Re: Loot (was looking for 2 tango's)

[clayton beach <akumushi @ONEBOX.COM>]

I understand and respect the issues of intellectual property that Jai
brings to the forefront, but I would have to disagree in some ways.

First, I don't see how making copies of a CD whose musicians are dead,
and which the record company that owns the rights to refuses to sell
can be immoral.  If one has to go through the effort to convert an old,
out of print LP into digital format in order to rescue the song from
extinction, they've done mankind a favor rather than offended someone's
"intellectual" rights.  The entire recording industry is set up to give
the majority of the money to middle men and third parties.  The digital
age give us the posibility to cut all of this out.  Sure, we have integrity
issues to work out, but if the musicians themselves sold their recordings
online with a much lower price tag, people would get more honest.  I
know I would buy much more music if it was directly from the muscicians,
and considerably cheaper.  In Japan, CD's cost about $30 thanks to corporate
price fixing, in the US they're about $20.  Tell me how much of this
goes to the musician, and then lets talk about who the pirate is.
I read a list of the top grossing musicians in the US a few years ago.
 Metallica, one of the bands who spearheaded the movement against napster,
was near the top of the list.  The interesting fact was that the large
majority of their income comes from touring.  If performers do their
job and perform, their fans will go to the concerts and they'll make
money.  As for the record industry, they do a valuable service in getting
msucians recorded with decent equipment, and help with marketing etc,
but their business practices are far from pristine.  In many ways, they
stifle musicians much worse than an occasional tango DJ resurrecting
old tangos.
Peace
--
clayton  beach
akumushi @onebox.com - email
(866) 248-7670 x7206 - voicemail/fax


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