Norwegan Liberal Party Passes Resolution in Favor of File Sharing

Norway's liberal party, Venstre, has recently passed a resolution that is nothing short of revolutionary-in favor of file sharing. Copyright law is out of date, the party says, echoing a sentiment felt by all teenagers with computers, and new technological developments necessitate a new system. Although copyright laws were initially designed to protect and facilitate the existence of culture, by making it profitable to create content such as books and artwork, technology now makes it such that current copyright laws actually impede the cultural progress that could otherwise take place, by stopping a tremendously efficient mechanism of sharing information. Copyright laws are misused on a massive scale by companies such as those in the music industry, the party says, and a new system is necessary that would facilitate the production of content while at the same time giving users access to it. The new resolution calls for a change of policy in four areas: file sharing, sampling, commercial copyright lifespan, and the use of digital rights management software (DRM).

The Venstre party is in favor of file sharing. Although bans would remain in effect against file sharing for commercial purposes, individual users would be able to fill up their ipods unfettered, under this new proposal. Although the printing of books and the manufacture of CDs is costly, the party argues, file sharing technology has the potential to facilitate mass distribution of the data contained in books and CDs to a wide audience for almost nothing. In fact, file sharing has already made this a reality. By removing restrictions on the practice, many more people would have access to much more music.

Sampling, or creating new works based on old ones, should also be free, Venestre said, as long as it was done within the boundaries of fair use. Although you may be wondering how the ability to remake movies royalty-free would be a benefit to society, it is worth noting that this principle already exists within the open source community. Open source software, for example, may be freely modified, and its source code may be used in any way users see fit. So, for example, if an open source program is released and one user comes up with a way to improve on it, he may do so, and release his improved version. Because of this, open source programs are often much more functional and less buggy than commercial software. By extending this principle universally, the new proposal would essentially make everything open source.

Venestre also proposes shortening the lifespan of commercial copyrights, currently 70 years in Norway, to a more reasonable period of time. The proposal also proposed banning DRM protected music, allowing people to do whatever they want with music they buy legally.

This new resolution, if acted on, would be a major step forward in the age of technology, one that would truly allow technology to improve our standards of living. It would have the added benefit of increasing respect for the law, something damaged heavily by the current file sharing situation, which makes it difficult for people to stay within the bounds of law. However, the proposal, which calls for massive international structural change, doesn't stand a chance. Even if it had the needed momentum, it would immediately be stopped by massive corporate interests who stood to lose.

Sources

http://www.slashdot.com

http://www.uv.no/politics/translated-items/culture-wants-to-be-free?set_language=en