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Originally Posted by hacker
What I don't understand is... the artists make ~$40k USD, on average, and we pay a tax on the player for example, which presumably goes to the artist (through their record label) for the right to play their music. We pay another tax on the original media (which also is supposed to benefit the artist), we pay a tariff on the blank media to record copies of that original media (which does have a legal reason to exist...
...[/i]You're taxing every single point along the chain, including second-hand sales and public performances,...
...We pay a tariff on the appliances and recordable media even if we don't listen to their artists or record their artists music onto disc. I use CDR and DVDR to back up my machines here on the LAN as well as to hand out Linux ISO discs to my LUG every month. Ever single disc I burn pays the RIAA a few cents, which goes to their bands... even though I never burned any of their band's music...
...The RIAA/MPAA really missed the boat on using the Internet as a media distribution mechanism, and now they're reeling from it. Most of us have access to broadband, most of us have high-speed printers and burners. Why not let us pay for the media, download it, burn it, and download + print some album artwork for the jewel case...
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The auto example was very convincing and apt, I think. I also think it's reprehensible that these companies rationalize a false "poverty consciousness" as justification for these acts which are clearly meant to inflate the bottom line.
You mention tariffs and taxing as being interchangeable and all due to the RIAA. The repeat taxation is actually due to the gov't: initially during the CD's "new" sale, later in subsequent "secondhand" sales. In California, it's something like 8.5% during each sale, none of that goes to the RIAA (as far as I know.) Hopefully, it's going to fix our potholes or whatever. The few cents of each CD blank you burn that goes to the RIAA, that must come from somewhere in the MSRP of the CD blanks, and not from the taxation at the sales counter.
One thing that I just cannot ignore is the "tunnel-vision" perspective of the technology community. We really need to remember that people who have access to computers, to internet access, to broadband, to high-speed printers,...are the severe minority in America and even moreso in the World. Most people are intensely computer illiterate and/or don't have the skills to improve their computer literacy, don't have access to the tools to improve their computer literacy, and may not even have the want/desire to improve their computer literacy. The record companies know this and are still catering to the "cash cow" that is the "unwashed masses" of the non-geeky.
Yes, we with the tech. knowledge believe we can and should shape the futures of our favorite appliances, our favorite gadgets, our favorite operating systems,...but we have to remember that it makes better business sense to market to the overwhelming majority of consumers who are still struggling to keep up with the technology curve. The purchasing power of these people completely dwarfs that of the geeks (impressive as it is.)
Also, as the geeks get geekier, they always outnumber the record companies and will easily rally worldwide to overcome any potential obstacle that the DRMers try to impose. As the non-geeks lag further behind, they are the ones who will be inconvenienced by the rotting CD's or the non-be-able-to-rip-them-to-the-hard-drive or whatever. And because those are the vast majority of consumers and users, the RIAA (and their ilk) can exercise a modicum of control over the majority of their cash flow. The more people who increase their tech. knowledge, the more the RIAA is concerned with theft via the "geek pipeline." And the more Draconian the anti-geek laws become, the more the geeks rail loudly against the machine.
Unfortunately, as it stands right now and will for the forseeable future, the supreme majority of consumers/users are blissfully unaware of the machinations of these corporate conglomerates (outside of the usual cynicism re: corporate greed.) Until the "Digital Divide" shrinks and the technologies we've mastered are available to and utilized by all, we should always remember that we are the minority and we should accept the responsibility of helping our fellow non-geeks achieve a more complete and useful tech. literacy.
POL9A