Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: We'll love them with our money

Author:Paul Snively
Posted:7/27/2000; 10:05:29 AM
Topic:Boycott the record industry?
Msg #:19193 (In response to 19192)
Prev/Next:19192 / 19194

With respect to Jacob and Keola, I must offer my opinion that they've missed Dave's point. Dave never suggested that the money would go to the artists or that there was some magic means by which it at least wouldn't fatten the fat cats still further. Quite the contrary: the point that came across to me was that a big part of the accusations the RIAA has leveled against Napster and related music-sharing technology is that it is hurting their bottom line because it is mostly used by pirates. Read that last part again. This argument has to be made and the courts have to believe it in order for there to be a violation of copyright law, because the laws involve the notion of damages. Demonstrate the lack of damages and you make it vastly harder to conclude that copyright violation occurred. What I hear Dave suggesting is that those of us who believe we are using technology such as MP3.com, Napster, Gnutella, FreeNet, etc. legally--that is, we're only downloading recordings that we have paid money for on a different medium--go prove our point by buying a bunch of CDs en masse. Make a highly visible demonstration centered around the fact that we are not pirates. Remove this argument from the debate, and focus the debate on the real issue, namely the RIAA's (and member companies') terror of loss of control of the distribution channels.

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