Music man, play for me
Oct. 7th, 2004 01:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sobriqueUK music industry to sue online pirates.
I've seen ads lately that claim piracy is theft. It isn't thought. Theft does have a legal definition, and I believe that "intent to permanantly deprive" is amongst it. It's hard to assert an ownership of something which is trivial to duplicate and is broadcast.
I think that the record companies are still hiding from the real problem.
They are obselete.
The purpose of a recording company is to act as middle-men between artists and audiences. Record, distribute and support. They've taken great advantage of that role in the past, to the point of almost controlling the market. What they say is good, is the only thing that appears on shelves. If artists want to make the big time, they need to sign away their soul.
The problem is that they're not really needed any more. CDs are still popular, but with the prevalence of CD burners, it's far more cost effective to distribute electronically and create local copies. Marketing is still useful.
BUt with a minimal investment, any artist can create electronic copies of their music and with things like mperia can distribute their latest and greatest track without needing intervention from the heavyweights. It only takes a little to start writing this to CDs. Everyone can have to hand, their ideal complilation CD.
So the question is no longer one of production and supply, it's of a business model that has artists producing, and being compensated for their effort.
The problem is, that there's not a lot of room for corporate giants on that playing field...
I've seen ads lately that claim piracy is theft. It isn't thought. Theft does have a legal definition, and I believe that "intent to permanantly deprive" is amongst it. It's hard to assert an ownership of something which is trivial to duplicate and is broadcast.
I think that the record companies are still hiding from the real problem.
They are obselete.
The purpose of a recording company is to act as middle-men between artists and audiences. Record, distribute and support. They've taken great advantage of that role in the past, to the point of almost controlling the market. What they say is good, is the only thing that appears on shelves. If artists want to make the big time, they need to sign away their soul.
The problem is that they're not really needed any more. CDs are still popular, but with the prevalence of CD burners, it's far more cost effective to distribute electronically and create local copies. Marketing is still useful.
BUt with a minimal investment, any artist can create electronic copies of their music and with things like mperia can distribute their latest and greatest track without needing intervention from the heavyweights. It only takes a little to start writing this to CDs. Everyone can have to hand, their ideal complilation CD.
So the question is no longer one of production and supply, it's of a business model that has artists producing, and being compensated for their effort.
The problem is, that there's not a lot of room for corporate giants on that playing field...
