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Originally Posted by llreader
I'm not sure a group of people singing Happy Birthday in public isn't a public performance.
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I think you can be sure.
http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/birthday.asp
Now if you sing it in the middle of a play, that's subject to copyright. If you're in the middle of the mall and a bunch of your friends belt it out, that is not subject to copyright or ASCAP/BMI fees.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by llreader
In any case, my point is that in many ways copyright laws, and the laws that have sprung up around it (like the DMCA), have become so abusive and pervasive that they have encouraged widespread flaunting of the laws.
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So instead of pointing out an actual issue, you go with an urban legend? Got it.
Of course, it's also worth pointing out that abuse of copyright was ubiquitous and popular long before the DMCA was drawn up; and a tremendous amount of pirated material falls within what most people regard as a reasonable copyright time frame (e.g. a fixed 30 year period). Similarly, the availability of affordable DRM-free music tracks from multiple retailers and free streaming services
ought to have satisfied the "principled pirates," but does not appear to have reduced piracy rates.
By the way, while I concur that an unjust law should be fought, that proces does not typically result in materially rewarding those engaging in civil disobedience.
It's also largely ineffectual, since cranking up a file via bittorrent does not automatically send an email to the rights-holder to indicate "this is an act of protest." I.e. there is no way for a publisher to distinguish between a garden-variety pirate and a principled one.
Oh, and as to the hair salons -- €72 a year is your idea of a massive injustice and dastardly exploitation that will put hair salons across Spain out of business? Seriously?
And let's face it, for every person who claims to have a viable "reason" to pirate content, there are 10,000 people who just have convenient excuses, or don't think there is anything wrong with piracy, or don't even care to rationalize their behavior.
Much in the same way that even an extortionately high price for a book does not excuse shoplifting, falling back on the alleged injustices in order to rationalize piracy isn't terribly persuasive.