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A goodly number of the membership of this Forum are under the age of 25; likely a majority of you would be considered tech-savvy.
Where do you stand on the topic of file-sharing?
Do you use services such as iTunes to pay for, and subsequently download media to your computers, iPod's, PDA's, Game Consoles, or whatever?
Are you concerned about friends, or associates, that don't?
I ask this as, whilst my household as often as not, will, and does, buy an audio or vidéo CD/DvD, and just as often as not, will, and do, transcribe these same purchased media digitally for storage and retrieval on our home computer network, I personally have, over the past 15-years, amassed some 15,000 (and growing) mp3's and a further 1500, or so, avi's and mpeg's, the majority of which were culled from one form or another of the Broadcast Media, the Internet, or through copies given to me by friends and associates.
The whole topic of file-sharing has become a rather contentious issue in my own home; neither of my two sons (both of whom are in their mid-to-late thirties) and my ward (aged 19) seem to be at all troubled by the controversy surrounding recent court challenges and decisions surrounding this topic; nor, does it seem to trouble them their paying per-item download fees from iTunes and others for media that is freely available to them via the radio, or television, or even the local library; nor, it transpires, do many of the youth I've spoken with over the past few weeks.
I have watched with interest the American suit against Limewire and the Swedish court case against The Pirate Bay, and am following a similar challenge before the court in British Columbia; the latter having very significant implications for Canadians as a whole, and perhaps all of us world-wide.
File-sharing is legal in Canada; this having been formalized when Canadian Copyright Laws were last revised in the early 70's and revisited as recently as the RIAA's last unsuccessful Supreme Court of Canada challenge to our Law in December, 2005. The basis for it's being legal here was, and is, a convoluted formulae of hidden surtaxes imposed upon manufacturers and distributors of blank recording media, in part designed to defray loss revenues from Canadians copying (generally) audio and vidéo culled from radio and television (and now the internet) and their penchant for sharing this amongst their friends. This practice has been quite legal, and apparently Canada is the only jurisdiction where this appears to be the case. This whole house of cards rests on the provision under Canadian Copyright Law that appears to dictate that Copyright is lost against the dissemination of copyrighted materials if this material can be freely distributed and accessed through the media of the atmosphere, which in Canada is deemed to be "Public Domain", although the Copyright Holder does continue retain copyright for the purposes of revenue derived from the sale of copyrighted materials, including performance rights. In a nutshell, once a recording or movie studio licenses, in Canada, for broadcast their copyrighted media, and that media is subsequently aired, again in Canada, they lose their copyright against Canadians making vidéo-tapes, audio-tapes, CD's, or whatever, of that same media, and in turn those making the copies are free to share these copies with whomever they choose, provided no money changes hands, and no fees are levied for the creation of those copies, all because the surtaxes have themselves been paid at the time of blank media manufacture or distribution prior to time of purchase at retail.
This is somewhat of a "Catch 22" situation for the media developers, as they rely heavily upon the broadcast of their media to generate sales of their CD/DvDs, and I do understand this, and do appreciate their dilema.
Numerous attempts by vested interests have been made to have the Law changed; but, to no avail. The Broadcast Media, Telco's and Cable companies, which currently comply with the Law as it presently stands, and continue to allow the free dissemination of these copyrighted materials, support changing the Law; but only because they foresee significant financial windfalls for their sale of these same materials on a downloaded per-item scale of fees.
What are your thoughts on this thorny subject?
Warren C. E. Austin
Toronto, Canada
[Updated on: Fri, 24 April 2009 15:36]
"... comme recherché qu'un délice callipygian"
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Macky
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Really getting into it |
Location: USA
Registered: November 2008
Messages: 973
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I don't download any media because it seems that Youtube has any song or film clip that I would care to see....and its available whenever I want to hear or see something.
In my mind, what we have here is something that can be controlled only at an expense that is greater than the value lost to the record industry. It is similar to the marijuana situation or America's prohibition of times past. Like alcohol or dope, music is an intoxicant and it can not be controlled anymore now. If artists and other industry parties can not cover their costs and make a decent profit under this scenario, something new has to be developed. Taxing the blank CD DVD might be an example of what can be done. Anyway, I think that any attempt to control file sharing is going to fall flat.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brothers to dwell together in unity!
Ps 133:1 NASB
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yusime
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Likes it here |
Location: United States
Registered: April 2008
Messages: 195
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Warren you should look up http://thepiratesdilemma.com/. It's about pirates and how they change conventional wisdom when there is a failure in the way a system operates. You can download the entire book online for whatever price you want to pay! Basically the author is giving away his book to try to tell companies how to deal with pirates. You can't stop them not anymore at least. Companies must compete with pirates the law won't protect them forever.
He who joyfully marches in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake since for him a spinal cord would suffice. Albert Einstein
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ray2x
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Really getting into it |
Location: USA
Registered: April 2009
Messages: 429
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As you said, there are libraries for obtaining music which is distributed free (library card required). Please do visit one soon. I was just at my local branch library in Santa Clarita, CA. The place was busy with children, teenagers, adults and elders. I overheard a group of teen boys deciding to apply for a library card which brought joy to my heart. In addition, our brain works wonderfully as an MP3. Memory works well when you can carry a tune, in tune or not.
Raymundo
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