[LAU] ASCAP Assails Free-Culture, Digital-Rights Groups

Dave Phillips dlphillips at woh.rr.com
Wed Jun 30 17:21:17 UTC 2010


Rob wrote:
> On Wednesday 30 June 2010 08:37 am, Dave Phillips wrote:
>   
>> I have an observation re: this thread: People who don't hold copyrights
>> or patents typically don't understand the full significance of copyright
>> or patent laws because they never have to. Those of us who do hold them
>> regard the issue differently. 
>>     
>
> My company and I hold plenty of copyrights.  Or do copyrights only count to 
> you if they result in royalty payments?
>
>   

In the context of the discussion, it's about royalty payments. Copyright 
"counts" to me in other dimensions as well, but the subject under 
discussion has to do with profiting from copyrighted work.

>> My advice, try making your living from
>> royalties for a few years, then let me know how you feel about watching
>> someone else appropriate your work. 
>>     
>
> "My advice, try making your living selling buggies for a few years and then 
> let me know how you feel about automobiles."
>
> "My advice, try making your living as an elevator operator for a few years, 
> then let me know how you feel about the new ones with all those buttons."
>
> "My advice, try making your living as an oil refiner for a few years, and 
> then let me know how you feel about windmills."
>   

Bad recasts all. In each case there's no misappropriation of the work 
itself. There is a displacement thanks to a technological development - 
what we're probably talking about anyway when we talk about failed 
business models or business models on the way out - but elevators, 
buggies, automobiles, windmills, and refineries remain. Geez, I even saw 
an elevator operator when I was in New York.


> It's inevitable that people who subscribe to a business model that's still 
> dominant but on its way out will rail against the forces making that 
> business model unsustainable, call those advancing the opposing technology 
> all kinds of names, and pretend the status quo will remain in force 
> indefinitely.  But doing so doesn't make a business model any more 
> sustainable in the face of change.
>
>   

No one except the PR bozos at ASCAP seem to think so.

We are not in disagreement here. But you'll understand that I'm in no 
hurry to eliminate my revenue streams just to satisfy my idealism.


> I pay for software, books, movies and music.  Probably more than most 
> people, though not using Windows or MacOS at all pretty much limits my 
> software expenses to things like Wii games.  But geez, look around you.  If 
> you can't see that young people don't see digital representations of things 
> as having the same value as physical objects, and that some of those young 
> people are going to be lawmakers in another couple decades, you're in 
> denial.  When works were tied to physical objects -- CDs, vinyl, magnetic 
> tape -- it was easy to perceive the value of the whole package.

I teach music for a part of my living. I'm fascinated by the march of 
media tech, and in the past ten years alone I've watched students go 
from discs to dedicated file players to ipods to 
god-knows-what-it's-called-today-but-damn-it's-cool. And yes, we discuss 
the realities of how they get their music. I'm not living in an ivory tower.

> But typing:
>
> cp davephillips-springof23.ogg /mnt/mp3-player/songs
>
> doesn't instantly create value the way building a second copy of a car 
> would, no matter how badly copyright proponents would like to pretend it 
> does.  Even copying an LP to a tape created more value than that, back in 
> the day.  
>   
"Value" gets a bit slippery in that context. It kinda depends on who 
copied the song and why, doesn't it ? Or do we determine "value" only in 
monetary terms or pertaining only to durable goods ?

Best,

dp



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