Talk about chilling effects!
From a FAQ on a new Internet-hosted service I've been tinkering with:
Q34. Why can't I open or collaborate with music and video files?
A. There are many copyright-related issues when it comes to music/ video files, and we felt that allowing users to collaborate on, or share, such files would perhaps cause copyright or DRM (Digital Rights Management) violations if those users were not the actual copyright holders of the content they were sharing/ collaborating on. This entire topic is a legal minefield, and at this point we're sidestepping the entire mess by simply disallowing opening/ collaboration/ sharing of music and video files. After all, you wouldn't want mysterious organizations like the RIAA, MPAA and MAFIAA after you, would you? While we may allow this at some time in the future, for now, we're sorry, but you cannot open, share or collaborate on music/ video files. original link
Wow. "You wouldn't want mysterious organizations..." is cutting-edge new services are self-censoring. Can someone come up with a catchy phrase for this mess? The War On Culture? The War On Getting-Things-Done? The War On Thought-Crime? Oh, getting ahead of myself...
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