Alistair, beyond the rigid letter of the law, there are certainly gray areas of reasonable behavior.
On 5/27/03 2:05 PM, "Alistair Bell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Oh, lets go back to making comp tapes for our friends? > Wait, that was illegal too, right? I'm afraid it is, because you are relieving your bud of going out and purchasing the cassette. Now, tape dubbing was clunky, and the quality degenerated. And, it was PHYSICAL. Way WAY less convenient than P2P/MP3. As a result, the problem of tape dubbing, circa 1994, is NOTHING compared to what is going on today, where Kazaa is well on its way (almost there, as a matter of fact) to becoming the MOST DOWNLOADED application of ALL TIME! Think about that: Unseating ICQ, and beating anything M$ has offered online, be it free or for free. > Garage sales of old LPs? But isn't re-sale without artist/label comp > illegal? Well, at least in that case, a SINGLE copy is still in existence, leaving the possession of one owner and entering into the possession of another. > And the whole notion of legality and complying to all the laws of the land > is pretty well ridiculous, leaving aside ignorance (which as we all know is > no defence), I'd make the outrageous assertion that we all break the laws of > our land every single day, to one degree or another. If you have never gone over the posted speed limit, or jaywalked, or fudged > ANYTHING on your taxes:), then let me know. Oh, come on. OF COURSE I have. I have EVEN DOWNLOADED AN MP3 or two in my time. The difference is that, unlike the majority of guys who leach the hell out of it, I don't take a moral rights position, or a "screw the establishment" position, or ANYTHING else lofty. I know it is stealing. Or fudging. Or speeding. PERIOD. These guys who do it and think it wronging a right make me want to HURL. > The entire argument becomes leaky. And the ship goes down bow first, when you can't offer those who WANT control over THEIR creative content any manner with which to do so. People may say, "I know bands that put their stuff up on purpose". Hey, that's fine and dandy. But, what about the ones who do not want their music stolen? The technology allows for nothing to protect their rights, and the majority of users of Kazaa, Morpheus, etc. obviously do not seek to find out if it is okay with the artist whose song they are grabbing, right? > This thread will never end :) It is almost as timeless as a Mac vs. PC thread. But, I'll tell ya, as long as people keep ripping off music and software and movies, the worse it'll get from "the other side". Microsoft's "Trustworthy Computing Initiative", maybe iTunes' "Connect To Shared Music" feature killed (have you tried that? Way cool), rights management and spyware clawing into your hard drive. Is that the kind of computing experience we all want? And guess what? I do mean we ALL. If the service and content providers of ALL types go with Microsoft's "Palladium" security features (recently renamed to something else) planned for their next big release of Windows (currently called "Longhorn") like I bet they will, where will that leave users of other OSes, like Mac OS and Linux?? The upcoming version of Windows will allow an online transaction to only occur IF the computer is running Palladium, as this ensures that the provider really knows who it is that is receiving the content and can ensure that they have paid (maybe not know personally by name, but by some method of identity). Among other things, this is ne capability of Palladium that has been revealed. That would SUCK. The labels have not handled the technological developments of the past few years very well at all. That does not, however, negate the fact that it is a legitimate problem for them, and that reasonable solutions -- including a lightening up of their terms -- is needed. I think that the iTunes Music Store goes a long way toward that. We all simply need the integrity and honor to use it. -- 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
