Culture Clash in Arizona

In the continuing copyright saga taking shape on the internet and elsewhere, an Arizona student will be doing hard time for copyright infringement. News blurb via Edupage, an electronic publication of Educause.

ARIZONA STUDENT SENTENCED FOR COPYRIGHT VIOLATIONS
A student at the University of Arizona who pleaded guilty to unauthorized possession of copyrighted movies and music has been sentenced to three months in prison, three years’ probation, and 200 hours of community service. The 18-year-old student, Parvin Dhaliwal, was also fined $5,400. Andrew Thomas, attorney for Maricopa County, noted that illegal possession of intellectual property is a felony. Thomas said some of the movies Dhaliwal had copies of were, at the time, only being shown in theaters. Dhaliwal was also ordered to take a copyright course at the University of Arizona and not to use file-sharing programs.
Associated Press, 17 February 2005
http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=2934754

So what’s the right approach? The teenagers think everything should be free. The companies want to lock things down so much that you don’t even own the media that you buy. The techies want information to be transferable and convenient. Where is the DRM balance? (DRM being Digital Rights Management.) Microsoft is way over on the DRM side of things, which is why their media efforts are corporate-friendly, consumer-unfriendly. Apple seems to have developed the best mix of DRM/convenience to date. There are restrictions on what you can do with music purchased from the iTunes Music Store, but by God if you want to burn the stuff to a CD you can without having to pay through the nostrils for the privilege.