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Can Justice Scalia Solve the Riddles Of the Internet?
Wall Street Journal ^ | April 1, 2005 | Daniel Henninger

Posted on 04/02/2005 4:37:22 AM PST by billorites

As the berobed Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court sat pestering the suits who came before them days ago to contest Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer v. Grokster...

Conundrum #1: Has the Internet, the most powerful information pump the world has ever known, drowned the incentive to create in words or images?

Conundrum #2: Has the Internet effectively displaced the antique notion of the profit-motive with a newer, unstoppable reality that everything on the Internet is, if it wants to be, "free"?

Conundrum #3: How is it that millions of Americans who wouldn't cross the street against a red light will sleep like lambs after downloading onto their computers a Library of Alexandria's worth of music or movies--for free.

Even writers gotta eat. But this means one has to buy into the validity of eeeek, "profit." Absent that, there's no hope.

New business models like iTunes and techno-fixes such as micropayments matter a lot, but the unshakable reality is that digits and microchips are not like any previous reproducing technology. If you can digitize it, you can grab it, for free.

No matter what the Supreme Court decides about Grokster's 15 minutes of fame, this is a philosophical issue for the long run. The Web isn't just a technology; it's become an ideology. The Web's birth as a "free" medium and the downloading ethic have engendered the belief that culture--songs, movies, fiction, journalism, photography--should be clickable into the public domain, for "everyone."

What a weird ethic. Some who will spend hundreds of dollars for iPods and home theater systems won't pay one thin dime for a song or movie. So Steve Jobs and the Silicon Valley geeks get richer while the new-music artists sweating through three sets in dim clubs get to live on Red Bull. Where's the justice in that?

(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: grokster; intellectualproperty; internet; lawsuit; scotus
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To: Huck
"The distribution of mp3 files of copyrighted music is theft."

Not only is your statement simplistic, it is false - unless you add the words "without permission."

Since you would apparently take the position that when you were trading tapes, YOU did not trade in music where the copyright holder forbade such trading, it is unbelievably self-righteous of you to act as if you are the only one who did not, or would not, do so.

That's okay, though. Your view is the past. The stupidest thing the RIAA ever did was to go after Napster. Killing it was like killing a malealuca tree - it just spread more seeds. File-sharing is here to stay, and until the RIAA and its sycophants - including you - figure out how to use technology to their advantage rather than attempting to snuff it out, they will continue to alienate their market instead of cultivating it.

But I'm sure you enjoy playing weddings.

121 posted on 04/02/2005 7:58:41 AM PST by lugsoul (Wild Turkey)
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To: kingu

little venues can't afford bands once a week, BANDS LOSE MONEY for little venues. Trust me I know.


122 posted on 04/02/2005 7:58:44 AM PST by jpsb
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To: jpsb

I knew you were a bar owner. How funny. The bar owner trying to lower his cost of entertainment, the entertainment providers trying to maintain his income from same. Self interest abounds.


123 posted on 04/02/2005 7:58:59 AM PST by Huck (mp3 file sharing is THEFT.)
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To: jpsb

Not all of them. I get paid $200 a WEEK to play in a very small bar. I don't know the square footage, but it's got about 12 bar stools and maybe 7 tables. But as long as they keep drinking and having fun, they keep having me back. It aint out of the goodness of their hearts.


124 posted on 04/02/2005 8:00:15 AM PST by Huck (mp3 file sharing is THEFT.)
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To: lugsoul
Not only is your statement simplistic, it is false - unless you add the words "without permission."

Well duh. That is what we're talking about. Sheesh.

125 posted on 04/02/2005 8:01:00 AM PST by Huck (mp3 file sharing is THEFT.)
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To: jpsb
"Yup, but not my the one violating the copyright but by the one foolish enough to hire musicians in the first place. Which is why my bar, and all the other bars in the local area, no longer do live music on a regular basis."

If I extend what you are saying, effectively the way the recording industry is utilizing copyright is actually stifling creativity? Essentially keeping the possible next U2 from gaining a venue in which to increase their pupularity all because they might break out into a rendition of 'Happy Birthday' for someone?

126 posted on 04/02/2005 8:01:03 AM PST by Tench_Coxe
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To: lugsoul
But I'm sure you enjoy playing weddings.

Very much so. I enjoy satisfying all my customers.

127 posted on 04/02/2005 8:01:48 AM PST by Huck (mp3 file sharing is THEFT.)
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To: Valin

It may be. I seem to recall it only dates back to the 40s or so, but I forget.


128 posted on 04/02/2005 8:02:48 AM PST by Huck (mp3 file sharing is THEFT.)
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To: Huck

There's an ugly balance to patent law that has been lost in copyright to protect the corporate franchise. I think that's what bothers people the most. As we've seen with that Terri-somebody business going on elsewhere, no revulsion justifies breaking the law.

Ironically, in locking copyright up like Houdini, holders only encourage the escape. I'd like nothing more than to see properly protected, properly respected, far far more limited copyright. Superextended copyright has severely damaged creativity in the music industry, for it has allowed artists to live on old creations rather than fighting along with the new. The generational-skipping of music styles is a result of copyright rules as much as anything else.

The Van Zant family would be more busily competing in the battle over musical styles and ideas if they had to fight to keep their good name rather than sitting back and collecting old rent. Imagine if the 15-year patent law were applied to copyright. What a marvelous, mad capitalistic rush it would be!


129 posted on 04/02/2005 8:04:02 AM PST by nicollo (All economics are politics.)
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To: Huck
Not all of them. I get paid $200 a WEEK to play in a very small bar.

Does that bar pay the license fees for the music you play? Do they have an ASCAP sticker on their door (along with one from BMI and SESEC) or do you restrict your playing to just ASCAP licensed songs?

And you keep saying it is the bar owner's responsibility to pay the license fee - doesn't that fly in the face of the topic of the article which states that software is to blame for the actions of the end users who are downloading songs in violation of copyright?
130 posted on 04/02/2005 8:05:45 AM PST by kingu (What is union scale wage for staging a protest anyway?)
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To: Tench_Coxe
"If I extend what you are saying, effectively the way the recording industry is utilizing copyright is actually stifling creativity? Essentially keeping the possible next U2 from gaining a venue in which to increase their pupularity all because they might break out into a rendition of 'Happy Birthday' for someone?"

Out of the ball park. Yes that is exactly correct, I'd love to give a local bands a chance to show there stuff and build a reputation but I can't afford the obscene license fees. And neither can all the other local bars. My bar is 1800 sq ft, a big crowd is 30 or more people, most around here are the same size little neighborhood bars. That is who these laws are hurting, local bands and little bars, local bans can't get a start and little bars get sued. Little venues don't make money on live music, they do it cause they like their customers and love music. Now if they try they get sued. So screw it, no bands.

131 posted on 04/02/2005 8:11:43 AM PST by jpsb
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To: nicollo
"There's an ugly balance to patent law that has been lost in copyright to protect the corporate franchise. I think that's what bothers people the most."

I don't have problems with copyright, if it was used for what it was intended. For example, Huey Lewis and the News sued Ray Parker Jr. for stealing a riff and including it into the song 'Ghostbusters' without permission. Ry Parker Jr. was thereby making a profit off of someone else's work. Copyright was properly enforced.
Sending thugs to break down the doors of people trading tapes in a speakeasy, or attempting to shut down Used Record stores, is NOT a proper use of copyright.

If someone were taking songs that were digitally downloaded, burning them into a CD, and selling them, then there is a valid copyright.

If patent law were treated similarly to the way the Music industry treats copyright, innovation would come to a standstill, with companies suing the bejabbers out of each other ( good for the lawyers ).

132 posted on 04/02/2005 8:12:05 AM PST by Tench_Coxe
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To: Huck
I don't think it is. I think it's more similar to manufacturer's of drug paraphenalia.

Again, its HOW an end user uses perfectly legal technoloy and your demand that the technology be illegal to manufacture. What if those brass bowls on "hash pipes" make jim-dandy coupler fittings for connecting plastic nutrient tubing used in the commercial greenhouse growing of tomatoes and lettuce and cost 1/4 of the price of regular brass fittings ? Are you going to have DEA agents clamboring all over my Romaos and Romaine in my eight 1/2 acre greenhouses ?
133 posted on 04/02/2005 8:14:03 AM PST by pyx (Rule #1. The LEFT lies. Rule #2. See Rule #1.)
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To: Tench_Coxe
"then there is a valid copyright."

Should read, " then there is a valid case for infringing on a copyright. ". Not enough coffee yet.

134 posted on 04/02/2005 8:15:44 AM PST by Tench_Coxe
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To: jpsb

I guess the world will have to settle for the Music industry permissible 'American Idol' for the next U2. Sigh.


135 posted on 04/02/2005 8:18:15 AM PST by Tench_Coxe
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To: Huck
"12 bar stools and maybe 7 tables"

I can assure you I know what I am talking about and I can assure you the bar is not paying license fees and I can further assure you the bar is losing money the nights you play. they take the lose cause they like your music and they want to keep some "energy" at the bar. They think overall it will help the business.

136 posted on 04/02/2005 8:18:26 AM PST by jpsb
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To: kingu

Yes. Yes. No. No.


137 posted on 04/02/2005 8:19:08 AM PST by Huck (mp3 file sharing is THEFT.)
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To: jpsb
They think overall it will help the business.

Which demolishes your argument.

138 posted on 04/02/2005 8:19:56 AM PST by Huck (mp3 file sharing is THEFT.)
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To: nicollo
Superextended copyright has severely damaged creativity in the music industry, for it has allowed artists to live on old creations rather than fighting along with the new. The generational-skipping of music styles is a result of copyright rules as much as anything else.

That's an interesting topic for discussion. As I have said, I don't know what the length should be. I personally don't see any problem with artists living off their accomplishments. I don't care if Don Henley writes another song or not. But I do think he should own Hotel California.

139 posted on 04/02/2005 8:22:12 AM PST by Huck (mp3 file sharing is THEFT.)
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To: Tench_Coxe
I have one local band (Guppies From Outer Space) that is great, gets standing ovations from the crowd. I am sticking with them, I'll take the risk, and I'll take the lose when they play. But the copyright laws suck big time.
140 posted on 04/02/2005 8:24:04 AM PST by jpsb
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