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Gene Simmons Blames College Kids For Music Industry Woes
drcagn writes "Gene Simmons has blasted 'college' kids and claims that they have destroyed the music industry, with the labels also to blame for not properly suing them out of existence when they had the chance. When asked about Radiohead and Trent Reznor's recent support of a different direction in music distribution, he says "that's not a business model that works. I open a store and say 'Come on in and pay whatever you want.' Are you on f---ing crack?" When asked about music being free and making money off of merchandise, he says, "The most important part is the music. Without that, why would you care?" even though earlier in the interview he brags that he believes that KISS's merchandise is more profitable than Elvis's or the Beatles.'"
Ok, bye, bye karma but I never understood this idea, so popular on slashdot, that downloading stuff that you didn't pay for is somehow not stealing. The only argument I hear is that the recording industry is a bunch of assholes so its ok to take from them as much as you can. But every industry is like that, the only difference is that music and movies are easier to steal than say cars or clothes or insurance policies.
Can anybody fill me in as to why downloading music without paying for it is ok?
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
In any case the quote has always annoyed me... but not as much as the conservatives who quote it (with a "when you're older and wiser, you'll come around" attitude about them). As I'm getting older I'm paying more attention to politics and getting more involved, and probably even more liberal than I was at 18.
I've also taken it to mean that when you're 40, you have money and property you want to be greedy about and protect, and so don't care as much about the welfare of your fellow man. Likewise I'm better off than at 18, and it sure doesn't deter me from wanting to make the world better overall.
Amen! I was going to make pretty much the same point after reading the first post but you beat me to it. This quotation annoys the hell out of me too!