5.6 Activity 4

Answer

Very quickly, looking at each of the websites in turn, against the questions for evaluating a source on the Web:

• Does the person or organisation running the website have a track record of credibility?

• What are their credentials?

• Is the site well regarded by credible, reliable people and institutions?

• Do the people running the site have an agenda, e.g. who is the site aimed at?

• Where did the information on the site come from and is the source reliable?

• Is the site well documented and the sources of information given?

• Is it a government (.gov or .gov.uk), commercial (.com or co.uk), educational (.edu or .ac.uk) or non-profit organisation (.org or org.uk) site?

• Are the claims on the site verifiable?

• Are any of the unfair tactics in evidence?

• Is the page kept up to date?

• Can you verify the information on the site with other reliable sources?

• Are the links on the site up to date and to other reliable sources?

The LawMeme Guide to Spider-Man and Star Wars Bootlegs – Yale law school – potentially credible, sound credentials, well regarded, up to date and links to reliable sources.

The Right to Read – Appears to be the website of the legendary leader of the Free Software Foundation Richard Stallman; offers nine different translations of the article; potentially credible.

The Internet Debacle – An Alternative View – Janis Ian's site, industry insider for many years; potentially credible; claims verifiable – probably a reliable source.

Could Hollywood hack your PC? – A well-known online news site, CNet; and the author of the piece is a technology journalist with a good reputation for knowing the technology and the industry; potentially credible.

Piracy hurts everyone both online and offline – Another news site, author a known Democratic Party representative with an interest in the industry; potentially credible; article linked from RIAA site.

RIAA CEO Hilary Rosen's speech at Peer-to-Peer and Web Services Conference – Author CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America; knows the industry; potentially credible.

A ‘music for free’ mentality is challenging the future of the European recording industry – Author IPFI, knows industry; potentially credible.

Valenti testifies to studios’ desire to distribute movies online to customers – Jack Valenti, President of the Motion Picture Association of America for over thirty years; knows the industry; potentially credible.

Regarding the critical analysis of the individual articles, I have done a partial critique of the LawMeme Spiderman article as an example.

The author of the LawMeme piece makes some very important and well-argued points. All of the authors of the above articles have many legitimate issues that need to be addressed, for example:

• Digital copies of movies shot surreptitiously with a camcorder in a cinema will be of poor quality.

• The laws and practices to bring about Stallman's dystopian future have either been proposed or passed.

• Artists' sales can go up when they make samples available on the Net.

• Hollywood wants legal immunity for any damage done through employing ‘technological self help’ measures in order to protect their intellectual property.

• Piracy does cause problems.

• P2P technologies do present challenges to the music industry.

• The IPFI have a right to represent their industry.

• The movie studios do want to figure out how to make money out of the Net without imperilling their existing markets.

Yet all of them have succumbed to the use of unfair tactics in trying to get their message across. What does the LawMeme article suggest about the underlying values of the author, Ernest Miller? He seems to be a fan of new technologies. He also appears to have a number of disagreements with the film industry's perspective on piracy and how to deal with it. In the copyright wars, this article would suggest that his values seem to be broadly in line with Lessig's.