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ASCAP Declares War On Free Culture, EFF
Andorin writes "According to Drew Wilson at ZeroPaid and Cory Doctorow, the ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), a US organization that aims to collect royalties for its members for the use of their copyrighted works, has begun soliciting donations to fight key organizations of the free culture movement, such as Creative Commons, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Public Knowledge. According to a letter received by ASCAP member Mike Rugnetta, 'Many forces including Creative Commons, Public Knowledge, Electronic Frontier Foundation and technology companies with deep pockets are mobilizing to promote "Copyleft" in order to undermine our "Copyright." They say they are advocates of consumer rights, but the truth is these groups simply do not want to pay for the use of our music. Their mission is to spread the word that our music should be free.' (Part 1 and part 2 of the letter.) The collecting agency is asking that its professional members donate to its Legislative Fund for the Arts, which appears to be a lobbying campaign meant to convince Congress that artists should not have the choice of licensing their works under a copyleft license."
Everybody with an agenda today needs a straw man demon. Look at US national politics. Obama demonized George Bush, then Wall Street, then the Banks, then the isurance companies, and now BP. He hasn't addressed any major topic without a straw man demon.
Like it or not, people in the USA evidently love to hate. An anti-demon campaign is more successful than one with a positive message, regardless of the topic.
that artists should not have the choice of licensing their works under a copyleft license.
You're saying that if "Artist A" wants to release her own works under a Creative Commons license, she must be stealing from "Artist B", who works so hard for a living. I am going to have to disagree, Mr. Troll.
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Most ASCAP members don't have health care. Think about that next time you are pontificating about freeing the culture. In the US, we don't even have free basic 911 services, so how can we have free music? An American with health care still dies younger than Europeans and Canadians, but without health care you lose 10-20 years. That's hundreds of lost songs per songwriter. The 2 pennies you may have to pay to a songwriter are not nearly the threat to culture as having no public health care system.