You don't see the problems inherent with one private entity owning an essential infrasructure like the water supply? Give me a break. This blind libertarian ideology nonsense has gone too far.
Given that the free market, especially in utilities service, inherently results in consolidation - one business buys another out, profits more as a result, and a whole market eventually comes under its sway - and that the cost barrier to entry into the water distribution market is obviously absurbdly high, what's to keep the controller of the water supply from charging whatever it wants? What are you going to do if you don't want to, or can't, pay your local monopoly? Collect rainwater? And what if you live in a rural or destitute region, where the ROI isn't going to be enough for a corporation to justify providing you service?
Privatisation is a hell of a way to push a community into the third world, while reaping a profit, that is.
Lawsuits alleging subconscious infringement of copyrighted music put a chilling effect on some people who would write and publish music, just as lawsuits against file sharers put a chilling effect on file sharing to some extent.
Yeah, I'll believe that. But, essentially, it's a short term problem. The RIAA, and copyright, won't be around forever, or even for that long now.
Are you sure that the RIAA labels' death throes, the desperate attempts to recover at least something for their shareholders, aren't going to take out the entire indie music community with them?
Even if they "take out the whole indie music community that currently exists," it's not a permenant problem. Are you suggesting that somehow the RIAA's lawsuits will kill the creative impulse in everyone, everywhere, forever? That's an absurd concern on it's face.
You know there are plenty of major copyright owners that sue people who create works, on grounds that the major copyright owner's work was subconsciously copied into the alleged infringer's work, right?
What does that have to do with anything? That certainly doesn't negate the point that people are creating original works explictly without regard to copyright.
Not yet. The music played on school buses is still RIAA music.
So? The scarcity that allows them to charge for it has been destroyed by the emergence of near-costless digital reproduction. Period. Even if they closed up shop today, musicians, writers, and artists would still be producing and distributing thier works, and those works would simply become more popular in the new market.
It's almost a cliche; the RIAA and MPAA are dead, they just haven't realized it yet. And all things considered, this is gonna be good for the creative landscape in the end.
You know there are plenty of people here that give away thier created works, whether fiction, art, code, or whatever else, for free, right? You're postiong on Slashdot, so I assume you've heard of the GPL, at least.
People were producing works of art without the incentive of copyright long before it exsisted. Art is being created without regard to copyright while it exists, and they'll still be created when it's gone, too.
The **AA's copyright-supported business model has been outdated by new technology, and nothing can save it now. The effective nil cost of digital reproduction has destroyed the market for thier services, period. New content producers more adapted to the new situation will simply take thier place.
Regardless of the **AA's attempts to prop up thier profits in the face of the inevitable, it's useless, and these strong-arm tactics only serve to make myself, and many others, care even less about copyright laws.
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You don't see the problems inherent with one private entity owning an essential infrasructure like the water supply? Give me a break. This blind libertarian ideology nonsense has gone too far.
Given that the free market, especially in utilities service, inherently results in consolidation - one business buys another out, profits more as a result, and a whole market eventually comes under its sway - and that the cost barrier to entry into the water distribution market is obviously absurbdly high, what's to keep the controller of the water supply from charging whatever it wants? What are you going to do if you don't want to, or can't, pay your local monopoly? Collect rainwater? And what if you live in a rural or destitute region, where the ROI isn't going to be enough for a corporation to justify providing you service?
Privatisation is a hell of a way to push a community into the third world, while reaping a profit, that is.
Lawsuits alleging subconscious infringement of copyrighted music put a chilling effect on some people who would write and publish music, just as lawsuits against file sharers put a chilling effect on file sharing to some extent.
Yeah, I'll believe that. But, essentially, it's a short term problem. The RIAA, and copyright, won't be around forever, or even for that long now.
Are you sure that the RIAA labels' death throes, the desperate attempts to recover at least something for their shareholders, aren't going to take out the entire indie music community with them?
Even if they "take out the whole indie music community that currently exists," it's not a permenant problem. Are you suggesting that somehow the RIAA's lawsuits will kill the creative impulse in everyone, everywhere, forever? That's an absurd concern on it's face.
You know there are plenty of major copyright owners that sue people who create works, on grounds that the major copyright owner's work was subconsciously copied into the alleged infringer's work, right?
What does that have to do with anything? That certainly doesn't negate the point that people are creating original works explictly without regard to copyright.
Not yet. The music played on school buses is still RIAA music.
So? The scarcity that allows them to charge for it has been destroyed by the emergence of near-costless digital reproduction. Period. Even if they closed up shop today, musicians, writers, and artists would still be producing and distributing thier works, and those works would simply become more popular in the new market.
It's almost a cliche; the RIAA and MPAA are dead, they just haven't realized it yet. And all things considered, this is gonna be good for the creative landscape in the end.
You know there are plenty of people here that give away thier created works, whether fiction, art, code, or whatever else, for free, right? You're postiong on Slashdot, so I assume you've heard of the GPL, at least.
People were producing works of art without the incentive of copyright long before it exsisted. Art is being created without regard to copyright while it exists, and they'll still be created when it's gone, too.
The **AA's copyright-supported business model has been outdated by new technology, and nothing can save it now. The effective nil cost of digital reproduction has destroyed the market for thier services, period. New content producers more adapted to the new situation will simply take thier place.
Regardless of the **AA's attempts to prop up thier profits in the face of the inevitable, it's useless, and these strong-arm tactics only serve to make myself, and many others, care even less about copyright laws.