MP3 Creator On Sharing Music

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Posted by timothy on Sunday July 13, 2003 @08:20AM from the but-does-he-use-ogg dept.

EpsCylonB writes "The BBC has an article about Karlheinz Brandenburg, who is one of the creators of the MP3 music format. Interestingly he comments that he doesn't like Napster, he thinks that people should have easier access to music but that artists should get paid for what they do."

10 of 231 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Interesting? by Evil+Adrian · 2003-07-13 08:21 · Score: 4, Insightful

Interestingly he comments that he doesn't like Napster, he thinks that people should have easier access to music but that artists should get paid for what they do.

How is that "interesting"? I think anyone with a sense of decency wants the artists to get paid...

--
evil adrian
1. Re:Interesting? by NIN_INCH_NAILS · 2003-07-13 09:19 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  I'm tired of hearing this bullshit rhetoric put out by the RIAA and the Record companies.
  
  You know just think about whats really going on in our society. Tapes 1st. Easily re-recorded just had to sit down and spend the time to copy a tape, soon they came out with high speed dubbing. People bitched but nothing like this outrage happened.
  Along comes cds. Cds can be fairly easily and quickly copied. So they didn't complain about that cause they could lobby and get money tacked on to blank cds and they could drive album prices up to try to counter it. Along comes mp3; oh shit how are we going to tax it? How are we going to get our cut? Oh shit we aren't! Lobby to ban it, regulate it, sue for it. It's bullshit!
  
  Any artists knows that this is really about the record companies. First of all there has been a law suit against the record industry to return money to the public based on the fact that they unfairly inflated the price of music cds and blank cds. Secondly out of a fifteen dollar album an artist would be lucky to get .50cents to 1.00dollar per album.
  
  I for one would stick to my guns in saying that I would dish out from 3-5 bucks an album for an artist I appreciate by ordering it off their website. At that rate along with cutting out the record industry the artists would make much more money. A number of artists have done this with some success. Cutting out the middle man works.
  
  Having said that, I think we as Americans need to think about what is being done in our country righ t now.
  
  Information that is freely and publicly available is being restricted why, because of ease of access and use. Gov. Agencies and big business are sueing, restricting and limiting our access to information based on the fact that information has become too readily available and to easy to compile. If I'm not mistaken that was the whole point of the Technological Revolution?!
  So they want to be able to use all the tools we create and all the benefits of efficiency and ease of use to make profit and make weapons, but the common man can not download a fuckin mp3? Now their latest insult is suggesting that Record companies cut into Artist Tour profits to make up for the loss of cds sales. They have no fuckin right to do that! If we don't do something soon we are going to loose our freedom. We are creating the tools for a totalitarian state ruled by evil dictators who use our own creativity and innovation to watch over us like big brother, to restrict us like wardens and to limit the very creativity , the very lust for information and progress that is responsible for their enourmous and terribly intrusive power and authority.
  We must protect the essence of our country which is freedom. And if the government and big business is going to oppress freedom, then we must find ways to create new freedoms and new technologies that are not inclusive toward big business and gov.
2. Re:Interesting? by AstroDrabb · 2003-07-13 12:00 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Exactly. Americans make up only 5% of the worlds population, yet we have 50%+ of the worlds wealth. (Not that I am proud of that greed). However, the one concept that the RIAA/MPAA doesn't seem to get is that Americans love to spend money. We work all week, then get paid. We then pay the bills, put a little away and then want to treat ourselves to some entertainment. Maybe a movie, or dinner, or clothes, whatever. Give the people what they ask for and we will be glad to pay for that service. Treat us as thieves, assume that the only reason we buy a cd burner is to "pirate" and continue to attack us in this manner and you WILL get this type of backlash. I have no pity for the likes of the RIAA/MPAA anymore. If they would just make a service where people could get the music THEY want at a FAIR price using the OS, web browser that THEY want, then the problem would be gone. Sure there will always be a small portion of the population that wants to steal. There is NO way to handle that except on a case by case basis. Go to Walmart, HomeDepot, Lowes, etc. They have a lot of items on display OUTSIDE without anyone guarding it. That is because the feel that the average person WILL pay for goods/services and not steal. The few who do, usually get caught and are handled. However, if Walmart, HomeDepot, Lowes were to treat all thier customers as thieves, then they would not be as large as they are becuase that is not how a customer wants to be treated. Those three large corporations know that they are making a customer for life. In that life time an average American might spend $10,000, $20,000 or more at those stores. It is not worth losing that revenue by treating everyone as a thief to stop those few peopel who are going to steal $50 dollars in goods. If the RIAA/MPAA would wake up and see how much the average American spends on thier goods in a LIFE-TIME, then those few stolen cd's/downloads are not worth it. Except in the case of the RIAA/MPAA, they have assumed that we are all thieves and are trying to stop us all. They charge us taxes on blank media because they think the only use for the media is to pirate. They want to tax burners because they think the only use is to pirate, etc. This type of treatment is what is causing all the backlash. We the customer will not put up with it.
  
  --
  If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land,
  it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. -James Madison
if only... by dfj225 · 2003-07-13 08:25 · Score: 4, Insightful

there was a way to download music and pay the artists and not the RIAA.

--
SIGFAULT
MP3 creators were never friends of P2P by Anonymous Coward · 2003-07-13 08:31 · Score: 5, Informative

As I understand it, Fraunhofer IIS-A charged hefty fees for developers to incorporate mp3 compression technology. Hence OGG and an (effectively) reverse engineered open and free implementation.

Come on slash eds, this is not a revelation - read around the topic before posting an article.
Artists... by TWX · 2003-07-13 08:32 · Score: 5, Insightful

Yeah, I believe that the artists should be getting paid for what they do too. This is why I don't bother buying CDs, since they don't get paid for what they do anyway, the RIAA gets paid for what they do...

--
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
No, he just doesn't like piracy. by tunabomber · 2003-07-13 08:34 · Score: 4, Insightful

Actual quote:

"I don't like the Napster idea that all music should be free to everybody."

I don't think he means he doesn't like the idea of Napster technology, but rather the ethics (or lack thereof) of the people who use filesharing networks.
Shortly after this, he says that record companies should find a way to use technology to better serve both the artists and listeners.
In conclusion, the tone of the article makes it sound like Dr. Brandenburg isn't against filesharing technologies, but rather just people using them as an excuse for partaking in an orgy of piracy. Seems like a pretty moderate viewpoint to me.

--

pi = 3.141592653589793helpimtrappedinauniversefactory71 ...
What did you expect? by Realistic_Dragon · 2003-07-13 08:42 · Score: 4, Insightful

Unlike the creators of Ogg, the guy who created MP3 did it for profit, not fun. You have to pay an insanely huge license fee to use it, even if you write your own implimentation.

I bet he isn't best pleased that hundreds of thousands of people are neglecting to pay him a massive pile of cash, let alone the RIAA.

--
Beep beep.
Comment removed by account_deleted · 2003-07-13 09:10 · Score: 4, Insightful

Comment removed based on user account deletion
Rinse. Repeat. by NeverEnough · 2003-07-13 12:39 · Score: 5, Insightful

I work as a publicist and producer in the pop music industry. And was the first person to implement the Ogg Vorbis format at a commercial record company.

OK, so what? So, I've read the same, tired posts, over and over, about P2P on Slashdot. Three things has become abundantly clear:

1) No one here seems to have a fucking clue about the music industry.
2) Nearly everyone here has a hyper-inflated sense of entitlement.
3) People seem to equate feeling strongly about something with being knowledgeable about it.

The music business is very complex. Record companies are not always "middlemen." Artists depend on them for many things. You don't -- that doesn't mean they're not important. And just because they sometimes rip off artists does not provide justification for you to do so. Blah blah blah.

Bill Evans