So I guess this is where the analogy breaks down. When I am in my house, I have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Peeping Tom laws were created to codify that expectation.
It would be hard to convince me that a company can have the same expecation of privacy when they put information on a publicly accessible web server. That web server is the place on the internet to go if you want to find out about the company in question. There is a tacit agreement that the company wants people to look in the windows. They will, I think, be hard pressed to sue anyone for linking to info accessible through a public web site without requiring so much as a password.
I suspect the music stealing that's going on is not just a problem of how easy and penalty-free it is, but also a function of people feeling a little vague about where that $15.99 is going in the first place. I, personally, have this picture in my head of a fat-cat record executive standing on his penthouse balcony with a fist full of cash tossing nickles and dimes down to starving musicians clad in filthy rags groveling in the street below.
But is the distribution simply $15.89 to the exec and $0.10 to the artist? Has anyone done a comprehensive breakdown of where all the money goes? A&R, advertising, promotion, marketing, etc.? A link would be appreciated.
I'd love to see Ross Perot come on national TV with a pie-chart: "See right here? Two dollars* of every CD goes to the A&R guy. Can I finish?! Two dollars, people! That's over twelve percent!"
*DISCLAIMER: I have no idea how much money actually goes to the A&R guy.
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Did anyone go looking for the Android app "NU JamLogger" in the Android Marketplace? I couldn't find it and tried a variety of likely search terms.
How much of my G1's precious battery power was wasted on this fruitless search? We'll never know.
So I guess this is where the analogy breaks down. When I am in my house, I have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Peeping Tom laws were created to codify that expectation.
It would be hard to convince me that a company can have the same expecation of privacy when they put information on a publicly accessible web server. That web server is the place on the internet to go if you want to find out about the company in question. There is a tacit agreement that the company wants people to look in the windows. They will, I think, be hard pressed to sue anyone for linking to info accessible through a public web site without requiring so much as a password.
I suspect the music stealing that's going on is not just a problem of how easy and penalty-free it is, but also a function of people feeling a little vague about where that $15.99 is going in the first place. I, personally, have this picture in my head of a fat-cat record executive standing on his penthouse balcony with a fist full of cash tossing nickles and dimes down to starving musicians clad in filthy rags groveling in the street below.
But is the distribution simply $15.89 to the exec and $0.10 to the artist? Has anyone done a comprehensive breakdown of where all the money goes? A&R, advertising, promotion, marketing, etc.? A link would be appreciated.
I'd love to see Ross Perot come on national TV with a pie-chart: "See right here? Two dollars* of every CD goes to the A&R guy. Can I finish?! Two dollars, people! That's over twelve percent!"
*DISCLAIMER: I have no idea how much money actually goes to the A&R guy.