Andy Streich wrote: > That does not seem accurate. Royalties from radio play and sales are > significant to many artists. The songwriter I heard said she makes $0.09 > (some sort of average figure) each time a song of hers is played on the radio > and that sort of income was essential for her.
Chances are if it's on the radio she no longer owns the song as it was put
there by a label which takes possession of the content. They payment scheme
is immaterial. She might be better off if she kept legal rights to her own
work and could redistribute it to several sources. But since they're focused
on play the current highly slanted game that's all they want to protect.
> Current law makes downloading different from your other options illegal
> because of the speed and quality of copy you can make and the ease of doing
> so with digital formats -- at least that's how the IPR argument goes. (This
> was the precise point of the Senate hearing I witnessed.)
Lending a DVD is far faster than downloading it. Hell, riding my
motorcycle to the library and checking out a book is often faster than
downloading a book and they're far more compact digitally.
>> In each case the content producer gets paid once (Library, friend, etc)
>> and the intellectual property, the content, is distributed. Yet three of
>> the four cases it is legal and has been encouraged for decades while the
>> fourth, the exact same activity, is illegal.
> Yes, but now new technology has changed the game.
Not really. The same arguments were presented for the cassette tape,
writable CDs and writable DVDs. Oddly enough each technology has boosted
sales, not diminished them. The game is exactly as it was before. Only
difference is that the consumers are even easier to reach and please.
> There are many books I would not buy if I could get free electronic copies --
> just the plain text would be enough. I can see an author being concerned
> about that.
However when an author had the audacity to actually test the theory that
releasing the books for free would increase sales that is exactly what
happened. That author was Eric Flynt published by Baen. Since that day Baen
has published books online, for free, because it makes them money. In fact,
every book that David Weber (arguably their top author) puts out in hardcover
includes a CD which contains, in four formats, every book he's published.
I've bought 4 of his books in hardcover in the past few years. You think if
they were taking a loss they'd continue to do it? In fact it has been so
successful that they have recorded case where an author who consented to
releasing a Baen book saw the sales of her books under other publishers go up.
They've even published a book from an author who retained the electronic
publishing rights though her print rights are still locked up with another
pulp publisher.
Yes, I can see the author being concerned. But I don't see it being a
rational concern since most who are arguing against it are doing so without a
rational test case and ignoring the one business decision this publisher has
made!
> But I was thinking more of how established businesses (like Sun, IBM, HP,
> Intel) and startups would function without IPR laws and "protections". I
> find it hard to imagine because we have no examples in developed countries,
> and I've benefited materially from being part of a tiny startup that was
> acquired for its IP.
Many times it comes down to service based revenue vs. licensing. Which is
how Stallman says programmers would feed themselves in a totally free software
society akin to how architects and handymen do so now on the homes we own and
are free to modify.
> I wish there was a way to get by without IPL because of the many positive
> things that would be enabled by doing so, but in a capitalist economy it
> doesn't seem viable to do away with it. And, imagining the USA and other
> developed countries moving to a different kind of economy any time soon isn't
> too realistic.
Agreed on both points. Though I am always hopeful because of Baen's
example and always cite it loudly when people say that it might not work.
There's one example of it working now.
--
Steve C. Lamb | But who decides what they dream?
PGP Key: 8B6E99C5 | And dream I do...
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