Posted on 05/07/2010 2:01:58 PM PDT by a fool in paradise
...computational neuroscientist Anders Sandberg recently noted that although we have strong instinctive feelings about ownership, intellectual property doesn’t always fit into that framework....
..Optimists argue that the music industry has coped before with disruptive new technology. Until recordings came along, songs, not singers, were Big Business. So while copyright law allocated royalties for performances, it said nothing about what happened when you recorded those performances and sold thousands of copies of the recording. Only after protracted legal maneuvering did we work out an arrangement that allowed both businesses to thrive.
...collectors switching from cassette and vinyl to CD swelled the music industry’s coffers in the 1980s and ’90s, so the eventual softening of sales is hardly surprising. The concert industry is indeed booming despite the downturn. And people who admit to downloading music illegally may actually spend more money on recorded music than people who don’t. One assumes they plump up concert revenues as well.
...Concert-promotion mogul Michael Rapino has said that just 2 percent of Americans attend more than a couple of concerts a year...
...To be sure, today’s 20-something file-sharer may someday pay $200 to watch Vampire Weekend rock the Astrodome. Or maybe not; the Internet tends to fragment audiences. Generation X, of which I am a member, was probably the last to grow up with the Top 40 and only a few TV stations—and the kind of common taste that this structure instilled. The bounty of the World Wide Web encourages niche interests....
But the broader music industry, like other entertainment fields, has always worked on a tournament model: a lot of starving artists hoping to be among the few who make it big....
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Those who write the songs...those who spend the money to publish are getting cheated...not to mention that is just wrong to steal...I don’t want to point a finger at a welfare cheat while illegally downloading music....granted, those who download are not doing so the “make money” with someone’s creation...but there are losers in this.
“There is a VAST difference between songwriters/artists and publishers/copyright holders beginning with the fact that they are often not the same person/entity.”
Of course there is...but songwriters make their money on unit sales. They are being cheated...stealing is wrong, regardless of how wealthy the “artist” may be.
Nothing comes comes out of thin air--not life, technology or art.
I have been an artist myself, and the same impetus is behind the few technical notions that have come into my head. I get a couple of them a week at times-- what my brother terms "a brain fart."
That's an apt characterization of most of them: I've drawn up ideas only to discover that someone else arrived at the same thing much earlier. One of my ideas is beyond my technical knowledge-- but I'm trying to redress that.
The creative act, if that's what you call it, is its own reward. It's a little like sex in more ways than one. There are singers who's talent is comprehending the meaning of a song, and revealing it to the audience. They didn't write the song, but they imbue it with meaning-- far more than the writer of the song realized in some instances.
Art and technology both depend on a milieu, on an audience ,peers and an economy. Engineers learn their craft by dismantling and studying the works of others-- musicians do the same--coping the songs and mimicking the styles of their heroes.
I see both as equal, and I see the need to make it possible for necessary copying and modeling of previous works to continue. Also, I see the difficulties and expense posed on the inventor counterproductive.
I don't point my finger at the welfare cheat; in my opinion, if they're entitled to it and would be stupid not to take it. I point my finger at the politician who sold that advantage in exchange for their vote.
The "intellectual property" issue is valid, but in my opinion it cannot take precedence over our rights against illegal search and seizure. It's just as wrong for the RIAA to seize a computer as it would be for them to seize your stereo because it has a tape deck.
/bingo
There's a lot of great up and coming bands out there, bands with real talent. They've got dedicated followings but they're just not popular on a mass scale.
The whole industry is changing. Bands today find a much narrower fanbase who download their songs and see their shows in small clubs or as acts on the larger festival circuits. These bands will never become rich. They're lucky to be able to support themselves playing music and they'll probably be back to working normal jobs by the time they're 35.
There's good new music out there but I think the days of the "rock star" are over.
So true. I would say it this way..."So many artists are angry and justly worried about people stealing the fruits of their labor. However, many of these same artists have no problem working, without remorse, to steal the fruits of my labor to support their favorite cause, usually marxism."
I agree with you regarding search and seizure, however, a welfare CHEAT is exactly that..someone who is stealing...not someone who is getting what they are entitled to.
Making a copy on cassette or cd of something you already OWN is not stealing..downloading for FREE something that you didn’t pay for, and therefore deny due royalties to creators/owners is stealing.
I am always amazed that at Free Republic we have those who will demand welfare reform while at the same time defend illegal downloading.
Bill Graham + Woodstock killed rock and roll.
After Woodstock, Bill went the arena/stadium route. Now all of that control is consolidated into Clear Channel and LiveNation/Ticketmaster’s hands.
As are the days of "trusted" nightly news anchors.
3 alphabet networks controlled the information that the public consumed (including who was a "star").
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