No kidding

Posted Dec 14, 2005 4:48 UTC (Wed) by bojan (subscriber, #14302) [Link]

> Yea, like I said, you can paint it any color of rose you want...

It is a matter of law that conditions exist for copyright infringement to become "theft" (a crimial offence, actually). Just because you think it is "theft", it doesn't make it so. You are just painting it in your colours, while I'm trying to point out the reality (US & Oz):

http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html#506
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ca19681...

> If the music and movie industries are not fueled with funds, they'll simply dwindle away under a model you desire.

Quick, save the world! Oh, while at it, make sure open source is forbidden too. All the signs show that the "software industry" is already suffering because of those pesky FOSS lovers.

I certainly hope that human existence isn't about "survival of industries". Because if it is, we'll never do anything better than what we know today.

Posted Dec 15, 2005 5:44 UTC (Thu) by xoddam (subscriber, #2322) [Link]

> If the music and movie industries are not fueled with funds,
> they'll simply dwindle away under a model you desire.

Now that would be a rosy outcome! No longer will record companies be
able to profit by signing bands into indentured labour, throwing up some
glossy posters and videos then pressing the 'copy' button at $15 a pop.

More likely is that these industries will adapt to a different business
model that offers what the real market -- the consuming public, which
happens to have taste and duplicating machines of its own -- demands,
instead of demanding draconian enforcement of new artificial monopoly
rights.

People have already started spending less money on prerecorded
mass-market CDs and films and more on live entertainment, concert
merchandise (including indie recordings, often on CD-R, at a reasonable
markup) and art objects -- a direct financial return to numerous
individual artists.

No-one here is advocating the abolition of copyright. We *are* decrying
the attempt to keep general-purpose machines out of the hands of the
general public.

> The demise, however, will not be for lack of demand for the product.

It would be for a lack of demand for the product *at the inflated price*
it's offered for. I have no problem paying $20 for a disc if it cost $10
per disc to make the music. I simply don't buy music at those prices if
it has already amortised a million times -- unless it's *really* good (I
confess, I did buy a couple of Beatles albums at full price a year or two
ago).