In case anyone was wondering, I'm still searching for the middle ground, but I sure didn't find it today on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court, where the justices were considering MGM v. Grokster. That was a naive place to look for it, I'll admit. Still, I was disappointed by the excess of bombast and the absence of thoughtful dialogue I saw among two groups competing for the attention of the phalanx of TV cameras.

One group, bearing black "Save Betamax!" T-shirts and consisting largely of CEA staff, walked in circles chanting things like "Don't Stop Innovation!" and "Down With Conservatives!" (Not sure what the context of that latter one is, as I don't think Hollywood has ever been thought of in that light, but ask CEA's Mike Petricone, he led that chant.)

A few feet away were a number of singer-songwriters from Nashville, led by Rick Carnes, who spoke recently at the Heritage Foundation. They played songs and chanted things like "Feed a Musician -- Download Legally!" and "Stop Your Kids from Stealing!"

Regular readers of this blog know that I sympathize with the songwriters; my primary objective in this debate is to see creative people profit from their creation. But regular readers also hopefully understand that the debate is more complicated than the way these two groups framed it. I felt like chanting "The Supreme Court Can Protect IP and Innovation!" -- the title of a recent PFF press release -- but it didn't seem sexy enough, and I doubted anyone would join me.

At one point a Public Knowledge employee brought Rick and a few other musicians over to the CEA circle. This will be interesting, I thought. At first, the dialogue seemed pretty constructive, as Rick tried to explain he wasn't hostile to downloading, just free dowloading. But things soon took a turn for the worse, as MPAA's Rich Taylor and CEA's Petricone got into a shouting match. "You guys hate technology!" Petricone shouted. "You are fundamentally hostile to technology! You always have been!" I'm afraid I'm unable to report Rich's response, as every time he spoke, his voice was drowned out by chants of "Save Betamax!" from the crowd.

Eventually the singer-songwriters returned to their own circle with new chants, such as "Pay for What You Play!" and "We Work Hard for the Money!" (I was glad they didn't sing the latter chant.) The CEA folks returned to their marching and chanting. Both sides seemed pleased by all the cameras and boom mikes that had been focused on their frank exchange.

A few minutes later the attorneys filed out of the courthouse, and each side took turns at the microphone explaining why the other side had not only failed in the eyes of the law but was likely evil. Yes, yes, dueling press conferences on courthouse steps is not the place to search for reasoned debate. But I'm still waiting for somebody to show me where that reasoned debate can be found.

posted by Patrick Ross @ 5:33 PM | Internet: P2P, Search Engines...

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