Tech | Opinion
What Failed Anti-Piracy Law Can Teach Us About the TikTok Ban
The U.S. Government is brazenly escalating internet censorship. What can we learn from past attempts to shut platforms down?
In August 2005, Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a natural resources coordinator from Brainerd, Minnesota, received a piece of mail that would change her life forever. The then-28-year-old Native American mother of four was blissfully unaware of the protracted nightmare ahead. Corporate coldness, an uncaring (and downright hostile) legal system, and extortionate legal predation were about to change her life permanently.
The letter was a cease-and-desist, a legal warning telling her that if she continued using her computer the way she had been, severe penalties awaited. These letters are often (not legally binding) scare tactics. But Jammie’s case was destined to be different. She was being sued by the major record labels for using file-sharing software called Kazaa to download mp3 files off the Internet.
Her case was part of a lawsuit spree the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) undertook in the mid-2000s, becoming a predatory, bounty-hunter-like entity, tasked with pursuing people illegally sharing songs with peer-to-peer software…
