mp3
Many people have said many things, from all sides - artists, recording studios, activtists, moralists, ethists, maosits, satanists, water bufflo - all have written about mp3's P2P and whether it is good or bad, right or wrong, fair or unfair - the end of civilisation or the only way a civilised world allows artists to create fully sik toonz for us plebs out here without a zip of talent but uncapped broadband.And now, so do I - firstly my vested interests - hmmm, none - I don't knowingly have any illegal music left on my PC's - although I think legally it is wrong to even rip copies of CD's that I do own, although my listening habits usually preclude me or anyone else listening to the same track in more than one place at a time - so I guess that is my only point of weakness, and I guess that is my vested interest - to be allowed to make copies of tracks that I own for my own personal use. Oh and I am Christian so I am trying to look at this like Jesus would.
So from that point of view let's get into it....
It's theft - pure and simple - if you take something that someone is selling without their permission it's theft. It makes no difference that it is virtual theft or online - you don't own it and you want it and so you take it instead of buying it, that is theft. It is no different form walking into a store and stealing a CD from off the self.
Do the record companies and distribution chains make alot more than the artist? YES
Are the limiting number of record labels and ownership of media outlets meaning that new bands find it harder than ever to get a start? YES
Is music thus artifically expensive to fill the pockets of the record label executives and give very little to a band? YES
Should record labels embrace cheap downloads as an option, even without prohibitive safeguards? YES YES YES.
But none of that excuses the fact that everytime you obtain an mp3 of a track that you have not paid for you are stealing something. And what little the artist would have got the artist no longer gets.
It is supposed that the current generation is full of people who have never and will never pay for music - they don't need to, they can get all they want off the net and for them it's for free [parents pay the ISP bill]. And why should they start buying CD's - with broadband the quality is sufficient for 90% of applications - car, walkman, computer, whatever - the money will be spent on the internet connection and the sound system not the CD, not the artist.
So what do we do? Well on a personal level - we keep on buying CD's and not steal from the Artists, the ones who so many people tell me they care about and suggest to me that stealing their music somehow helps the artist cos the evil record company doesn't get all the money - this is clearly a self serving argument.
The record labels need to embrace this whole small payments system and charge a small fee per song - without safeguards - I rekon links into SMS services is the way to work small transactions - so like a song would cost 1 or 2 sms messages which would be billed to your phone bill - or use EFT to do it straight from account to account - sure the number of small transactions makes reconciliation a pain but I am sure that an easy method can be found and the stream of revenue would cover the extra costs.
And bands may need to somehow get deals which allow them to set up small payment systems - maybe even paypal could be used - and then flog their own music - the real problems lie more with how bands get noticed by labels and then given or not given the all important radio play to get noticed by us and get us buying their music.
In the end though, if you like a band, and think they deserve to be paid for the enjoyment you get, then stealing their music isn't the answer - buying their records is.
