Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaggy
yeah, but that's just silly. 
I think that is focusing on the wrong thing. I would bet that a lot of people who engage in "piracy" (Arrr!) do it because of problems with the middlemen (RIAA, Publishers, etc), not because they have any desire to keep the artists from being paid. I think both consumers and artists are suffering under the current model. Unfortunately, the ones with the most power and money (middlemen), are the ones that don't want the current model to change.
I've seen very few people actually argue that artists should not be paid, and more often than not it isn't the individual artist who is arguing for stronger and more draconian copyright laws, but that's where the focus in these arguments usually ends up. The problem I see is that the middlemen are taking advantage of both sides. They're the ones that are clinging to old business models and keeping prices high, as well as using the inflated threat of "piracy" to push for stronger anti-consumer laws (DMCA, copyright extensions, etc). They've managed to screw over both consumers and artists, while turning the argument into consumers vs artists, all the while sitting back and taking money from both ends. |
Something tells me that the average 13+ year olds decision to circumvent paying for music has very little to nothing to do with any philosophical differences they may have with the RIAA - or anyone else for that matter.
They download free movies and music because it’s easy and its free.
But again, even if were to do away with the middleman, and artists sell music, books, etc, directly to the public, that does very little to stop or lessen the flow of copyrighted materials.