---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 20 Nov 2005 10:16:53 -0600
From: Jon Lebkowsky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [Weblogsky] Malbela: RIAA President to stop downloading,
save the empire
Posted at effaustin.org:
RIAA President Cary Sherman wants you to know that RIAA wants to protect
small record stores, artists, and college students. Though we imagine
record company profits are in there somewhere, too... [Link]
<http://www.malbela.com/blog/archives/000375.html>, via boingboing
<http://www.boingboing.net/2005/11/20/riaa_prez_lots_of_co.html>.
t's a common misconception that when people spend $15 on a CD,
they're simply paying ultra-rich megastars and big record labels.
First, a lot of that $15 goes to the record retailer who is trying
to make a living by selling music. But more importantly, behind the
artist you've heard of, there are countless others who have
contributed to that recording or to trying to make that recording a
commercial success. Studio musicians and background vocalists, the
members of the band, the studio engineers, the producers, the
songwriters and publishers, the marketing and promotion people --
you wouldn't believe how many people get involved in the making of a
CD from conception to distribution. They make their living by the
revenues that are earned from the sale of the product. When people
download it without paying for it, or get a burned copy from someone
else, there's that much less money for the people who worked to make
that recording. And there's also a lot less for record labels to
invest in another artist tomorrow.
You could extend that argument to say that it's a bad thing to download
music, /even if you pay for it/, because you disrupt the established
value chain. But that's what happens as new technologies emerge. The
answer is not to squash new paradigms and tech progress... the answer is
to adapt. The RIAA is using intellectual property arguments to protect
an obsolete system of distribution and their own profits from that system.
posted by jonl at 7:17 AM
[permanent link]
<http://www.effaustin.org/2005_11_01_effa_arc.html#113249983014369447>
--
Jon Lebkowsky
CEO, Polycot - http://polycot.com
Coordinator, SXSW Interactive 2006:
Digital Convergence Track
503 W. 17th, Suite 100
Austin, TX 78701
Office phone; 512 482-0715
cell 512 762-6547 fax 512 857-0049
personal weblog: http://weblogsky.com
http://public.2idi.com/=jonl
