Music Wars scene 5:
In which the King of Pop Battles the RIAA

The saga continues, as a bill is introduced in congress to make uploading one song to a P2P net a FELONY. Yes thats right felony, oh and also Myself almost forgot to mention the $250,000 fine.

Legislation to make illegal file swapping a felony was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday by John Conyers (D.-Mich.) and Howard Berman (D.-Calif.).

The bill carries penalties of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for uploading a copyrighted file to a peer-to-peer (P2P) network.

The bill assumes each copyrighted work put on a P2P network was copied at least 10 times for a retail value of $2,500. The total retail value would make swapping a single file a felony.

Myself sees a math problem here: copied at least 10 times for a retail value of $2,500. So one copy of one song is worth $250? Not even. How about 100 times? That would make one song worth $25? not on your life. One tune is worth $1, at a maximum. I think the assumption should be 2,500 times? Regardless this is draconian any way you spin it. Interestingly all articles Myself has read indicate the crime is uploading, when in reality a user on the P2P net doesn't actually upload the file in the sense that one allows others to pull it from your drive, it's a passive upload if anything, but Myself may be interpeting it wrong, or maybe the article writers don't fully understand the mechanics behind a P2P net. Hey even Michael Jackson thinks it's a bad idea, "I am speechless about the idea of putting music fans in jail for downloading music" quoted Jackson, so it must be bad right? Can I get a Heee! Heee! and a toe spin. But wait! buy.com announces that they will offer music downloads for as little as 70 cents per song. Myself told you so.

In an actually very related development (as opposed to the usual non-sequitirs you get from Myself) Developers who said I don't give a shit have announced that they will be incorporating privacy-protection measures in its newest versions, presumably to keep the RIAA out of your business. Although these versions of Kazaa are not affiliated with Sharman Networks, original developers of the Kazaa P2P app, they will work on the Kazaa P2P net. Myself told you so, again.