If you pirate music, you're downloading communism!

[Carl Edlund Anderson]

On 27 Mar 2009, at 13:23, M Holmes wrote:
> As I've said, if someone copies a file by downloading, then the artist
> or producer still has their file and so nothing concrete has been  
> taken
> from them. That some income has been removed is only the case if  
> society
> agrees that copying files should cost anything. The problem is that a
> substantial part of society is unconvinced that we should write the
> rules (of morality or law) in such a way that income should accrue  
> from
> such file copying.
> The short version is that we haven't yet actually decided on the issue
> either in terms of morality, or in terms of what the law will  
> finally be
> on this issue.


It's an interesting point, and it does seem to be the case that  
people generally feel that taking something concrete (e.g. a physical  
CD from a shop) is "more like stealing" that copying a bunch of 1s  
and 0s from the internet.

Personally, I'm happy with the concept that those 1s and 0s, or that  
particular arrangement of 1s and 0s belongs to the artist -- that the  
arrangement of 1s and 0s constitutes, in effect, something concrete  
-- nd that you shouldn't be allowed to play with that arrangement  
unless you've purchased or otherwise been granted the right to do  
so.  But, as you point out, society at large does not necessarily agree!

I really don't _like_ the idea of a subscription model -- sometimes I  
listen to lots of music, sometimes I listen to none, and it's really  
hard to say how it would even out.  For similar reasons, I don't like  
a TV/cable subscription either; I would much prefer to buy everything  
on demand, so I didn't have to pay for access to lots of stuff I  
don't want or worry about what time something I do want is  
accessible.  Strangely, it seems to me like video-on-demand is moving  
towards becoming more of a thing, while people seem to think music is  
headed the other way, towards subscription!

What I really want is the ability to rent or buy whatever content I  
want, when I want it, without a lot of fuss.  I like the idea of  
having a local copy, since at least for the moment, the Internet is  
insufficiently pervasive that I can rely on getting a fresh copy of  
something at any moment.  Maybe that will change.  But the moment, I  
feel ... *offended* that I cannot go buy a CD-quality download of a  
remastered BOC or Hawkwind album to listen to this evening (but that,  
if I took a little look around, I might well be able to download a  
pirate copy!).  That, surely, is just wrong. Or at least dumb.

Cheers,
Carl

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