Re: RIAA wins 1.92 mil verdict in download case

On Jun 23, 10:15 am, Derek <de...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
 lukejazz  wrote:

Tim - I tend to go with your thinking on this discussion. The world is
not what it was even 10 years ago, and is changing more rapidly than
someone like myself can even comprehend.

No one in their right mind would disagree with this.

However, just because the technology and industry has evolved, doesn't
mean our personal ethics should.

I have a buddy who is an occassional poster here, who has published
over 20 books on jazz guitar.

He tells me that there are more than twice as many bootleg sales of
his products overseas than legit sales.

You are saying that these unathorized/illegal sales aren't hurting
him?

Tim, you and Luke seem like reasonable guys most of the time, but you
ain't ever borrowing my lawnmower.  :-)

Hi Derek, thanks for you comments.
A couple of things that I'm thinking about:

1 - Yes - all of those bootlegs sales of your friends books does hurt
him.

I think the reason is because he's hoping to profit from a business
model that's pre-digital age. The world is actually really different
now and is transitioning unbelievably fast. It seems almost unreal
that one can start a 4 year training program for a career involving
technical skills and by the 3rd year your studies are obsolete.

Our laws and business models have absolutely no way of keeping up with
the exponential rate of growth of technology. It's a terrible problem
because how are we supposed to sort out how to make any money?

One thing that is happening is that popular musicians are trying to
cash in on the things that they do, rather than hard copies of their
works. It seems a bit like your hard copy (your cd, book, etc.) is
becoming more and more like an advertisement to be part of something
that happens in real time (a concert, or some other event). So you
would have to wind up selling some part of a "cult of personality" or
something like that, and not your actual hard copies of works. See
link:

http://tinyurl.com/loavnp

Those two things - your work used as an advertisement (or an exhibit
of yourself) and public events, are tied together. This is something
that Amanda Palmer does not elude to in the above article. She
clearly repeats how her major label recording hasn't made her any
money, yet it seems likely to me that without it she would have a hard
time cashing in the ways that she does.

How do we deal with all this? We'll have to figure out how to make it
all work somehow. It's too late for your friend to count on sales of
his books, etc. Or even if it's not, it soon will be. His book is now,
or is on the way to becoming, an advertisement for himself. All the
laws, and ethics, as correct as they are, cannot change that. The
rapid advance of technology is bringing with it cultural changes that
are overwhelming and unstoppable. Incredibly wild and weird.

2 - Your lawnmower:

Unless you've developed some kind of unique lawnmower that you are
hoping to cash in on and your neighbors can easily digitally replicate
and publish over the world wide web, you probably have nothing to
worry about (for now anyway, who knows about the future...). I'd say
depending on its cost you can safely loan it out to whomever you deem
mildly trustworthy.

All this is giving me a headache...I really just want to figure out a
great way to play "The Days of Wine and Roses".

Thanks again,
Luke
www.lukejazz.com

.

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