If you pirate music, you're downloading communism!

[Carl Edlund Anderson]

Here are a couple of interesting articles on the topic by one Mark F.  
Schultz (Southern Illinois University School of Law).

One is "Live Performance, Copyright, and the Future of the Music  
Business":
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1337914
Which examines the notion that studio recordings should now be  
thought of as essentially advertising for live concerts and might as  
well essentially be given away for free; generally, Schultz finds  
that this is probably not a good idea (and that, basically, though  
this model might work well for some kinds of artists, if the music  
industry as a whole had to rely solely on concert revenue for income,  
then diversity and choice might well decrease even from what we have  
now).

The other is "Fear and Norms and Rock & Roll: What Jambands Can Teach  
Us about Persuading People to Obey Copyright Law":
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=864624
It steps away from thinking directly about the technical aspects of  
business models and copyright schemes and examines the US-based "jam  
band" community through the lens of various sociological and  
psychological studies to try to understand how people's perceptions  
of situations and norms influence their behaviour with reference to  
file-sharing, respect for copyright, etc..  This approach actually  
provides an interesting counterpoint to the zillions of articles that  
examine "how will we sell music in the future?" by looking at "how do  
people relate -- or not -- to artists and music and how does that  
influence their behaviour and willingness to share or pay for  
different things" -- from which one might then draw practical  
conclusions about how to construct possible business models.  It  
would make interesting reading for execs or artists who are wrestling  
with this issue.

Cheers,
Carl

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
http://www.carlaz.com/