[d@DCC] Artist's haven't had to compensate creators of technology and Internet...

From: Russell McOrmond <russell _-at-_ flora.ca>
To: gdixon (at) globeandmail.ca, faustplex (at) earthlink.net
Cc: General Copyright Discussions <discuss -_at_- list.digital-copyright.ca>
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2005 17:25:45 -0500 (EST)

(Copying Sandy Pearlman using contact address from 
http://www.sandypearlman.com .  Sandy may also want to read "Would you pay 
5 cents for a song? My answer is No! " 
http://www.digital-copyright.ca/discuss/4520 )


Quoting from:
http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050309/SONG09

     Pearlman proposes putting all recorded music on a robust search engine
     -- Google would be an ideal choice, but even iTunes might work -- and
     charging an insignificant fee of, say, five cents a song. In addition,
     a 1 per cent sales tax would be placed on Internet services and new
     computers -- two industries that many argue have profited enormously
     from rampant file-sharing, but haven't had to compensate artists.

   I have always believed that this political rhetoric was backwards.  If 
we were to do appropriate unbiased economic analysis I believe we would 
find that the content industry has received far more benefit from the new 
opportunities enabled by advancing technologies than the high tech and 
Internet businesses have from the legacy content industries.

   While prominent spokespersons from the motion picture industry claimed 
in the past that the VCR was to their industry what the Boston Strangler 
was to women alone at night, reality is quite different.  The motion 
picture industry has received considerable economic and other benefit from 
the VCR and related technologies.  I believe current figures are that 
approximately half the revenue from the average movie is from the home 
theater market which the VCR helped to create.

   While I believe that the technology community would not be interested in 
pursuing fair compensation from the content industries, they are 
interested in ensuring they are left alone to innovate with the creation 
of more technologies that benefit everyone.

   It is well past time for the legacy content industries to stop trying to 
bite the hand that feeds them, and to simply accept positive changes, 
including changes to their business models, as technology improves.

   I am already offended by the fact that a percentage of the costs of the 
blank CDs that I put software on goes to my political opponents in the 
legacy major label recording industry.  Forcing me to pay this levy is 
like forcing people to pay money to an opposing political party in order 
to be allowed to participate in politics.  I do not want further offensive 
money grabs to an industry I am a non-consumer of, taking money that I 
want to send to independent musicians who I listen to but who are largely 
locked out of these compensation systems.


   Russell McOrmond
   Ottawa, Ontario
   http://www.flora.ca/#contact

-- 
  Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
  http://www.digital-copyright.ca/blog/2 (My BLOG)
  Sign the Petition Users' Rights! http://digital-copyright.ca/petition/
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