File-Sharing Elevated to Threat Condition Red
September 11, 2003
Teenagers sharing music files have eclipsed the likes of bin Laden and upped the national Threat Advisory level to Code Red. Hamas and al-Qaeda step aside...KaZaA and Morpheus are on the attack. Under the growing threat of MP3’s hurtling through cyberspace, America is redeploying its national defense resources. A recording industry trade group has sued 261 people for swapping music files. Over 8 million illegal immigrants within our borders can rest easy tonight.
With a fury not seen since the "Shock and Awe" campaign, the U.S. recording industry has taken the offensive against online pirates. Cary Sherman, president of the Recording Industry Association of America, made the case for war to the American people on September 8, "Nobody likes playing the heavy...But when you are being victimized by an illegal activity, there comes a time when you have to stand up and take appropriate action." This MP3 Jihad is costing the recording industry at least $700 million per year in lost sales.
In the wings, 8 million plus illegal immigrants continue to cost the American taxpayer over $68 billion per year.
File-swappers now face the certain wrath of the U.S. legal system. One martyr has already been eliminated; 12 year old "Brianna LaHara agreed Tuesday to pay $2,000, or about $2 per song she allegedly shared." Amnesty is being offered to "sleeper cells", "...music swappers can avoid prosecution if they sign a notarized affidavit promising to delete all songs they have acquired illegally and to respect recording copyrights...." You can run but you can’t hide.
In a similar move, "All eight of the Democratic presidential contenders...embraced amnesty for illegal aliens now in the United States, pushing the issue onto the national stage for the presidential contest." As so rhythmically composed by G. Russell Evans, "They look the other way. They want votes, donations and, above all, re-election."
Perhaps you can Name That Tune...the recording industry is in a twist because music sales are down 8.7% but Congress whistles Dixie (behind closed doors) while 250,000 new illegal immigrants invade America each year.
Like teenagers fleeing from Napster to KaZaA, "Our current border policy has only managed to divert migration flows from a few traditional, urban crossing points to more scattered rural areas," according to CATO Institute inmate Daniel Griswold. And Griswold goes on to illustrate the horror, "...the consequences have been deadly for more than 2,000 migrants who have died since 1995 from heat and dehydration in remote areas of the desert or in sealed trucks and rail cars." Yet Americans for Immigration Control play a different tune, "Over 25 percent of federal prisoners are immigrants. Illegals commit 12 percent of felonies, 25 percent of burglaries and 34 percent of car thefts." I guess it just depends on who’s ripping the Boxcar Blues.
Josh Bernoff, an analyst for media and entertainment at Forrester Research figures that from 1999 to 2002, the file-swapping Jihad has cost the recording industry $2 billion. Of course Griswold estimates that muting the non-problem of illegal immigration could, "save an estimated $3 billion a year-resources that would then be available to fight terrorism." Or maybe subsidize the illegals who, "...collect $7 billion per year in welfare, including medical assistance, food stamps and housing - courtesy of U.S. taxpayers...." Perhaps a portion of the $7 billion is spent on CD burners and MP3 players.
Segueing into the classic tune, Cary Sherman croons that the file-swapping offensive, "...is designed to affect deterrence." But there are those who realize that, similar to border jumping, "...a culture has been created in which getting songs online is simply part of the music experience." Now you’ve said it...it’s cultural. And, in a harmonious duet, CATO’s Mr. Griswold two-parts, "Yes, laws should be obeyed, but laws should also be in fundamental harmony with how normal people choose to live their daily lives. The problem is not that undocumented workers...are bad people, but that they are forced to work around a bad law." And oral sex isn’t cheating...unless, of course, you record it and share the file.
The Recording Industry Association of America should take its cue from CATO’s Mr. Griswold...under certain circumstances, illegal doesn’t mean illegal, "...most members of Congress understand that Mexican migration is not a threat to national security." That is if you don’t think that the 1997 to 2006 cost to taxpayers of almost a trillion dollars for this willy-nilly immigration is not a threat to your security. Perhaps classical music should be exempt from copyright law...or at least mariachi. It is, after all, a "cultural" thang.
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