urging them to take a close look at whether provisions of the FTC Act "are being violated by the designers, publishers, distributors and operators of certain iterations of software commonly known as 'peer-to-peer file-sharing software.'" Not surprisingly, the documents exhibit considerable family resemblance. UPDATE: The P2P software providers are trying to neutralize at least part of this assault by emphasizing their cooperation with law enforcement authorities on the issue of child porn. See the story in the May 6 WaPo. posted by James DeLong : 5/5/2004 02:18:51 PM   IPcentral WebLog Blog Main Recent Posts   Happy Birthday to iTunes Stock Options and the Creative Classes International IP Review of Free Culture For Procrastinators The Law's Delay Patents in the 21st Century Better Late . . . P2P and the FTC Hibernation Archives by Month   December 2003 January 2004 February 2004 March 2004 April 2004 May 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 Links   PFF Blog

	5.5.2004  More on P2P and the FTC  To segue from the preceding item on Apple, it is clear that the two-thirds of the music now lying in vaults will not be made available unless it can be protected from promiscuous filesharing. The investment in finding it, filtering out the dreck, navigating the sharp shoals of complex copyrights that bedevil the music industry, and digitizing the material must be recoverable. To this end, the music industry continues its assault on the marketers of P2P file-sharing software. Last week, a petition was filed with the FTC suggesting that the agency commence an investigation of consumer deception in the P2P area. Yesterday, Senators Leahy, Hatch, Boxer, Stevens, and Smith dispatched a letter to the FTC Commissioners urging them to take a close look at whether provisions of the FTC Act "are being violated by the designers, publishers, distributors and operators of certain iterations of software commonly known as 'peer-to-peer file-sharing software.'" Not surprisingly, the documents exhibit considerable family resemblance. UPDATE: The P2P software providers are trying to neutralize at least part of this assault by emphasizing their cooperation with law enforcement authorities on the issue of child porn. See the story in the May 6 WaPo. posted by James DeLong : 5/5/2004 02:18:51 PM   IPcentral WebLog Blog Main Recent Posts   Happy Birthday to iTunes Stock Options and the Creative Classes International IP Review of Free Culture For Procrastinators The Law's Delay Patents in the 21st Century Better Late . . . P2P and the FTC Hibernation Archives by Month   December 2003 January 2004 February 2004 March 2004 April 2004 May 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 Links   PFF Blog