Culture

Culture

by Mike Masnick




Please Don't Steal Music

from the wishful-thinking dept

An interesting, if sometimes rambling, article in Salon about how the music industry needs to learn to "let go" and trust their customers, while at the same time offering them a realistic solution for being able to download and listen to whatever music they want. The article suggests that all these copy protection schemes are just short term solutions to keep people in a frenzy while they work out their real digital music plans. I'm not convinced of this. I still think the music industry really believes they can prevent people from copying music. The article does present one interesting proposal, though, suggesting that ASCAP type fees be leveraged on ISPs. If your ISP fee went up slightly, but you were allowed to legally download and trade any music, would that be worth it?

5 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

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  1. Dec 18th, 2001 @ 1:38am

    Higher fees for MP3s

    by Amber

    It would only be worth it for people who actually download MP3s.
    I don't, so I'd be paying extra for nothing (or rather, paying for other people's downloads).

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  2. Dec 18th, 2001 @ 3:15am

    nitpick

    by u2604ab

    you're vs. your

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  3. Dec 18th, 2001 @ 7:57am

    Re: Higher fees for MP3s

    by Joe Schmoe

    I agree, but the same thing happens when your gas tax pays for highways that you might not ever personally use...

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  4. Dec 18th, 2001 @ 3:17pm

    Check out this Tidbit's article

    by Tech 'n Artist

    http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-610.html#lnk5 "Are We Just Rationalizing Theft?" This is a good essay on the subject of copyright

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  5. Dec 18th, 2001 @ 4:53pm

    Re: Check out this Tidbit's article

    Yup. It's an excellent essay that reiterates a lot of the points I've tried to make in the past, but does it in a way that's better written and more clear than my usual blathering.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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