Just like artists and struggling musicians are the frontmen of the industry copyright lobby, here, start-ups and bloggers are the frontmen to the internet giants.
It's worth remembering that, despite the alarmist claims of the content industry, copyright was not created to prop up giant media companies or pad the trust funds of celebrities' heirs.
"It's a very powerful blunt instrument that can be used to threaten and intimidate industries that copyright owners disagree with," said Sarah Deutsch, associate general counsel for Verizon Communications.
The CenterSpan Communications Corporation won an auction yesterday in federal bankruptcy court for the technology assets of Scour, an Internet search engine company sued by the music and movie industries for copyright infringement.
Five were related to the music industry's copyright lawsuits against the Internet file-swapping services Napster and MP3.com.
This is a move which is directed at protecting the media industry and copyright law but one which entirely misses the heart of the issue.
If today's teenagers are growing up with the perception that music is something that can be had free, the industry fears, copyright laws will become effectively unenforceable.
In some other areas, such as the music industry, such copyright registries are required to sign formal pledges that they will not abuse their dominant positions in this way.
Ms. Seltzer, a staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a high-tech policy group that has fought the record industry over copyright issues, acknowledged that the amnesty offer "sounds a little extortionate when they say it, perhaps".
By purchasing the assets of the company and not acquiring it in a merger, Bertelsmann may be able to limit its liability in the record industry's copyright infringement lawsuits against Napster, Mr. Radcliffe suggested.
