I renamed the thread b/c it seems to be morphing > Date: Mon, 26 May 2003 23:35:18 -0700 > Subject: Re: Alleged piracy > From: Steve Kidd <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > On 5/26/03 1:04 PM, "Bob Wulkowicz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> Concocted laws that benefit the men behind the curtain need to be >> exposed and dismissed whenever possible. The profit principle has >> destroyed more than it has benefited; pull the cell phone off your ear >> and look out the window. >
<snip> > There is no such thing as a natural law, or natural ethic. All laws, and > I'll use your terminology, are concocted. And for a very specific reason, to > ease the functioning of society. I'd say there are differences between laws protecting commercial entities and those protecting individuals. Unfortunately, laws protecting individuals are being granted to commercial interests, and, are *trumping* rights and protections afforded individuals. This is primarily an American concern, but since we as Canada are loosely an over-sized American state for the purposes of commerce we are indirectly affected by their laws and the rights granted to corporations (in preference of those of individuals) seep into Canada (not to mention corps have all the benefits of individual rights now but none of the drawbacks (like citizenship, ability to be incarcerated or suffer similar sanctions for transgressions, etc.). > Like many others, you miss the basic point of what copyright laws are for. > > Copyright is not about profit, it's about protecting the right of artists to > benefit from their work, so they have the means to continue working. It's > also about ensuring that the artist can control how his or her work is used. However, US copyright laws have now been perverted to the point of near uselessness, *primarily* by corporate interests who now hold the bulk of copyrights anyway. I have no problem with artists controlling and benefiting from their creation. Where I draw the line is profiteering or abusing copyright. The famous example is that of Disney. With excessively long copyrights (as they exist in the US now) Walt would never have been allowed to massacre Snow White or any of the other fairy tales that brought him to fame and fortune. Now, his company has perverted copyright laws further through lobbying of a corrupt US government. A copyright is a limited licence for exclusive ownership over a certain work, in exchange for the right to release it into the public and control it. However, abuses by copyright holders (corporate or otherwise) have so weakened the moral standing of this societal agreement that I cannot fault people (and I might even support them) who wilfully or ignorantly violate this agreement. There are numerous other examples of attempts at unreasonable copyright control. In recent memory, the attempt by movie studios to squash video before it took off, the DMCA, copyright extension and now the TV networks war against personal digital video recorders. These are all examples of abuse of copyright by copyright holders. For a law to work, you need to have good will on both sides. I've *never* felt good will from the studios so I feel no good will for them. If anything, I would work to sabotage them every step of the way (I'm 28 FYI and have been an entertainment consumer since age 12 (1987)). Even in the early years of CDs I received the message that I was a potential thief and should not copy CDs to tape (which I happily did, and, for a while also did with other people's CDs :) :) :)... I don't need to do this anymore b/c I've amassed the CDs I like). I and my whole generation grew up with that message -- the entertainment industry has alienated an entire generation. The anti-MP3 campaign is going to hurt the industry even more since it's targeting the current youth -- if we're considered criminals for doing something perfectly normal, then we'd rather flip you the bird and *sabotage* you than work with you. Treat a person like an equal and you'll get co-operation, treat them like a criminal and you'll breed "criminal" behaviour (I guess the Ontario Tories never learned that lesson <hehehe>). > For example, if Pres. Bush appropriated an anti-war song and twisted it into > the theme song for the war on terrorism, don't you think the song writer > should be able to say "Stop that!" I certainly do. It depends, if he had the appropriate rights to use it, then he could do so, even over the objections of the song's creator. > Yes, large corporations have taken advantage of copyright laws to make huge > profits, but the solution isn't to say "screw the artists, music should be > free." I think it is the solution!!! P2P has changed the face of the continent. The only way to get rid of it is to shut down the internet, or to wipe out computers everywhere. P2P has eliminated the excuse that music companies have had for years for keeping music prices unreasonably high -- distribution costs are negligible, choice is a non-issue, media expenses are the concern of the consumer, not the distributor, etc. We have seen the "Big 5" get hit with SUCCESSFUL anti-competitive behaviour suits for price fixing in both the US and the UK. This is an inherently corrupt industry. If the industry is corrupt and colluding to keep prices artificially high, then how can you expect "consumers" to behave ethically? This unfortunately means that artists get caught in the middle, BUT, BUT, BUT artists are themselves also culpable. They have the choice of not signing with one of the Big 5, and going with a smaller, but ethically responsible lable -- I don't feel for them much either. It is the smaller artists that I do, and I suspect that P2P has done them more good than harm -- they get exposure by wide-spread swapping of good music. A person finds a neat track they like and then goes out and buys their whole CD. Anyway, back to "the solution". I think the attitude "music should be free" is the solution. In Ontario we have a government who likes to wait until a crisis hits before it actually does something <rant> (it's gutted the education system while at the same time claiming to invest in it -- and, it doesn't help that society seems to treat teachers both as some of the most valuable members of society (since they teach our children), but they also think that teachers should be paid nothing, that the summer off is unreasonable (never mind that they don't get paid for the time they don't work in the summer), despite the fact that teachers are more highly trained than the vast majority of workers out there *and* they work more than nearly any other profession (what other business gets *over* 6 hours a day of *productive* work out of their employees... a teacher is on show for 5-6 hours/day *at least*, not counting marking and class prep)). </rant> Perhaps we should learn from our politicians. If music swapping reaches epidemic proportions (it is nowhere close) then the lables might be forced to develop new and *more reasonable* distribution mechanisms. The technology has existed for 10 years now yet they haven't come close, even Apple hasn't got it right yet. Apple is on the right path, *but* its service is priced too high (given the quality) to be reasonable -- they're still doing the same thing as the record cos. Gouging the customer as much as possible while providing a lower quality product. Compared to the competition, they are providing something impressive, but given the high cost of the service, they are not where they should be. 1 USD per *low quality* song is too much. If this were, let's say a 256 Kbps MP3 (much higher quality than 128 bit AAC) that could be burned to CD, it might be worth 1 USD. For 128 bit quality I'd be willing to pay 0.25 US. Anyway, i have better things to do than write rants. Have a good one, Eric. -- Mac Canada is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Shop Canadian, visit Mantek Services <http://www.mantek.mb.ca> Low Prices That Will Keep YOU and Your MAC Smiling Educational discounts are now available Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Mac Canada info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/mac-can.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/mac-canada%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
