[LINK] Is copyright dead? [WAS: Special Report: The Future Of File Sharing]

[Kim Holburn]

On 2009/Jun/06, at 4:16 AM, Stephen Wilson wrote:
> Craig Sanders wrote:
>> ... there's lots that people download but don't buy. but
>> that's no different to hearing a song on the radio and not liking it
>> enough to buy it ...
> Umm, actually, it's completely different.  Radio stations pay a  
> royalty
> each time they play a song, so the artist does get paid.  Maybe not
> enough.

(What exactly do you mean by "artist" in this context anyway? writer,  
arranger, performer, publisher, distributor and/or sound engineer?)

The situation on radio is not as simple as that.

http://www.google.com/search?q=radio+payola

I'm not sure this relates to Australia directly but it wouldn't  
surprise me if this was happening here.

> And maybe record companies rip off artists.


> But dispensing
> with copyright is a misguided way of redressing artists' rights.


I have to agree with that but I think that copyright and artists'  
rights may be quite separate issues which tend to be mixed together by  
those with interest in the situation.  With copyright as it is now we  
see artists get ripped off by publishers all the time.   And copyright  
has had to change with almost each invention that affected it.   
Dispensing with copyright, no; changing it, guaranteed.

Kim

-- 
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
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