> > >This is hilarious!!! Does Michael Jackson NEED to protect himself!?!?! Sure, >people will copy his CDs, but really, Jackson and his label will make more >money than many small countries, even if no copy protection is implemented. >They claim it is to protect artists, but in reality it is intended to ensure >maximal profits for the labels and the biggest selling artists.
The big selling artists are not the point. Sure nobody cares whether Michael Jackson is worth several billion or several billion and one; least of all, I suspect, him. However, it is not just the "star" who is involved with making a hit record. There are dozens of session musicians, graphics artists, recording and mastering engineers and assistants behind every record, all working on a shoestring living. I happen to be a personal friend of the trumpet player on the Beatles' "Penny Lane", one of the biggest selling records by one of the biggest selling bands that the pop industry has known. Try to guess his royalties from that record. Millions, right? A penny a copy would have made hundreds of thousand in 30 years. Nope, lower. Thousands? no, still way too high. Surely it must be a few hundred? Nope - way off. His royalties from that record to date total 11 pounds. That's right, less than 20 bucks for millions of copies sold over 30 years. It's an insult and an absolute disgrace for one of the country's finest and most talented musicians (unquestionably more talented than any of the "four") to be treated this way. He's in his sixties now, wanting to retire but unable to afford to. Thousands of extremely talented musicians the world over are in this position. Arguably this has more to do with contractual arrangements than copy protection, but it does emphasise that for those involved behind the headlines every record sale does indeed count, and every lost sale to a pirate hits a lot of people, not just the so-called star. Christopher Hicks ----------------------------------------------------------------- To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
