Witness for the "Prosecution"

My ongoing research on the rhetoric associated with peer-to-peer technologies is grounded in the premise that the language we use to discuss these technologies has profound consequences. In this vein, I was impressed by Brian Flemming's recent critique of the Apple/Pepsi ad featuring the targets of RIAA lawsuits. Flemming's analysis is strong, and I was particularly struck by his canny identification of the problem with the use of the word "prosecuted." In the commercial, one lawsuit survivor says "I'm one of the kids who was prosecuted for downloading music from the Internet. As Flemming points out, this is a wildly inaccurate term, suggesting both the filing of criminal charges and the resolution of these charges in favor of society at large and against a defendant. In the case of the RIAA lawsuit, no charges ever reached a court of law. Rather, threatening letters and gestures by the RIAA prompted cash settlements.

While Flemming's invocations of 1984 (by way of Apple's famous commercial) are a touch heavy-handed, he's offered a real service by calling attention to the subtle but significant ways in which the ongoing debate over peer-to-peer technologies has been successfully reframed by the RIAA. Neither Apple nor Pepsi is required to toe the RIAA's line, but they do so here even as they are attempting to pitch their products to the very customers the RIAA has targeted and continues to target.