I agree entirely about the warped value that people have re: music $. I think that if we were to shift to a system where copying music is no longer "illegal", then we will see the record labels and monopolies start to decline. The amount of money that can actually find it's way into an artist's pocket, even big name ones, is such a tiny fraction currently that it's laughable.
So right now the only way that an artist can make any money through the system is to get lucky and somehow sell enough copies that he can cover all the expenses and such that the record companies put into their contracts. One out of every however many thousand musicians ever get enough money from their musical work to even think about putting their kids through college and quitting their day job.
Who makes the money? The record company, they take billions of dollars from the total population, line their pockets, and give a little bit to the people who allowed them to profit in such an obscene manner.
If we elminate this system, then anyone can conceivably hit it big. Spread your work out across the world for free. Let the folk music scene at large know that you have something worth hearing. Let your fans make copies and spread the word about how great you are. Play shows and let people grab your album by wifi and put it on their ipods when they show up. Id you can get it out to millions of people, if even a fraction of those people visit your website, and decide they want to paypal you a dollar or two, or buy an autographed album, or merch, or really like what you're saying, then you will probably make more money than you are making today.
Like you said you maybe make a few bucks at a bar, like most musicians I know you can't be selling too many albums... it's a tough business. But if you can spread word about your talent, if people like what you're doing, I really think you can get support.
People won't be spending as much money on the Old Way. Billions of dollars will be freed up. So if someone likes music, they can afford to spend a few bucks on music or a poster from their favorite artist.
You say that people won't spend money on things that they can get for free? I say that's crazy. People have always spent money on things they don't need to. People want to support things that are good. Look at every other tracker or half the community websites out there. People donate thousands and millions of dollars to keep these sites going. They don't have to donate money to use the site. They could be leeches and ignore the fact that they need money. But they want to see the site continue to exist, they like what the site is doing, and they think it's worthy of a few measly dollars.
Now translate that to the music/book/video business. People will want to spend money to ensure that Star Trek and the Simpsons continue to exist. If people like it, they will spend money on it. Smaller artists will gain momentum if people like their work. The more people who think you're a good artist, the more other people they will tell. The Jazz and folk communities will find out about the best new artists and they will gain support, at shows, for buying actual albums from the artist, from whatever people think up.
So the next question... you no doubt say that a lot of artists, smaller lesser known people will not be able to make it. Are they making it now? Do you make it now? Sure you have a chance to hit it in the folk scene... but it probably isn't going to happen in the music industry that we know today. Maybe you could get signed to a little label and somehow make a few bucks, but probably not... it's a tough competitive industry, and most people simply don't succeed.
I think more people are likely to succeed in a no-copyright future. The people who do make it will be people who are liked for what they create, they are judged to be worthy of support by the public at large, there will be no gate-keeper to success other than the judgement of what is good.
Admit you got owned and don't read or even look at the stories you post. How could you have looked at it? I'm half brain-dead this morning from all manner of drugs and I could instantly tell it was a joke.
Photoshops are good enough to make the front-page? Some little thread on a p2p board deserves this scrutiny? You're a joke.
Jesus H, It's obviously a photoshop, the thread that they link to is clearly a joke. It took about 10 seconds to tell that this is a hoax.
How in the hell can this make the front page? It's just insane. People subscribe to/.? People are paid to run this site?
For this and same-day dupes?
You make the assumption that in a world without copyright content-creators will not be able to gain any monetary benefit from their works.
I say this is flat out wrong. Creative people of all walks of life, in all societies have always been able to make a living. Artists who create things that people like will be elevated in status and supported by those who want to see them continue to create art.
Money spend previously on the sham that is the record industry will be freed up, the same in many other areas. It no longer makes economic sense to continue to pay for records and things that are inefficient, and anti-free market. Imagine the amounts of money and resources spent on content. These resources will be allowed to be spent in new and better ways.
Copyright restrictions on a song or a book are just ridiculous from a free-market perspective. If all of a sudden one day we found a method to create "free" energy, we should move to the new method. Keeping an inefficient production system around simply because it is the way we have always done things and you want to protect the jobs of people in the energy industry makes no sense at all.
When textile mills and outsource-able jobs are no longer efficient or make sense, we simply move to a new system of doing things. Why must we continue to prop up a woefully inefficient system of IP rights that merely serves to restrict a more sensible method?
If by punching you in the face I could cause no injury and also create grains of rice, then punching you in the face would be a grand thing to do.
X-Bender has been there for a good while, as has X-Fry. They rotate, some script or something.
They are meant to be there, a little joke for anyone who reads them.
Yes, you should support any effort to stop child abuse.
If we take away your children from you, and put them in some kind of sealed and monitored Monroe box until they are of legal age, then we can guarantee that those degrading acitivities you are so worried about, will be completely stamped out!
Think of the children? That's all they'll be able to do! Until we can find a way to stamp that perversion out as well.
These sorts of hysterias happen every now and then. People get all up in arms about drugs, child abductions, terrorism, alcohol, $BLAH... and all of a sudden the rules need to be changed to protect us all from the menace that threatens to corrupt our children and anally rape them with a crack pipe.
Civil liberties mean nothing when you can get a good hysteria going.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree entirely about the warped value that people have re: music $. I think that if we were to shift to a system where copying music is no longer "illegal", then we will see the record labels and monopolies start to decline. The amount of money that can actually find it's way into an artist's pocket, even big name ones, is such a tiny fraction currently that it's laughable.
So right now the only way that an artist can make any money through the system is to get lucky and somehow sell enough copies that he can cover all the expenses and such that the record companies put into their contracts. One out of every however many thousand musicians ever get enough money from their musical work to even think about putting their kids through college and quitting their day job.
Who makes the money? The record company, they take billions of dollars from the total population, line their pockets, and give a little bit to the people who allowed them to profit in such an obscene manner.
If we elminate this system, then anyone can conceivably hit it big. Spread your work out across the world for free. Let the folk music scene at large know that you have something worth hearing. Let your fans make copies and spread the word about how great you are. Play shows and let people grab your album by wifi and put it on their ipods when they show up. Id you can get it out to millions of people, if even a fraction of those people visit your website, and decide they want to paypal you a dollar or two, or buy an autographed album, or merch, or really like what you're saying, then you will probably make more money than you are making today.
Like you said you maybe make a few bucks at a bar, like most musicians I know you can't be selling too many albums... it's a tough business. But if you can spread word about your talent, if people like what you're doing, I really think you can get support.
People won't be spending as much money on the Old Way. Billions of dollars will be freed up. So if someone likes music, they can afford to spend a few bucks on music or a poster from their favorite artist.
You say that people won't spend money on things that they can get for free? I say that's crazy. People have always spent money on things they don't need to. People want to support things that are good. Look at every other tracker or half the community websites out there. People donate thousands and millions of dollars to keep these sites going. They don't have to donate money to use the site. They could be leeches and ignore the fact that they need money. But they want to see the site continue to exist, they like what the site is doing, and they think it's worthy of a few measly dollars.
Now translate that to the music/book/video business. People will want to spend money to ensure that Star Trek and the Simpsons continue to exist. If people like it, they will spend money on it. Smaller artists will gain momentum if people like their work. The more people who think you're a good artist, the more other people they will tell. The Jazz and folk communities will find out about the best new artists and they will gain support, at shows, for buying actual albums from the artist, from whatever people think up.
So the next question... you no doubt say that a lot of artists, smaller lesser known people will not be able to make it. Are they making it now? Do you make it now? Sure you have a chance to hit it in the folk scene... but it probably isn't going to happen in the music industry that we know today. Maybe you could get signed to a little label and somehow make a few bucks, but probably not... it's a tough competitive industry, and most people simply don't succeed.
I think more people are likely to succeed in a no-copyright future. The people who do make it will be people who are liked for what they create, they are judged to be worthy of support by the public at large, there will be no gate-keeper to success other than the judgement of what is good.
Now all that said, I too have little
Now Taco updated the story, "likely fake".
The guy who made it admitted it's fake.
Admit you got owned and don't read or even look at the stories you post. How could you have looked at it? I'm half brain-dead this morning from all manner of drugs and I could instantly tell it was a joke.
Photoshops are good enough to make the front-page? Some little thread on a p2p board deserves this scrutiny? You're a joke.
Jesus H, It's obviously a photoshop, the thread that they link to is clearly a joke. It took about 10 seconds to tell that this is a hoax. How in the hell can this make the front page? It's just insane. People subscribe to /.? People are paid to run this site?
For this and same-day dupes?
You make the assumption that in a world without copyright content-creators will not be able to gain any monetary benefit from their works.
I say this is flat out wrong. Creative people of all walks of life, in all societies have always been able to make a living. Artists who create things that people like will be elevated in status and supported by those who want to see them continue to create art.
Money spend previously on the sham that is the record industry will be freed up, the same in many other areas. It no longer makes economic sense to continue to pay for records and things that are inefficient, and anti-free market. Imagine the amounts of money and resources spent on content. These resources will be allowed to be spent in new and better ways.
Copyright restrictions on a song or a book are just ridiculous from a free-market perspective. If all of a sudden one day we found a method to create "free" energy, we should move to the new method. Keeping an inefficient production system around simply because it is the way we have always done things and you want to protect the jobs of people in the energy industry makes no sense at all.
When textile mills and outsource-able jobs are no longer efficient or make sense, we simply move to a new system of doing things. Why must we continue to prop up a woefully inefficient system of IP rights that merely serves to restrict a more sensible method?
If by punching you in the face I could cause no injury and also create grains of rice, then punching you in the face would be a grand thing to do.
X-Bender has been there for a good while, as has X-Fry. They rotate, some script or something. They are meant to be there, a little joke for anyone who reads them.
Yes, you should support any effort to stop child abuse. If we take away your children from you, and put them in some kind of sealed and monitored Monroe box until they are of legal age, then we can guarantee that those degrading acitivities you are so worried about, will be completely stamped out! Think of the children? That's all they'll be able to do! Until we can find a way to stamp that perversion out as well.
Maybe the 16+ers are all in the NN section... Got an l/p for a brother?
These sorts of hysterias happen every now and then. People get all up in arms about drugs, child abductions, terrorism, alcohol, $BLAH... and all of a sudden the rules need to be changed to protect us all from the menace that threatens to corrupt our children and anally rape them with a crack pipe.
Civil liberties mean nothing when you can get a good hysteria going.
And that post right there is what makes you look like a dork. "Lame computer brand! Gloiven!"