Hollywood Steps Up Its Assault on the Net While Webcasting Death March Claims KPIG (Linux Journal) [LWN.net]

What's all over?

Posted Aug 2, 2002 14:44 UTC (Fri) by beejaybee (guest, #1581) [Link]

Ummm - the problem with "Hollywood" (actually the major players are the record industry) is NOT that they want to protect their intellectual property - it's that they wish to protect their IP by controlling the way in which consumers can use general-purpose computers.

We have a right to exist; they have a right to exist, too. Exhortations to "kill Hollywood" are playing right into the hands of the record industry, who can thereby depict the struggle to keep open software (and hardware) as warfare i.e. directly targeting their industry.

Note, I'm not trying to excuse the behaviour of the record industry, and I'm totally opposed to attempts by Big Business to buy out Congressmen & Senators so as to guarantee them a lucrative, permament monopoly on supply of entertainment. The record industry does need to change - there is an obvious need for a "legal" method to download content for personal use; both by micropayments for a restricted single play and for a permanent license unrestricted to specific hardware & software.

The issues here are:

We need to retain the capability of our general-purpose computers to be used in an unrestricted way;
We need to retain existing rights to fair use of digital media;
There needs to be a way for independent music & movie producers to access the market;
There needs to be a way for creators of intellectual property to be rewarded. (Else it really will be "all over" - no more content will be produced, ever. Can you imagine what it would be like if no music or books had been written since say 1950? Can you see what life would be like for your grandchildren if there is no "new" music to annoy you in your old age?)

Really I don't see that there is anything in these issues which cannot be resolved - providing only that _existing_ legislation is retained rather than rewritten to suit big business monopolies. The only additional things which are required are for Goverments throughout the world to honour each others' existing copyright laws, and to make anyone who wilfully distributes copyrighted material without the agreement of the license holder legally responsible, irrespective of their location or the location of any associated hardware components of the distribution mechanism.

Warfare is not going to solve this. We, as open system advocates, need to sit down with our "enemies" in the record & movie industry & thrash out a _workable_ agreement. Neither of us can win individually, but together perhaps we both can.

What's all over?

Posted Aug 2, 2002 17:38 UTC (Fri) by JoeBuck (subscriber, #2330) [Link]

No, the current distribution system does not necessarily have a right to exist. In the absence of government protection, its organization will naturally change over time. Remember, the current Hollywood system looks completely different from the Hollywood of the 30's through the 50's, when studios "owned" the stars (even the biggest names were tied to a single movie studio for seven-year contracts) as well as the movie theaters.

Now, movie-making is a vast enterprise that takes armies of people. But music is not. For musicians, it may well be more efficient to let the record companies collapse: the main reason musicians need record companies today is to organize the payola to the radio conglomerates to get their songs on the air. That's the main reason why the RIAA feels that Internet radio must be destroyed, as well as any online music distribution scheme not controlled by the recod companies: if musicians have ways of reaching the public that don't go through the record companies, why should they give 90%+ of their income away to those companies?

It's a little-known fact that record companies do not pay to promote artists in most cases; rather, they loan money to the artist. Every single expense (making a video, buying an ad, doing a tour) is charged back to the musician. The only way the record company is ever out any cash is if a musician never makes any money at all; the record company has to be paid in full for all their expenses before the artist makes a dime. The only reason that musicians accept this lousy deal is that it is the only game available. This means that to survive, the record companies have to use the law to prevent any alternatives from arising.