"I’m all for copyright protection but I take issue with copyright extremism."
Much has been discussed here about TorrentSpy and its long standing fight against the MPAA, but little has been mentioned about the lawyer fighting on its behalf and his motivation for doing so.
Apparently well known for being "affordable creative and tough," Ira Rothken is no ordinary run-of-the-mill "legal eagle," and has made waves in the past by daring to take on big entertainment companies.
He’s the kind of attorney that relishes "big uphill fights" against media conglomerates and other heavy hitters of the entertainment industry, and can list RecordTV, ReplayTV, and MP3Board.com as being among those who he has braved the odds to defend.
"Ira has a strong intuition for the little guy," said Fred von Lohmann, an EFF senior staff attorney. "He enjoys these uphill fights. I often refer people to him."
What makes his fight against the RIAA, MPAA and others in copyright infringement cases so difficult is that the companies he defends are usually startups or sites that don’t have a lot of money to defend themselves in court against the well funded legal machines of their opponents.
"I think a lot of entertainment litigators aren’t used to going up against smart and committed opponents," said von Lohmann, who defended Streamcast Networks after it was sued for copyright infringement in 2001. "Many of them represent big movie studios and when they lean on small companies, they are used to getting them to roll over. That’s just not the kind of guy Ira is."
Now Rothkin isn’t "pro-piracy" mind you, but instead is "pro-innovation." He cites Jack Valenti’s, the late MPAA head, infamous comparison between the VCR and the Boston strangler back in 1982 as a perfect example of how the entertainment industry tends to favor the status quo rather than progress and innovation.
"I’m all for copyright protection but I take issue with copyright extremism," said Rothken. "Hollywood says that these sites can be used for infringing purposes and therefore should be snuffed. We say ‘Wait a second, this site can be used for noninfringing uses as well.’ What we’re after is a better balance."
Instead of embracing new technology and distribution methods for consumers, it prefers to keep things as they are, with everything completely under their control making predictable levels of annual profits. They fear the unknown that change represents. But, what’s so ironic is that the VCR, and later the DVD player, went on to earn movie studios more profits than even the theaters they fought so rigorously to protect.
"Hollywood has made billions from video recorders and the home rental business," Rothken said. "They wouldn’t have seen any of that money had they succeeded in killing that technology."
His latest battle with the MPAA concerns its efforts to get TorrentSpy to turn over the temporary logs stored in their servers’ RAM. If allowed to stand, the unprecedented ruling could mean that anyone defending themselves in a civil suit could be required to turn over information in their computer’s RAM, forcing businesses and private citizens to store vast amounts of data.
Browsing the internet anonymously is already tough as it is, but the ruling, which brings up serious privacy issues, could mean that no US-based website would be able to promise strict confidentiality ever again. Everybody’s online habits could be tracked and monitored and user privacy will be gone forever.
The stakes are high for us all, and we should be glad to know that Ira Rothkin is fighting the good fight on our behalf.
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i know this article is 2 weeks old but im just clicking it now. is that lawer name fake or just a really funny coincidence? i dont know much about investing ‘n’ stuff but i know there is something you can get called a “roth IRA” how is this guy’s name Ira Rothken?
dunno. just seems odd. i dont know why im posting this. ill shut up now.