Eric wrote: > A thought that I had on this is that philosophically I find copyright > problematic. As someone involved in academia the notion of proprietary > content is offensive and alien. You should be compensated sufficiently to > distribute your creation but nothing more. The idea is to get something new > out to as many people as possible, and, more importantly, whoever *wants* > your creation -- information is meant to be free and *freely* (not free as > in $0) accessible. If it is not freely accessible there's a problem. > Of course, there's the flipside that you can argue that copyright encourages > creation. Perhaps, but if you can't use prior work (i.e. a copyright that > essentially nullifies the business and creative practices that built up the > current media empires) you end up with an endless stream of Britneys and > canned corporate crap.
Oh GOD! I want to puke! Such philosophical gems, pooped out from under the belly of thieves! Thieves who can't even admit that, "Hey; we're stealing. DUH!" I have already dealt with an academic jackoff this week who spewed those same lines, and it is a WEAK argument. Tell you what. I had a hamburger distributed throughout my digestive system last night, and I would now like to share that hamburger with you. Interested? I didn't think so. You see, IN REALITY, art is not a hamburger. It is not just the action of the expression, caught in time. It is THE REACTION OF THE CONSUMER OF THAT ART where the true value lies! The value of art is in how it affects YOU. Not the guy who originally bought the art that you subsequently leached off him/her; but YOU. Here, I will take away your "special song", and give you MY special song. I LOVE my special song, so you surely will, also! Will that work? NO WAY! You and your significant others' "special song" is NOT the same as me and my significant others'. WHY?!! Because art touches us all in different ways, EVERY TIME WE HEAR/SEE/READ/BOOT IT. And every time it does, IT IS NEW AND FRESH. Even if its the hundredth time you've heard it. A song is like an old shoe for OUR SOUL, and songs relate to events unique to our respective lives. Songs fit our mood, and WE have the LUXURY of choosing them at our whim in order to relax us, invigorate us, make us cry, make us horny, WHATEVER. That is why I asked everybody who feels they don't have to pay for music to simply and without emotional hesitation DELETE them. If you feel no reason to pay, then they must be worthless TO YOU. Ah, but they are NOT, are they? Art means a LOT to everybody, EVEN when they don't realize it! I was watching Bill Maher way back (used to LOVE that show when he had an interesting and smart panel). He was going on and on about how schools should kill funding for all art, including music, etc. "If people want to learn art, they should go out in the world and learn it!", or something like that was his stand. It shouldn't be institutionalized, I guess was his point. As I am watching him pontificate, irony strikes me: Art is in ALL we do. Even the design of a bloody McDonalds. Even the choice Bill made in the particular combination of his suit and tie that night. His approval of the set design for his show. Even the chair he is sitting on. It is ALL a subjective discrimination between elements, come upon by the reaction of the individual's emotional gut. How UNSCIENTIFIC. How EMOTIONAL. Those are not "IfukkingDEAS", Eric. They are MUCH more to you, me and everyone else than just an abstract thought. A song is NEW and FRESH and IMPRESSES upon the should of EVERY new listener that receives it. It is not "done once" and that is it. I suppose you would want your money back from a concert where you heard some of the songs before on the artist's recordings? Or, maybe you feel that, because we have ALL seen pictures of The Mona Lisa, and "get the idea" of what The Mona Lisa is, that we should destroy the original? It is taking up space! Just leave it on the curb on garbage day and view the digital copy sitting on your hard drive. Well, long before the sanitation truck rolls by, that PIECE OF ART will be picked up by some lucky bugger, because "it" is special. All this ivory tower bullshit about "free ideas" is f**king CRAP! I HATE IT when stupid doorknobs play the "Free Ideas" card! NOTHING is free in this world -- and for GOOD reason. The reason is because things have a VALUE to US. What is gold? A HUNK OF STUPID, MOSTLY USELESS ROCK! Gold has fairly limited practical value. You cannot use it to save or feed lives. You cannot use it to protect yourself against a HARDER falling rock. Its value lies ONLY in the perception we have of it. Same thing with every piece of art you like -- or LOVE! How can we LOVE sonic vibrations? How can it cause us to weep when heard in specific combinations?? You say that the corporate music machine only produces crappy ideas, and therefore do not deserve compensation (including the musicians -- and the composers). Are you saying to me that Miles Davis is worth no more than Brittany Spears?? By people's actions in P2P swapping, it would appear to be the case. This is because people are not just swapping (subjective) "garbage"; they're swapping WHAT THEY ACTUALLY THINK IS GOLD! Are swappers going, "I'm gonna swap me a gig of Backstreet Boys, JUST to piss the labels off! THIS is my Lofty Mission!" Why, OF COURSE NOT! They take what they DESIRE for THEMSELVES. And rest assured, Miles Davis, Mozart ( I don't care how dead they are; that is NOT the point), Bob Dylan, The Beatles, even f**king Scott Joplin are ALL being swapped away out there. QUALITY STUFF, touching each individual in unique ways, on account of THE INDIVIDUAL's state of mind and heart. And no one is paying these performers and ARTISTS OF MERIT. Isn't THAT worth something to each of those individual listeners? Where is THE RESPECT and appreciation for how those listeners have enhanced their lives by including the special "entity' that is a song particular to their hearts? I am not going to respond to this thread after this, because I have said it all. I have been here before MANY TIMES with people who think they have a moral right to steal music, yet all I see is convenient logic justifying their actions. FLAME ON, you arrogant man, you. [/RANT] -- Mac Canada is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... 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