Fascinating piece in today’s NYT about digital media sharing among enlisted personnel in Iraq. Would entertainment industry groups — or at some point, our government — prosecute these soldiers for piracy?
At the Kirkush Military Training Base in the eastern Iraqi desert less than
15 miles from the frontier with Iran, an hour’s wait for a helicopter was spent listening to Marilyn Manson, Eminem and Shania Twain before the Black Hawk fired up its turbines and somebody back in the barracks, as if on cue and with a dark sense of irony, cranked up Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” The songs came from a European satellite music channel and a communal computer where 12.8 gigabites of tunes had been downloaded for sharing on MP3’s. The rule was simple: Take some music, add some music. “Any time anybody on the team gets a new CD, they load it in, so we stay pretty current,” said Sgt. Thomas R. Mena.As the new CD from Tool blasted in the barracks, Sergeant Mena scrolled through the computerized music library, which ranged from Abba and AC/DC, through Limp Biskit and Metallica and on to Van Halen and ZZ Top. Emigres from West Africa who joined the Army for citizenship and career training arrived with the latest Nigerian pop CD’s. Chinese-Americans hauled along hot Hong Kong video imports.
Link (site registration required (Thanks, JP)