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Media Monopoly: Thomas Edison to Hillary Rosen
An anonymous reader writes "George Ziemann has posted two excellent articles that explore the early days of the recording and music industry, how their attempts to monopolize their respective mediums in the past failed, and how their attempts to do so strangely mirror those presently being undertaken by contemporary media conglomerates to control digital distribution over the Net. Seems the two industries back at the turn of the century tried to pool their patents to block out competition like the RIAA and the big media companies today pool their copyrights. The first article "The Dawn of Recorded Music and the First Pirates" focuses on early collusion in the phonograph industry. The second "Music, Movies and Monopoly" on Thomas Edison's failed attempts to restrain fair trade in the two new media he gave commercial rise to."
Those who don't learn by history are doomed to repeat it. Why oh why don't they freakin' learn?
Isn't it both a matter of study and anecdotal evidence that corporations (and sometimes individuals) generally try and stifle competition in a new industry, to their ultimate disadvantage?
Don't really care for him
Credited with lots of nice things of course.
I guess a shitload of money, federal friends, a huge orange lab in New Jerz and a billion people doing the research and studies FOR you really lets you invent tons of stuff.
My geek god is Nikola Tesla. He is a straight up ballin G.
You dont know what you're talking about.
.. you rally do need samples today to supply the kind of sound that consumers demand) .. there is a silent agreement that theres no need to go after the people *in* the monopoly to begin with. Labels only go after groups not in the monopoly to begin with, for increasinly obscure/nonobvious use of copywritten material. Furthurmore, since the RIAA is the group that goes after copyright infringers, they *do* pool their copyrights in the sense that the RIAA does not differentiate between label A being infringed and label B when they go after groups or individuals.
Disclosure: I produce music.
Big Five labels regularly infringe on each others copyrights, most commonly in not clearly all samples on albums (practically all musicians, like Sarah McLaughlan, use samples, usually to beef up the beat
But the issue about them turning a blind eye to their own infringements and then creating an umbrella group to go after people *not* in the circle is clearly an abuse of power, and does show you how they do pool their IP together. You're simply taking the word pool all too literally to see the bigger picture. Most musicians can see this plain as day.
"Old man yells at systemd"
Perhaps it is.
In this case, the article is discussing the issues that can result from a group that pools its patents, creating a "virtual monopoly" - more like an oligopoly, but not really.
As to the myth of the "big media monopoly", I believe the "monopoly" is more of a statement of frustration regarding the fact that most people get their news from organizations that toe one of two party lines: you have the somewhere-in-the-socialist-field CNN, NYT and company. Then you have the somewhere-in-the-authoritarian-field FoxNews, and company.
This is probably because most people only accept the first story they hear regarding an issue that does not immediately contradict their preconceptions, and if they hear anything else to the contrary, it's filed under B for Bullshit.
This leads to homogenous news organizations.
Also, there are about two major cliques in the news media, and journalists seek approval from one of them. This results in a dichotomous but homogenous sub-culture that pervades news organizations. This culture picks who gets to be a reporter, and who doesn't.
So, is the "media monopoly" a myth? Yes. There is no one select group that controls and commands the news media. But there certainly is a behavioral system that regulates the news media.
To clarify what I mean by this, and to show how meaningless yet meaningful the conclusion is, let me compare this situation to Asshole Drivers(tm).
Asshole Drivers are everywhere. They seem to be a bit different from city to city, but they are everywhere. They cut you off, they slow down traffic because they refuse to merge, they speed up to keep you from merging. We know them by sight.
What causes there to be so many of them? Hard to say, but I think it's pretty easy to say that a combination of environment and human nature combines to create the self-centered bastards. I don't think they are employed to be that way by a business, nor do I believe that it is a form of religious worship (though some days I have my doubts....).
If this is true, then Asshole Drivers are not created or controlled by a monopoly, but there certainly is a behavioral system that produces them.
Now, I'll make this last part quick. Your comment about "I see plenty of choices on tv, radio, and the Internet than ever before."
Yes, they do compete, but the movie and music companies (who are the ones at issue here) not only compete with one another, but they gang up to destroy smaller companies. You can do that without being controlled by one person or board of directors.
There are numerous cases (that I wish I had links to so that I could cite them) showing collusion amongst RIAA and MPAA members to oust independents. Strong-arming distribution companies, prevention of advertisement from stores that wish to keep their "special deals." Etc, etc, etc.
Now, having said all this, let me tell you that I do not believe "all big corporations are evil." I believe that most problems with society right now come about because entities are not equal before the law and law-makers. I do not know how to solve these problems, but I do know they are a problem, and I'd like to hear solutions.
Rosen is a lot like Thomas Edison... except for the whole part about Edison being a brilliant inventor who applied for intellectual property protection ON HIS OWN WORK. On the contrary, it is quite clear that Rosen is actively working to prevent the development and introduction of innovative new technologies. Bottom line: regardless of his flaws, DO NOT compare Hilary Rosen with Thomas Edison.