linuxaudio.org

On 07/02/2010 10:58 AM, Paul Davis wrote:

quoted text
> On Thu, Jul 1, 2010 at 8:51 PM, Patrick Shirkey

>   wrote:

>

>

>> The system that ASCAP is promoting for is only viable in a debt based

>> economy. They want to ensure that people who claim ownership of the artwork

>> can get a cut of the money that is earnt from using the art/product for

>> financial gain after the money earned has been counted. In this case I think

>> it would be more appropriate for them to campaign for laws that require up

>> front payments by the industry for work that is intended to be used for

>> financial gain. It would give it's members a better chance of seeing some of

>> the cash they feel they deserve and force the industry to be clear about how

>> much money they intend to earn and are willing to part with for that

>> opportunity. It would also move them away from supporting and contributing

>> to a debt based economy which only serves the goals of the elite.

>>

> i have an account on CD Baby. there's a release there (you can check

> it out if you want, its by a group called Global Illage). how does

> what you've written above relate to my use of copyright in connection

> with this activity?

>    

Fair question. I think my answer is in line with your angle. Not sure

though. I may be far far away in rant land by now to make any sense ;-)
I don't think your use of copyright to sell a CD on CD baby has much

relation to the above. But if you are a member of ASCAP and I make a

copy of your work and share it then it is likely they would not be happy

about me doing so and would seek a payment in lieu or some form of

punishment. If tehy are paid they would at some point be expected to

pass on a percentage of it to you although history has proven they are

not very good at doing that for a large proportion of their supporters.
If I intended to make money by distributing the product of my creation

and a fundamental part of my work was derived from your work then it

would be reasonable to expect me to pay an upfront payment based on how

many copies I intend to sell or at a fixed price. In much the same way

that I could purchase a hammer at a hardware store and use it to make as

many wooden houses I could build or a license to distribute x amount of

units for a pre determined sum.
However making it illegal and criminal for me to copy your work and

share it with anyone I choose is effectively pissing against the wind

unless we are going to live in a society that actively monitors and

polices for such events and applies the monitoring evenly across the

board. That is a society I want no part of. A police state, with active

monitoring and enforcement by a select few that are propping up a

fundamentally flawed economy and power structure while consuming as many

resources as required to keep the system alive even at the detriment of

the majority of the worlds population.
A system that requires complicite acceptance of the wholesale

consumption of resources and encourages the theft of the intellectual

property it detemines as controllable via legal loopholes that are

created by the same organisations that want to maintain control of the

intellectual property in the first place. A completely hypocritical

system where we end up with companies and organisations promoting

openess to destabilise their competition and in the same breath exposing

the virtues of proprietry control in order to maintian their power

structure and unfairly distributed share of the resource pool.
Because I am forced to participate in that system if I want to pay my

rent, support my family and put food on my plate does not mean that I

willingly support the erosion of fundamental rights of expression by

sycophantic organisations like ASCAP.
--

Patrick Shirkey

Boost Hardware Ltd
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