Some Plagues are Better Than Others
Like, the plague that’s lived in my sinuses the last week? EEEEEEEvil. However, I left work early yesterday and conked out for three hours in the afternoon, and WOW did that help. I feel human again! (And my precious schedule is back and rockin’! Even though it’s in shambles, the new house is really helping, too - Getting up at 4 a.m. when you can leave the room, make coffee, get toast and play video games? Piece of cake.)
Now. The plague of "pirating" that so many companies are eager to claim as the cause of all their financial woes? Not so evil, as I’ve discussed before.
(Just the other day, on a news program, a songwriter blithely referred to the financial troubles he’s having "because CD sales are suffering due to pirating", and I had my hands halfway around his electronic throat screaming NO YOU IDIOT CD SALES ARE SUFFERING BECAUSE THE PRODUCT IS CRAPPY AND OVERPRICED before I realized that, um, I was accosting a television. But seriously, don’t even get me started on the "ringle" — a CD single boasting 2 songs and a ringtone, for \$6-7. WHY anyone would buy that, you may wonder, when you can get the 2 songs from iTunes for \$0.99 each, and make free ringtones from them using legal, already-available software? Well, duh, nobody WILL buy it. And then the RIAA will blame all the money they lose on "pirates".)
But this week, Information Week reviewed[article] an interesting study[PDF] done recently by a huge association representing computer-industry heavies like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, which sticks yet another fork in the "unauthorized use = pirating = evil" balloon. Their results show that Fair Use "violations" of copyright are actually worth seventy percent more in revenue to the U.S. economy than "authorized" copyright itself is!!
Now, could that 70% number be a little inflated? Possibly; while Google and Yahoo have some stake in keeping fair use loose and ready to rock, Microsoft and some of the other companies are usually firmly on the other side of the fence. But assume that it is inflated, because hell, that’s a safe assumption with industry-funded studies anyway. Still, the fact that Fair Use is worth more than copyright is pretty freaking telling, isn’t it?
And not only is it telling, it’s unsurprising, at least if you know your American history. Things That Wouldn’t Exist Without Fair (or even unfair) Copyright Violations is a formidable and powerful list, including items like:
* Disney
* Hollywood
* The Internet
* FM Radio
And other serious economic and cultural players. Considering that the Internet alone is worth billions to the economy, and for the first part of its life existed almost solely to spread unauthorized chunks of copyrighted content (and still does a hefty amount of it today, to the benefit of many, many people), who’s surprised, really, that the economic value of Fair Use is so large?
Look, it’s really simple. Copyright is supposed to exist to protect and encourage innovation. And without a robust and flexible implementation of Fair Use, it tends to do exactly the opposite. Look at how strict movie and music and software fatcats want to be about what you can do with what you buy — you’re only "authorized" to watch this movie at home, on your DVD player; you’re only "authorized" to listen to this music so many times; you’re not "authorized" to re-sell or loan out this game. They’re thinking like fatcats tend to, putting their PROPERTY OF stickers all over everything they can, but in reality, what are actions like those going to do to their market?
Well, why ask the question? Just look at the music industry. Sales are plummetting, artists and music retailers and consumers all hate them, and predictions of their demise have become unanimous in the last few years.
All of this is just another splash on the mural I like to call GOOD THINGS WORK, BAD THINGS DON’T. Sharing and commenting and modifying and parodying are good things.
(Sneezing forty times in one day is a bad thing.)
17 devoted students of Roshi accepted this page in 0.255 seconds without moving, or saying a word.
Yeah, and the term “pirated albums” once meant those things which were sold after a concert but not made by the company which had signed on the music group. Meaning, some underground person(s) profited while no royalties were sent to the original musicians.
In contrast, the term “boot-legged album” was once used to refer to those albums which were made by fans and given away. Sure, there was no profit made from the creation and dissemination of those albums. Royalties weren’t sent to the original musicians, but many musical groups publicly stated that the boot-legged albums were acceptable, as long as they were shared and not sold for a profit.
The modern situation is *much* different. Yet, the term “pirated albums” seems to have been co-opted in the worst possible manner. Bleh, history seems to have no students.
My opinions have been shaped by the historical records of Tangerine Dream. They are easily pulled by some minor research on the ‘net.
Gaah…
/t
Oh, by the way, if you can gargle salt water through your nose, you will kill anything evil living in there. So say all my Korean friends, tho’ I haven’t been able to manage it.
And sneezing 40x in one day? I would think that 40x in an hour is more of a problem, heheheh. Okay I stopped after about 40 times in 30 minutes, but it was a weird and fun test of my limits. Frankly I got tired and a little bored. And since that time, I haven’t ever forgotten to wash my hands after cooking with fresh peppers, heheh.
You just gotta love the fact that we hear, and pay attention to, the opinions of rich, settled musicians, usually at the end of their careers, who complain about what sharing does to their precious, precious money…but almost nobody seems to care what the up-and-coming, young and underpaid, creative and relevant artists have to say about it. Probably because they’re all pro-sharing; most of them wouldn’t have reached anyone without it.
Oh, and “history seems to have no students” –> Too true! And very well-said.
I actually have a neti pot (=nose-gargling enabler) that I put salt water in when I remember, or when my sinuses are really bad, and it works GREAT. On the other hand, whatever I’m playing host to now seems to have settled quite firmly in my chest, so it probably wouldn’t help. *sigh-cough-sigh*
Thanks!
pd