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

[Paul Davis]

On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 12:57 PM, Rob <lau at kudla.org> wrote:
> 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.  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.

this is a strawman. "copyright proponents" (and i'm not referring to
sony, disney and sony bono, but dave phillips and myself) aren't
claiming that copying the expression of an idea creates value and that
people should not be allowed to "steal that value". the people who
claim that are idiots :)

the claim here is that the development of an idea before it is
expressed is a form of work. if the work is to be rewarded, its either
going to be done before, at or after the point at which an expression
of the idea is released into the world. because copying the expression
is so easy, its not easy to see how one can ensure sufficient revenue
from the release to make it feasible for the artist to *work* as an
artist.

i'm fine (to some extent) with the conclusion that we, as a society,
no longer wish to pay artists & creatives to do what they do. but if
that's really going to be the conclusion, we'd better think very
carefully about all the side effects. i'm not sure its pretty, and it
may be even less pretty than the world in which disney and sonny bono
get everything they ask for.