Kazaa (!) Sues Movie, Recording Industries

[Night Stalker]

Yorick

I'm on your side in this. Content producers need their own protection as well. It is the industry that is using outdated modlels. Don't believe for a second that corps wouldn't charge per play or even per thought if they could (they are already working towards it). The industry has a lot of fat in it and it needs to trim it off if they want prophit margines to go back up. Copyright was intended to help content producers, not coprs. Also, it wasn't until late 1800s early 1900s that copyright was extended to 80 yrs. Almost imediatly after the country was formed the law was extended to 30 yrs from 14, and it keeps getting longer. The 14 and 30 yr frames were chosen because those were typical career times, not life times.

The reason ideas (not just art and music) were given to the public domain with in the life time of the originator, was so the public could have the opportunity to "build a better mouse trap" without having to wait for the inventor to die. This was based on the belief that society only gets better with the open and free flow of ideas. Of course Jefferson realized that without some form of compensation as an incentive, content producers just wouldn't. Very few come up with great ideas just for the betterment of all. SO copyright was a compromise between the public and the idea makers.

And finaly, to address the reason for CD sales slippage. The whole thing is way more complicated than just thieving downloaders. There is a combination of saturation (everywhere you go you can hear music), poor quality of product (how many Brittany Spears wannabes can you have?), over inflated prices, ect. Cheap cassette tapes were supposed to be the end of the recording industry, but 30 yrs latter it's still hanging on. Yes, there is a factor of quality, and scale. I don't think people should share protected work with a million and one of your "closest" friends, but making a copy for your best friend is fair use, or private mixes ect.

I share and understand your concerns. I work in software, and have to deal with the same issues. There has to be a workable compromise. I think that compromise is "distribution" protection, not "copy" protection. The direction that the coprs are taking copy protection is waaaaaayyyyy to Orwellian for me.

PM me if are interested in hearing more.... like I said, I worry about distribution too.

[ 01-30-2003, 03:16 PM: Message edited by: Night Stalker ]

[Night Stalker]

Just a quick note on scale of price. A CD in the US costs about $15-$20. A cassestte of the SAME work - $5-$10. Ok, you are paying for quality, I can live with that. BUT a DVD also costs about $20! You have the same digital quality, but a CD holds 650 MB while a DVD holds 4.3 GB of data! Thats 6.5 times the data. Based on that scale there is no reason that CDs should cost more than $10, as they cost pennies to make. And yes, I know that there is more to it than just physical costs.

[Kakero]

maybe napster should strike back as well. like suing artists, suing records companies and such...

[Yorick]

Yeah. Sue the songwriter for not giving their song to anybody who wants it. I mean why have copyright at all? Why have the concept of intellectual property?

It's ridiculous.

[Night Stalker]

The artists are not the problem. They are victemised just as much as consumers. They have every right to protect their intrests. The problem with the concept of intellectual property, is that once you share an idea with some one else, that idea is no longer just yours. Everyone you share it with digests it, puts their own interpretation on it and makes it their own. The only way to keep an idea is to never share it. But you can't make a living on unshared ideas, nor can you make a living by giving all your ideas away for free. That's why we have copyright. But like I said, copyright is supposed to be a compromise, not a perpetual monopoly.

[Yorick]

Originally posted by Night Stalker: The artists are not the problem. They are victemised just as much as consumers. They have every right to protect their intrests. The problem with the concept of intellectual property, is that once you share an idea with some one else, that idea is no longer just yours. Everyone you share it with digests it, puts their own interpretation on it and makes it their own. The only way to keep an idea is to never share it. But you can't make a living on unshared ideas, nor can you make a living by giving all your ideas away for free. That's why we have copyright. But like I said, copyright is supposed to be a compromise, not a perpetual monopoly.

I agree with you. I'm all for the common ownership of an idea, but it all gets funky when someone makes money from someone elses idea, and the originator get's nothing. Like an artists work being sold for 2 million dollars while the artist is living in poverty. (Bring on the artist getting 10% of resale I say)

[Cerek the Barbaric]

Personally, I use KaZaa Lite. I also have Morpheus and WinMX...but I seem to have the most success with KaZaa.

To date, I've downloaded maybe 40 audio files and 20 videos (mostly of 80's artists).

How has this affected my decision to purchase CD's?? It hasn't. I still buy the same number of CD's as I did before (which admittedly isn't much). Mainly because I just don't have time to "burn" my own CD's - or to take time to Search for (and then Download) all the tracks I want for a particular CD.

I realize that the "CD Burning" is more prevelant in the "younger generation". They are much more used to it and have the time necessary to download all the music. Still, KaZaa and Co. are not going to affect the number of CD'S I buy. If anything, they will just generate interest in a particular artist or album - and that will prompt me to buy a new CD by that particular artist.
Just my [img]graemlins/twocents.gif[/img] worth.

[WOLFGIR]

Well I don´t know about you guys but after downloading MP3´s I have been buying more CD´s then ever... :S

I don´t have any space to keep them so they are piled up around the DVD player and computer. So for me I buy the CD´s I like, why?

Because I want to make a really good rip to have on my puter so I don´t need to listen to the CD player in the puter wind up all the time, or change cd all the time just because I want to listen to something else, and I want them at work as well. That is fine by me since I work and can pay for them. My biggest problem and consern is actually for the younger people out there.

They are the mst into music, targeted by mass communications to buy this and that.. They can´t buy nearly as many CD´s as they would like to (oki, nobody can really) but where I can buy perhaps four CD´s a month without problem and usually does, a teemager in school can probably name up to ten CD´s he/she would like to have, and can if they give up on everything else buy perhaps three maybe four CD´s. Fair? Nope. Lower the prices and the increase in sell will come!

As for the artists, they seems to be the biggest loosers in this business, and thats the guys you want to pay so you can listen to more of their music.. :S

What I don´t like is when the media companies and record labelrs get into the position to change the laws to suit their prices and needs and whims!

No argument you can find up will make me change my mind here!

I am entitled by our laws to make backups of all purchased medias for personal use and to share with immediate family (I can burn a CD for my mom((yeah right, hey mom want a CD of QOTSA?? -ARRRRRRRRRGHHH )) and I can take bakcups since CD´s get scratched, computer game CD´s get scratched etc.
And the CD protected versions only harms the legal buying persons. Always does, the ones that wants to pass it does so, a normal person doesn´t, they have the CD but have to pay for the CD labels newest inventions that a teen cracks in ten hours and spreads on the internet.

Get real record companies! Give the artist their due money, and lower the prices and the quantity sold will still make you rich!

[Night Stalker]

corps will always go for the short nickel instead of the long dime though wolfgir. Then they lobby lawmakers (waste money) to make laws for corp wellfare to protect failing buisness ventures.

[Gabrielles blades]

a couple years ago i was in a debate class and one of the students who was arguing for kazaa mentioned some facts about the music industry sales -
it was actualy selling more CDs than it was in years prior (this was around the time the stones were getin a lawsuit goin)

IF that has changed now, i would attribute it more to the fact that everyones penny pinching with the crappy economy since 9 11