Larry Lessig has an oped in today's Washington Post entitled "Bytes and Bullets." Its import is that the proposed Induce Act is an effort to ban P2P technology, and that, were it to succeed, there would be no logical argument against banning guns. His reasoning is that P2P can be used for both infringing and non-infringing purposes, and guns can be used for both legal and illegal uses. So, if P2P is banned, ditto for guns.

The premise is faulty, though. No one -- repeat, NO ONE -- is arguing that P2P as a technology should be banned. The effort underway is to ban the infringement-dependent businesses that make use of this technology while avoiding action that would cripple new technologies. Granted, it is extremely difficult to craft language that draws the appropriate line between the technology itself and the uses made of it, which is why the interested parties have not yet reached agreement on language for the bill and it is dead for this year. But people can and must keep trying.

Lessig's argument boils down to the proposition that because guns have legitimate uses, we cannot outlaw armed robbery.

posted by James DeLong @ 9:32 AM | General

Link to this Entry | Printer-Friendly | Email a Comment | Post a Comment(0)