[d@DCC] Music licensing would be viable for all (NOT!)

From: Russell McOrmond <russell _-at-_ flora.ca>
To: General Copyright Discussions <discuss (at) digital-copyright.ca>
Date: Mon, 8 Mar 2004 14:24:08 -0500 (EST)

Music licensing would be viable for all

MICHAEL GEIST
LAW BYTES
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1078701009042&call_pageid=968350072197&col=Columnist1036500183695


  I'll let some of the musicians in this list reply to the editor and to
Michael directly.  I'm a bit frustrated by the article to reply directly.


  We have a system already in place where easily 99% of musicians receive
no royalties on record sales, and now we are suggesting a system that
replaces this with yet another way to take money that should be going to
musicians and pumping it into yesterday's recording industry.  I oppose
any "solution"  to the non-problem of P2P that involves protecting the
dinosaur that has created the problem we are trying to solve.

  We need to find ways to protect citizen controlled ICT and allow
*musicians* to get paid for their art.  Cutting out the middle men who
oppose both citizens' rights and creators' rights is going to be an
important part of any solution.


  Michael Geist writes, "To be both fair and effective, a blanket licence
for non-commercial file sharing would need to provide full compensation to
the recording industry for the losses it incurs due to the file sharing
activity."

  What if some unbiased economic analysis proves that P2P music
distribution activities are advertising for other products and services?  
Will the recording industry have to provide full compensation to the ISP
community and P2P file marketers for the service they have been providing?

  Putting some recording industry executives in front of the courts to
explain their lawsuits in this context would be quite interesting.  Would
the "theft is theft" rhetoric finally be applied to those whose activities
are most deserving of the "label"?

-- 
 Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/> 
 "Make it legal: don't litigate, use creative licensing" campaign.
 A modern answer to P2P: http://www.flora.ca/makelegal200403.shtml
 Canadian File-sharing Legal Information Network http://www.canfli.org/

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