I think it comes down to something very simple - respecting the artist. As someone who creates copyrighted works for a living (software in my case, but it's the same as music, painting or literature - all of which my family is involved with) I strongly believe that if someone creates something of value to others they should have the right to be compensated in any manner they choose for it's use/distribution. It is, of course, up to the consumer whether they think it's worth whatever the creator is asking for it. This isn't restricted to financial compensation - the GPL for example requires only that certain categories of people follow a set of guidelines to allow distribution. That's fine - again - it's the creator's choice exactly how (or even whether) they are compensated.
I may not like the RIAA's tactics but the artists signed the contract, they chose to have the RIAA as their (indirect) agents, and they chose to agree to whatever compensation scheme they have with their label. In turn, I can choose whether to buy the CD or not. I do not believe it's a legitimate option for me to say "I value this thing you made enough to make a copy and enjoy it, but not enough to compensate you" and I also don't think some rambling about how record labels screw the poor artists is a valid excuse. If the contract was unfair, why did they sign it? Either they were stupid (no sympathy I'm afraid) or they agreed it was a good deal. In any case, most of the music I buy these days is from indy labels - who despite being just as heavily hit from filesharing as the majors have also been the first to adopt drm-less downloads from sites like beatport. They've been amazingly successful, and it bodes well for the parts of the industry I actually care about. -- radish ------------------------------------------------------------------------ radish's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=77 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=41571 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
