Interview with Jim Griffin

mpawlo writes "I just finished a Greplaw interview with Jim Griffin. Griffin, of Pholist fame, gives his thoughts on copyright and digital distribution of music. Learn also why copyright should be renamed copy risk. Griffin was once - at Geffen - behind the online release of a full-length song by Aerosmith. In 1994! He is, however, not a John Perry Barlow School of Thought devotee."

Comments

Re:He wants an "internet tax" to support artists

[OneHouse]

Wrong. I am clearly on the record as completely opposed to government compelling such a tax. If you read carefully, I advocate voluntary negotiations that produce blanket licenses. I do not think the government should set the rate, I do not think government should collect the money, I do not think government should be involved in its allocation. I believe private negotiations can accomplish these tasks just as they have with broadcast radio and television.

I dispute this quote

[JoeBaldwin]

Europeans are accustomed to paying a mandatory annual television fee

While I for one support the License Fee, many over here in the U of K hate it, and wish it was gone. Why they would want to go for a US-alike TV system, with commercials everywhere, I don't know.

Also, by Europeans I think he means "Brits". To my knowledge, only we pay a TV License.

Re:I dispute this quote

[s20451]

Also, by Europeans I think he means "Brits". To my knowledge, only we pay a TV License.

I think there are also license fees in the Scandinavian countries. Certainly there are in Sweden and Finland. Remenber that Nokia television handset story a while back?

Re:I dispute this quote

[gl4ss]

many hate here too(finland, yes we have such a thing).. but mainly because it's a crazy amount of money(165euros per year, now my rent is 170e per month so for me it is an outrageous sum) and doesn't directly go into funding the tv(you can buy canal+ for the same money basically). students&others quite regularly leave it unpaid. there's inspectors who go around sometimes asking people who haven't paid it if they have a tv but they lack all police powers(meaning that you can just tell to go fuck themselfs and there's nothing they can do about it), there's ad campaigns to get people to pay as well(but they're very fud like, mostly just meant to spread fear).

the channels have occasionally very good programming though and no ads is a _major_ plus(and they don't always care just for viewer ratings so there's occasionally good niche programs as well). digital tv is a plus too, and a reality(if you had digicard for dvr, you could do a very good digi-rips of band of brothers for example among other shows) in both terrestial and cable versions.

i haven't watched tv in the last 3 weeks at all though...

Re:I dispute this quote

[JaredOfEuropa]

the channels have occasionally very good programming though and no ads is a _major_ plus(and they don't always care just for viewer ratings so there's occasionally good niche programs as well).

We in Holland do not have a TV license scheme. We did away with it a few years ago, now money for public broadcasts comes from general taxation.

Sound like your public stations are okay. Let me tell you what ours are like, just to prove that a blanket tax scheme does not guarantee good quality.

Commercial TV stations have ads. Our public TV stations on the other hand, have... ads! We have niche programming as well... niche meaning bizarre programming that only a few of the 'artistic' intelligentia enjoy. As for the rest, public TV feels it has to compete with the commercials, so the remainder of the programming is intellectualy devoid tripe.

I remember when commercial television was introduced here. The public broadcasting in-crowd poured scorn on the whole thing, and in particular the little logo that these stations display in the corner of the screen. Well guess what? Within our public broadcasting system there are several 'companies' that make programs, each with their own logo. Worse: some well paid consultant decided thaty not only do these companies need an 'identity', the TV channels themselves need one as well. So now there's two logo's, one for the company and one for the channel.

If you want an example of how not to provide culture from the public treasury, look at Holland. We have managed to combine the disadvantages of socialism and commercialism... and the result isn't pretty.

Re:Concerns For Distribution

[YankeeInExile]

I think you misunderstand Mr. Griffin - I believe that he posits a Copyrisk pool as one method to reward artists.

There is nothing about this Copyrisk Commons Plan to stop an individual artist from collecting a revenue stream from selling artifacts (shiny discs of plastic covered with bits), performing in public (whether it be Lincoln Center, or the Harvard Square T station), or any other lawful pursuit of revenue (except buying SCOX).