-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Friday 05 July 2002 8:13 pm, Todd Slater wrote:
> While I'm all for sharing and sticking it to the RIAA, MPAA, and "the > man," I tend to side with the artist on this issue. It would be nice > to see a distribution system in which the artist could reap the > benefits of his/her labor more than the record label. > > It's great to share as in free software, but you are projecting your > ideas about sharing onto others. How do you make your living? Shall > we all of a sudden decide that your labor should be shared for free, > without any input from you? People who develop free software do so > willingly. I don't think it's fair to project that onto others so you > don't have to spend $15 on a crummy CD. > > Lately I'm having a hard time finding music I want to purchase > anyway. That's the fault of the record labels and FM radio. Blah!! > > I know this will be an unpopular position on this list, so let me > practice moving side to side and ducking . . . Although not a recording artist I agree with you, although CDs were costing £13-£15 a shot long before the Internet haled up over the horizon ;) As a classical musician (viola, violin, piano) my sort of music is rarely discussed in this context, which is a pity because it has unique problems. The most pertinent is that, apart from the output of a few small companies* who do a lot of digging in libraries and bring forth fascinating esoterica, everything that can be recorded has been recorded multiple times; why have eight slightly different copies of a Mahler symphony? That fact has finally got through to recording companies which have flown into a wild panic, stopped new recordings, terminated artists' contracts and started issuing their back catalogue en bloc. This slash and burn has had a pleasant impact on the consumer (I'm regularly seeing boxed sets of two or three CDs for £12-£15, which is a nice incentive to fill in the gaps) but, in the medium or long term, is disastrous as there is no fertile ground left. I would like to see it recognised that the Internet is an obviously good way of distributing music and rows and rows of plastic boxes in a shop are anachronistic. The RIAA et alia, as a block to change, should be summarily legislated out of existence, contracts between record companies and artists should be bought out at mandated rates, and artists should be obliged to sell, track by track, direct to the consumer, at reasonable costs (a flat rate per track or similar) with appropriate digital rights management. 'Record shops' should become quasi-Internet cafes with CD burners and printers (for sleeve material) ad lib, so that those who don't have their own equipment can still take part and bring their own media. (I have no problem with Palladium provided it is used to enforce DRM for goods with reasonable price structures; I hope that, if Microsoft thinks it can set these structures, it is sorely mistaken. Such a job is not for a private company). Alastair * http://www.hyperion-records.com/ being an outstanding example. - -- Alastair Scott (London, United Kingdom) http://www.unmetered.org.uk/ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org iD8DBQE9JfmvCv59vFiSU4YRAjLeAKCqVgsGBi0llB/RjK+LaFhaYg9OtwCeOFdz d6FrC9OAHohjaIflwCycNV0= =+W59 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
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