> many people use a version of that fallacious old "trickle down effect" >(rightwing favourite)argument to explain why we should be grateful >and it seems to go something like this: >"as file-sharing allows many more people to hear your music, more are likely >to buy it, or pay to use it" >yeah,right!
Last month I downloaded 25 albums. 9 of these were from net-based labels that offer their music for free download, as well as an option to buy a physical version. I bought 7 albums, 6 of them ended up being from the net labels that choose to let me listen to their music without being branded an illegal downloader. I obviously bought these albums because I really liked the music, but there's also a feeling of participation, in that my money is going towards people who endorse an approach to distribution that I want to support. I can be sure that it's a really good fit before I leave the store - I like the honesty. Equally, just because someone downloads an album doesn't mean it's lost revenue (which is how record companies seem to tally up all of the money they 'lose'). A download doesn't equate to a lost purchase if that purchase was never going to happen anyway. >Message: 3 >Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:48:18 -0400 >From: "alastair" <[email protected]> >Subject: Re: [Ada_list] Ada_list Digest, Vol 77, Issue 13 >To: <[email protected]> >Message-ID: <>1ae78364df1a4fadb7e8c6358807f...@homed6c4df9d26> >Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; > reply-type=original > >word from a (mainly) analogue artist re copyright > > simple crushing fact for most musicians I know: >our sales( and income) have dropped by more than 50% >at the very same time that our music is listened to/used by more people than >ever. > many people use a version of that fallacious old "trickle down effect" >(rightwing favourite)argument to explain why we should be grateful >and it seems to go something like this: >"as file-sharing allows many more people to hear your music, more are likely >to buy it, or pay to use it" >yeah,right! > >thanks Julian for some common sense: >"To abolish copying rights entirely would be to abandon the basic tenet that >the >author of a work has rights to that work, including being able to contest >that >s/he made it at all". > >If you hate the system of copyright, simply don't copyright your own work, >no-one will force you to!. > >Was the old system of making records and expecting royalties from sales and >performance "stopping the flow of information"? > >My belief is that copyright is more important than ever; >since the days of Marx we've understood that our perverted system runs by >allowing those who did not make the bread >to "conceal" that fact and sell it as their own, >now some wish to remove all (legal) trace of the relationship between maker >and object/artwork,thus extending this concealment to the world of art and >ideas. > > Same old : those who can't imagine why we might need these funds, say we >should do without. > >alastair galbraith
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