> -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of MJ Ray > Sent: Saturday, October 05, 2002 4:56 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: Intellectual property (was: owner_id_build vs. > copyprevention_bit) > > > Dennis McCunney <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > But most of the folks I know at the moment are writers, artists, and > > musicians trying to make a living out of what is essentially intellectual > > property, who are _directly_ hurt by unrestricted sharing of thier > > copyrighted work. I'm not concerned about loss of revenue by large > > corporations. I _am_ concerend about the welfare of my friends. > > This is an old myth peddled by the people who make money from > restricting sharing of creative works. In the DRM world, the people > who make the mostmoney are the "gatekeepers," the large corporations.
It's not entirely a myth, unfortunately. > Why does an artist want to cooperate with large corporations and make > criminals out of people who appreciate their work? It doesn't grow their > audience and just leaves people feeling bad. Experiences of authors who > *welcome* their works being shared are documented in articles such as > http://www.baen.com/library/palaver6.htm (OK, so that's a widget frosting > or related services model, but it still shows what a good way it is to > become known. There are probably others, but that was the first I > grabbed from my bookmarks). Sure. I'm familiar with this, I have Baen's site bookmarked, know various of the folks at Baen, and probably (without having looked at the URL) know some of the folks quoted. Baen credits the website with thier metamorphosis into a hard cover publisher, as the downloads spur demand for the author's books. (As it happens, SF/Fantasy is the bulk of my fiction reading, and over the years I've met many of the folks who write, illustrate, and edit it.) And Janis Ian has a nice piece on her website making similar points, which got her a prompt response from the RIAA asking to talk. :) But in the case of Baen (and other success stories for the freely shared model) one important bit of my argument is common: the creators _gave permission_ for it to happen. It was done with thier knowledge and consent. My gripe is with _unauthorized_ sharing, not with sharing at all. If you, as an author, explicity allow and encourage sharing under a copyleft or similar structure, I'll happily share it with folks I believe might be interested. If you _don't_ explicityly allow it, it's questionable, to put it mildly, for me to share it anyway. > Personally, I'd go further and start looking for a way to > provide work as copyleft, but then you knew that anyway. I'm concerned about > the welfare of *all* my friends, but both producers and consumers. Agreed. > MJR ______ Dennis _______________________________________________ plucker-dev mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.rubberchicken.org/mailman/listinfo/plucker-dev
