Introduction
It is ironic that the creative industries that have traditionally been at the forefront of advancing free speech (Lenny Bruce, just for one1) are now fighting for their livelihoods against people using free speech as an argument against us!!! They hold that any attempt to interdict online intellectual property theft is infringing the free speech of those engaged in "file sharing" (which to our way of thinking, since we have a Constitutional right to our copyrights, is in fact theft!!).
"Free speech" in the U.S., originally codified in the U.S. Bill of Rights (the first set of amendments to the Constitution) was referred to as "freedom of expression." So, we have one "right" enshrined in the Constitution pitted against another right enshrined in the first amendment to the Constitution, The Bill of Rights.
The free speech right has been advocated in many of the court cases involving online piracy and has been shot down again and again by U.S. courts, starting with the Napster case.
Free Speech Perversion
"Free speech" advocates like the Electronic Frontier Foundation argue that..
Creating or increasing Internet intermediaries' liability for their users' behavior and content…has a direct impact on citizens' privacy, freedom of expression, and ability to create and collaborate.2.
Leaping from there to interdiction of online intellectual property theft as an infringement of speech seems to us a perversion of the U.S. Constitutional right to freedom of expression, but there it is.
