Robert J. Berger's Techdirt Profile

Robert J. Berger

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  • Oct 16, 2011 @ 01:20am

    Re: Re: Re: Just who are "the people".

    Do you know for a fact the artists get paid? You might want to research that a bit more. There are some artists that get paid, but many don't. They get CHARGED to produce an album. They get CHARGED for the publicity. And after all those CHARGES which are paid to the label are covered, then the artist will get paid what is left. Funny thing is in many cases the CHARGES just seem to work out to be more than the income. If the artist is lucky they will det about 13% of the total profit. And that has to be split among all the band members and their Producers, Lawyers, and Managers.

    And if they don't screw the artists that way, then they do it by just ripping them off.

    Movie and Record companies are the original and will always be Pirates.

  • Jun 19, 2006 @ 02:29pm

    Re: yep - these are OUR network

    Um, most of you have no idea what you are talking about. Please read telecom history.

    The complete cable plant was paid for by ratepayers with the Telcos acting as a legal, regulated monopoly. The ratepayers did pay for the network, and regulation up till recently required that the Telcos use the infrastructure as a common carrier and for the benefit of the ratepayers. Telcos got a guaranteed rate of return on the capital invested.

    The skill that Telcos most developed was manipulation of their regulators and the government. They were able to twist the Telecom Act of 1996 to allow them to gain total ownership of the plant that was paid for by the ratepayers and built for the benefit of the ratepayers under the regulated monopoly.

    The Telcos got to steal that from the Ratepayers and now they can even use their monoploly revenue to pay for the new plant (the little that they are actually building). They also kept promising fiber to the home in exchange for being allowed to remerge into AT&T and Verizon. But they have not delivered on any of their commitments.

    So there is plenty of basis to re-breakup the phone companies and take back OUR network.