Internet Copyright Idea

http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2001/02/13/joy.html

I wonder how much Joy/Sun have donated to Hatch's campaign or the Republican party? Nice that Joy is also on Napster's board too... Imagine that. Is twisting policy to suit napster's view of the world any less dangerous than allowing the RIAA to get their way?

Ah a napster story again. Well seems I'm a lucky fuck again to live in Belgium. Yesterday some music supervising organization stated they are gonna use tracking devices to trace down napster users. They track down the ip and give the names to the justice department. They already tracked down 12000 users and they already have given in about 100 names to the justice department. Today our justice department stated that it will be given low priority ? So I was wondering even when they give it low priority, is this possible ? I mean tracking down napster users or is it just a new way of intimidating us ?

Haha, Hollywood and the recording industry are growing increasingly alientated from the rest of "the real world". Fuck them, they will do anything to protect their gravy train, but history will grind them into dust.

"the RIAA already is looking for support among key senators to make sure this doesn't happen."

Well, they're not going to get their support; do you know who suggested this entire thing? Orrin Hatch. That's right, THE Orrin Hatch. And you all thought he was going to support the RIAA, eh? Surprise, surprise!

I think the musicians out there will just have to get used to a much lower cash flow.

No more 3 million dollar houses or multiple 100k+ cars. If they were truly in the business to make music, the money wouldn't matter. Too bad the RIAA and recording label executives can't have a job when that happens.

But I do think that the senate should stay out of this, until it is brought to them through the legal system. (then it would be courts and judges though, not the senate). Why the hell are they screwing around with this anyway? Shouldn't they be more concerned with political matters?

I still say music should follow the shareware model -- since controlling digital copyright will always be impossible -- but that's not possible right now since it's not as easy to buy or sell something as it is to click&download.

What we need is to finally get a user-friendly digital cash system in place (not a credit card hack, and not PayPal crap) where there's no middleman skimming off the top for their 'services', and where it's easy as pie for anyone to xfer any amount (with nyms would be better). Then, all the artists could attach digital signatures to their work, let the beast loose out on the net, and if you like, you can use the info in the sig to pay the artist directly. Either pay what he's asking, or "tip" what you want. It'd also help if you could see how "successful" this merchant was... but asking to see someones bottom line as a condition of charity isn't too kosher (didn't mp3.com try this?)...

...now I'm rambling. My point is that the middlemen in this world (like the RIAA) are usually just opportunistic thieves in suits who serve little purpose, especially online, so we should just make it easy to pay direct... then it's easier to be honest and support the actual producers cost of living + profit... (hm.. still rambling.. can't... get.. coherent...)

Here's an idea ... for every 1 Million downloads of an artist's song .. he gets $500K from the US gov't (50 cents a download) ... this money, of course comes from a new tax that we all pay. "The Artist Relief Tax"

Thank you!

The key here to remember is that if you can control the distrbution then you can control the price. They can't afford to make music a commodity and let the market determine the price.

Isn't that easy Sniper21?

The RIAA can lick my ass. God, I hate those greedy fuckers.

I'm trying to think of something on-topic to say, but...I can't. You pretty much summed it up steve. It's difficult to say who has the right to do this, however. I think music is more the property of the artist(s) than the recording label, but then again, the artist(s) did sign a contract. But once somebody buys the music, it's their and they can do with it what they please. This is definitely going to be a long debate.

fuck getting permission from the record companies.

how about getting permission from the artists themselves??!?

So, uh, why are they opposed to this? They still get their money.

Sweet! First?