EFF

Last night I needed more hours for my tech journal credit -- so I attended a panel discussion about the lawsuits that have stemmed from the "napster-like" illegal music/movie file-sharing.

Two members of the panel were from this organization called "Electronic Frontier Foundation." (EFF - not UHF). They debated an attorney from a big-firm who represents the so-called "bad-guy" - the record companies who are still trying to recover the billions of dollars they lost with the advent of digital music and decline of cd sales.

The Senior Attorney from EFF was well-articulated in his points and made the debate seemly one-sided. (Although the law-firm partner did well to defend his client). The EFF was also counsel in the 9th Cir/SCt case MGM v. Grokster.

The law firm is actively seeking copyright violators on behalf of the corporate music companies, and suing people (even if they're only "john does"). (This is why I call them the "bad guys").

Many of the suspects ("targets") he is suing are college students who have made poor-download choices. They receive the complaint - with a settlement offer of $3000-$5000. Which, can be quite a deal -- since recently this lawyer won a $220,000 judgment for his Record Company against one lady in Minnesota.

The EFF lawyer (Click here for his 'bio/pic') - just kept trying to defend privacy rights on the internet, and how the records companies haven't tried to solve the problem . Instead the record companies are blaming the music market decline on these individual violators. It seems like an unjust solution and an extreme power imbalance to me.

The EFF lawyer is now my new hero. He was just the epitome of a generation X attorney - not just in the subject matter: fighting for digital music rights and privacy on the internet, but also in his image: long hair, and his mannerisms. I mean, who didn't try Napster when it first hit the scene in the early 2000s?

(somethings I feel more revolutionary about -- music is one of them -- and EFF is a good army in this fight).