[Free-sklyarov-uk] "Attack of the Cyber Pirates" - first impressions

[Andrew Rendle]

I watched (and recorded, so I can check quotes from it) the Money 
Programme "Attack of the cyber Pirates" that's just finished on BBC2, 
and I'll give my first impressions of it.
It seemed to be quite one-sided, in that mostly it was presenting the 
industry viewpoint - but I guess that much could be guessed from the 
title.  however, there were one or two from within "the industry" who 
put the other point of view (sorry, didn't get the names, I'll check on 
the recording if anyone's desperate.)
It started off with music, and talking about napster, with various 
talking heads telling us how downloading music is destroying the music 
industry, and blaming it for falling sales.  According to one of them, 
file sharing will cause the loss of 50,000 jobs in the UK!  Yeah right, 
mate, the entire music industry is suddenly going to self-destruct 
because of file sharing, just like it did because of home tape 
recorders, or the film industry did because of VCRs.  Oh, wait...
Then we heard about film piracy, and how the film industry are worried 
the same thing might happen to them.  (Someone did make the point about 
the film industry claiming people recording films off the TV would 
destroy them - I think his words were "the same cry-baby act")  We had 
(iirc) an exec. of Disney UK saying why they need mandatory 
copy-protection.  However, there was also a guy from Intel (Don 
Whiteside - http://www.intel.com/pressroom/kits/bios/dwhiteside.htm - 
Vice President, Legal and Government Affairs & Director, Broadband and 
Content Program Office) who said, in opposition to SSSCA (or whatever 
it's called now) "I think our future is at stake.  Not only the future 
of Intel, but the future of the information technology industry."  That 
is, a pretty senior person in Intel has said publically that enforcing 
copy-prevention would be bad for the IT industry.
I'm afraid we (CDR) didn't get a single mention, but then, all the 
speakers were from either the music or film industries, with the 
exception of a self-confessed "cyber pirate" - who didn't get favourable 
coverage (I'll get some quotes from the narration after dinner.)
All in all, it could have been a lot better, but there were a few people 
expressing our sort of views.
I might see if I can get a transcript from the BBC, but I'm not gonna 
hold my breath.

Andrew

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