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Tim O'Reilly Says Piracy is Progressive Taxation
Idmat writes "In Tim's latest opus, he reflects on the lessons of his experience as a publisher: (1) Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy, (2) Piracy is progressive taxation; (3) Customers want to do the right thing, if they can; (4)Shoplifting is a bigger threat than piracy; (5) File sharing networks don't threaten book, music, or film publishing. They threaten existing publishers; (6)"Free" is eventually replaced by a higher-quality paid service; and finally, courtesy of Larry Wall, (7)There's more than one way to do it. "
I used to believe that piracy at the personal level did no harm at all - spread the word, people still spent just as much money etc
But I met up with a friend I hadn't seen for a while the other weekend and he told me he now *only* get his music off the net and doesn't pay for any of it.
And this is someone who would previously have been a heavy spender in this area.
I think that this attitude - which seems prevalent particularly amongst my work colleagues is a Bad Thing - I don't care if we change the method of distribution or if the record companies go bust but it is important that the artists receive payment for their work.
Pretty much right on the money. To sumerize for those who do not want to click and read (it is fairly long).
People for the most part are honest and will pay a resonable price for a product. When he says that P2P is a progressive taxation, he means that more music books and movies get exposure, which means that people will spend their money on more different things than just the Top 40 stuff they have access to. (Same thing most people have been saying since Napster).
On the other hand, actual selling of bootlegs is harmful because it dilutes the market for legitimate sales. However existing laws are enough to cover this. Finally, it ends in some options where possibly the media giants could come to some sort of agreement with ISPs to offer sort of like premium cable. Pay 60 a month for broadband and all the movies or music or whatever you can use off a local server.
Not a bad idea.
"Socialism is not wrong, it is profoundly right (and is not the same as communism, this is merely a lie the Powers That Be want you to believe), and will even try to save yours and your children's ignorant asses when the rich&powerful come to take away everything you have."
.. or emigrate.
Save ignorant asses from the rich ?
By whom ?
By fucking geniuses like you who will gladly accept a small fee for all that "saving" ?
Please, what you are describing is a stepping stone to the communism.
Socialism cannot be sustained on acceptable levels, for that combined with democracy will result in the receiving side shifting more and more financial burden of the society on these so called rich.
And someday even these rich will join the "I want a handout" side as well
Either one spells doom for the society.
This is correct and should be modded up.
For a great and comprehensive look at the payola problem, check out Eric Boehlert's articles on Salon. The complete opus can be found here.
"If I could live to be several hundred
I could take a walk and really wander, really wonder."
WRT Microsoft, go find Bill Gates's "An Open Letter to Hobbyists", sent to the "Altair Users' Newsletter" about how people were stealing copies of his BASIC interpreter.
Only the dead have seen the end of war.
Actually they have always asked fans to only trade their LIVE recordings, and NOT copy or trade their studio recordings. This is very very common, however this has nothing to do with p2p networks as a vast majority of the files found there are studio recordings copied directly from CD.
Ok, i collect. As probably many of you do out there. I buy cd cases that hold 200+ cd's whenever i find them at a reasonable price and i have more than a few completely filled. Ok, i know, a lot. I get the point. But here is another.
Most of the divx movies i enjoyed i purchased on DVD
I NEVER bought music when i was young, i'd listen to the radio, or tape it from a cd. Now that i download MP3s i have a small collection of music i love, cd's where i enjoy the whole cd. As the point has been made many times i have found music i'd never heard of nor listened to that i buy.
Also i am an anime fan. I'm not an extremist of any sort, i watch certain animes when i feel like it. I usually download them first (in divx format on a filesharing network) and then watch them. As many anime viewers know (as i'm sure many of you are) it's quite difficult to find a variety of anime at your local blockbuster. I dont live in a huge city or even know anyone that likes anime where i live. I can't borrow what someone else has to view it. Once i have previewed the anime i often (in most cases) will buy it. I've spent more moeny buying DVD's because i was able to watch them than i have or ever thought i would spend.
It's understandable that people think p2p is only used to pirate music and videos and such. It is, but then it does lead to more sales. Now, i may purchase a lot but i do have much more that i dont own personally. I also burn compilation cd's for my brother and some of his friends, mostly just singles of stuff that they have, but also mp3s i've downloaded on the net. Songs they can't get as singles.
It's a double edged sword, and though more people make money because their band is heard at the same time more popular groups loose some of their profits. Personally i wouldnt have bought any of the things i have purchased without pre-viewing it somewhere.
I would be willing to pay for a good file sharing service, nothing that just 'rivals' KazaA, i need something that's worth paying for. Napster was the begining, and quite good and if it was still working would be my favorite for music.
The question is, if it was out there, a good filesharing service, something completely legit that offered service for a reasonable fee would you use it. Would you? I would.
Confucius Say "The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell."
~eQuasarus~
The morei read about the topic "major labels", the more i want to instead support independent artists.
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How major labels destroy bands under contract:
http://www.arancidamoeba.com/mrr/leeco
Whats wrong with major labels:
http://www.arancidamoeba.com/mrr/corpora
Connection between music industry and weapon production:
http://www.cstrecords.com/html/uxosx
Music industry and childwork:
http://pitchforkmedia.com/watw/02-09/
More about major labels destroying bands:
http://www.negativland.com/albini.html
These links contains informatoin that everyone thats interessted in good music should be aware off. I'm not saing that major labels are "the most evil organizations capitalism has produced ore something like that, but they _do_ screw their own artists.
And since this is slashdot; insert RIAA rant.
I'll just add my 2 cents in here. Basically the people who love certain bands buy the music. That has been said all along. I had a friend who was insanely into Counting Crows. He would goto concerts, tape them on mini disc and listen to them in his free time. He had tons of bootleg tapes and things on that nature that he traded for with people at concerts. He naturally had every CD available as well as anything that had Counting Crows on it.
With the advent of MP3, I am sure he is a happier man. More Counting Crows stuff that he couldn't get his hands on. Just because he has a bootleg of some concert thats on tour does it mean he isn't going to go? Hell no, he'll be the first one in line. When the new CD comes out, guess who is sleeping at the music store overnight to grab one.
File sharing makes big fans into bigger fans. I may use file sharing to grab some mp3s of recent stuff on the radio once in a while, and those are CDs I would never buy, but if I wanted something really good I'd buy it.
This is going to be repeated millions of times over but yes, the RIAA is a bunch of dumb idiots that are living in their dinosaur land with a bunch of yes men that won't second guess them. Yeah you can bitch about it here, or anywhere else online, but they pay the politicians and the politicians make the rules. I wonder how many geeks there are out there that could actually make a difference in voting schemes? ahhh well enuf!
It's an old article, but her math is spot on, based on my experiences and what I've heard from other musicians that have had major label contracts.
Sorry for the anon. coward, can't find me password...
Courtney Love Does the Math