The Dubious Ethics of the Online Music War

Feb. 11 -- Looking back to my historyIn a mystery, how it came to me A little money and a lotta time I gave all that's mine, and now I got my sign Ohhh, I'm not your puppet Don't pull my strings, fool with this I'll make you, yea yea yea Dance for me

— "What Chu Want"by Australian rap group J Wess Project

It's always something! Last week, in a series of surprise raids, the recording industry police, utilizing warrants based on some obscurities, blew into the Australian offices of Kazaa (Sharman Networks) and half a dozen other places, apparently, and took or trashed everything they could. I was visualizing Elliot Ness bursting into a Frank Nitti warehouse, using big axes to bust up liquor barrels and yelling, "Tell Capone he was paid a visit!" The only things the recording industry mob seems to be missing are machine guns and fedora hats.

This took place after the recording industry, which lost its case in April 2003 trying to shut down various peer-to-peer operations, showed up in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Pasadena, Calif., pleading for a reversal. The industry has decided to get tough with everyone. This includes targeting telecommunications companies. In Australia, the stated hope is to find evidence to use against Sharman in the United States. Sharman says it's just harassment. Welcome to the world of globalization.

So I think the time has come to revisit the stances that moralists out there take on these kinds of issues. Let's consider the issues.

A Not-So-Sweet Scenario

First, let's take theft (please!). Here's a hypothetical scenario: The universe consists of five people. I have a bowl of candy on my porch with a sign saying, "Property of John C. Dvorak — Do Not Remove." Someone comes along and takes the candy. This has always been classified as theft. But now let's suppose that the other four inhabitants of the universe say that when the candy is set out like that, people can go ahead and take it. Four people say that the taking of my property was not theft. I say it was! Who is right?