CNET's Declan McCullagh hosts a debate on P2P between Freenet inventor Ian Clarke and Matt Oppenheim, RIAA's senior vice president of business and legal affairs:
- News.com: Should file swappers have any expectation of privacy?
Ian Clarke: Everyone, including file swappers, should have the ability to communicate freely without someone looking over their shoulders. Free communication is essential to free thought, which is essential to democracy.
Matt Oppenheim: An individual who illegally distributes music on a peer-to-peer network has less of an expectation of privacy than a bank robber wearing a mask when holding up a teller. And, just as the bank robber cannot be heard to complain when the guard pulls off his mask, an infringer on a P2P network cannot complain. The bank robber can at least claim that until his mask is pulled off, nobody knows who he is. In the case of an infringer on a P2P network, the (Internet service provider) knows exactly who the individual is and has typically told the user in advance in their terms of service that they will turn over information when they receive a subpoena.
But don't just accept my thinking on this. Look at what Judge John Bates said in the Verizon case: "If an individual subscriber opens his computer to permit others, through peer-to-peer file-sharing, to download materials from that computer, it is hard to understand just what privacy expectation he or she has after essentially opening the computer to the world."
Remember, the RIAA does not seek the identity of someone engaged in speech. The RIAA seeks the identity of those engaged in copyright infringement. That is not speech. That is theft.
....News.com: Is it possible to guarantee completely anonymous online activity using technology alone? If yes, should using that technology--regardless of what is traded--be illegal?
Clarke: It is impossible to guarantee anonymity against someone with infinite resources and no constraints, but it is hopefully possible to guarantee anonymity against someone with the resources of, for example, the Chinese government.
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