I have not been following the various RIAA-versus-P2P-user legal cases very closely, but was profoundly shocked by the testimony in the following deposition:
http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2007/03/deposition-of-riaas-expert-available.html
If this how their alleged experts think, then the RIAA has really gone off the deep end.
This makes me want to go out and rip a whole bunch of tracks just to spite the RIAA — and when it comes to Intellectual Propery law I’m about as law-abiding as they come! To the best of my knowledge and belief, every byte on the computers in my home and office is there legally. My wife and I have an extensive music and video collection FOR WHICH WE PAID. I have never used P2P software. My wife and I fully appreciate the value of IP: I’m in pharmaceutical research with my name on a US patent, my wife is a medical writer and editor. Neither of us would have a job without strong IP protections for our employers.
But despite all that, the RIAA’s Gestapo like approach is making me totally disgusted with them — and if they have turned me off I find it extremely difficult to imagine how they can possibly think for ten consecutive nanoseconds that they actually can have a long-term future if they continue their current attitude. For the moment the law is on their side, thanks to all the bribery^H^H^H^H^H^H^lobbyists. But in a democracy, being universally detested is NOT a recipe for long-term survival. I cannot imagine the DMCA lasting another five years in the current climate.