AFL-CIO Promotes Anti-Piracy Approaches
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 by Patrick Ross
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It’s entirely understandable that union members share the harms of copyright infringement. For example, look at the unions that belong to the Copyright Alliance. But also note the announcement by the AFL-CIO Executive Council stating it “unanimously supports anti-piracy measures,” summed up nicely by Dave McNary in Variety.
The AFL-CIO Executive Council denounces piracy in strong terms, and also details far more eloquently than I can the very real and direct impact it has on the ability of union members to obtain not just employment but lower wages and less access to benefits such as health and retirement plans. The Executive Council makes clear it strongly supports AFL-CIO unions in the Arts, Entertainment and Media Industries in their effort to support industry jobs by combating piracy — including urging union members to practice solidarity by not engaging in infringement — and in working with policymakers and industry on solutions.
A coalition of unions representing 300,000 workers recently filed thoughtful comments in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proceeding with the FCC on the subject of network neutrality, one of many filings we highlighted here on the blog.
The AFL-CIO Executive Council echoed those union comments to the FCC:
There are tools that can be used to fight digital piracy. Internet service providers (ISPs) have the ability to find illegal content and remove or limit access to it. To be truly effective, these sanctions must depart from the costly and ineffective legal remedies traditionally employed to counter theft of copyrighted material.
In other words, use technology to target blatant illegal behavior instead of tying up courts with lawsuits. Hard to argue with that.
At the core of any effort to combat digital theft is reasonable network management, which should allow ISPs to use available tools to detect and prevent the illegal downloading of copyrighted works. With respect to lawfully distributed content, ISPs should not be allowed to block or degrade service so that both consumers and copyright would be protected.
The distinction between illegal and illegal traffic is also hard to argue with. In fact, as we noted in testimony before the FCC, it is the publicly stated position of the FCC Chairman, Julius Genachowski.
March 4th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
I would love technology to be able to impact this problem, but I read that in 2007 30% of all torrent traffic is encrypted. I can only imagine the level it is at now.
So I guess I look at the success of DRM and the DMCA both of which seem to have a very limited effect and I wonder who will bear the cost of ISP technology that may have a very limited affect on illegal traffic.
Hopefully there will be more successful attacks on websites that are able to direct people to this content.