Quote:
Originally posted by LennonCook:
Groj, yes, overuse of copyright can be disasterous for record labels. But isn't that their problem? If you don't ever hear their music because they
|
I think something is missing from your argument...
Quote:
|
The internet has changed the way the world works. Many things will be freely available soon, and alot of copyright laws will become moot. It will become both legal and ethical to redistribute things without permission. The major record labels may go bankrupt if they continue to push copyright to its extremes. This is simply because the internet is the perfect tool for distributing things widely. But before this happens, things like Kazaa and iMesh need to be shut down. Illegal music sharing needs to be stopped, and artists need to see how good it was for them. The artists need to make the decision for themselves. But until this happens, "sharing music" is exactly the same as "stealing music". The consumers may be the bastion of change, and maybe even a catalyst, but we (legally) have to abide by the old rules until the change is come.
|
Most (smaller) artists have already come to this conclusion in fact, and many of them offer quite a few mp3s for legal download on their band sites. They've come to the conclusion that the Internet has a huge potential for increased exposure, and are building an audience a lot more rapidly than they would have after years of touring and trying to fight for their music to be noticed by radio and tv.
However, I do think artists and bands that had already established a name and reputation in pre-Internet society have been damaged somewhat by illegal file-sharing (especially as they don't have the same monopoly position now as they used to have in exposure), but that's because the major record industry itself had been living on a self-made cloud, living the ultimate capitalist dream by owning most of the airwaves and pretty much deciding who's hot and who's not*; a dream that has dissipated in recent years and resulted in the backlash featuring the RIAA, as well as the rather awkward, if legal, actions by Metallica and Dr. Dre.
* Of course, you could argue that I'm also partly responsible for the decline in major record label album sales - that by developing a taste of my own thanks to the Internet, I won't fall as easily for slyly marketed major record label artists, and prefer buying an album by relatively small indie-bands over purchasing the latest record label-initiated-hype album. 