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Music Industry: Stop Calling Your Customers Criminals
from the good-ideas dept
More and more articles like the following one are appearing these days, and I hope that someone in the music industry is reading them and is open minded enough to realize they're right. The music industry is shooting itself in the foot by calling its customers criminals and trying to legislate their way to a continued oligopoly - as opposed to giving customers what they want while figuring out new business models.
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I'm reminded again of this Heinlein quote
Every time I see a group like the RIAA or MPAA demanding new legislation, I'm reminded of this quote by sci-fi author Robert Heinlein:
"There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary public interest.
This strange doctrine is not supported by statue or common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back, for their private benefit."
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Re: I'm reminded again of this Heinlein quote
That's a great quote. I had not heard that before, but it says (in much better prose) what I've tried to explain to people many times before. The thing that has *amazed* me, is the number of people who this sort of thing will effect negatively (the public) who step up to bat for said corporation(s).
I'm amazed at how many people I know say that there should be laws against file trading and such because it hurts the music industry.
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Re: I'm reminded again of this Heinlein quote
That is a really good quote. Mike and I have argued this point before and I really didn't get his point until I read that quote.
But does this idea only apply to individuals and corporations in a business context? One could take the quote's idea and extend it to mean that creating laws are useless and that goverments have no busines protecting anyone. People should just adapt or die.
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Re: I'm reminded again of this Heinlein quote
Heh. Well, with Heinlein, he might actually have meant exactly that concerning government and laws...
However, I think you're bringing up the truckload of vegetables argument - that any argument taken to the extreme will look ridiculous.
The job of the government is certainly to protect its citizenry - and figuring out exactly how is the job of a good government. So, yes, there's a balance, and when the balance comes to whether or not people live or die, it makes sense the the gov't might intervene. However, when it comes to the question of whether or not a corporation or industry feels they should be guaranteed huge profits while hurting the public interest... many people would disagree.
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