[Web4lib] Consumer Group Raises Concerns about Google Print Library

[Chuck0]

Bob Rasmussen wrote:
> On Tue, 25 Oct 2005, Chuck0 wrote:
> 
> 
>>While I have plenty of reservations about a big corporation and its plan to
>>become "the Internet," I see anything that dissolves intellectual property and
>>moves our society to the eventual abolition of IP as a good thing.
>>...
> 
> 
> My initial, gut-level response is: if there were no IP rights, I wouldn't
> write software. Nor would III or Dynix or Microsoft or ...
> 
> But let me take a step back. Let's take the example you cite. If a small
> band in Montana can achieve exposure through widespread sampling of their
> music on the internet, they achieve exactly that, exposure. If they want
> to quit their day jobs and make a living at music, beyond the bars in
> their hometown, then they have to be able to sell their recordings. At the
> point that downloads are painless and free, the band gets no financial
> benefit from their exposure. If their goal is to be starving artists,
> that's great.
> 
> Now I won't argue that NOTHING would be created without IP rights - the
> open source movement would argue against that. I haven't figured out who
> is paying for those people's time, though.
> 
> But your blanket statement against all IP rights seems, shall we say,
> "unsustainable".

I'm opposed to intellectual property, as I have been most of my adult 
life. You've run into the OG of anti-IP. ;-)

Things have come a long way since I was one of the handful of people in 
the ealry 90s who opposed copyright and intellectual property. We've 
seen the rise of free software and file-sharing. The recording industry 
has overreacted to the liberation of creativity and demonstrated to 
thousands why copyright is such a stupid idea.

I'm not the first person to make this argument about bands and 
intellectual property, but several people argue that even the music 
industry doesn't understand how it can make money in a world free of IP. 
The music industry does several things well that aren't impacted by 
maintaining a monopoly on intellectual property. They manufacture and 
distribute physical copies of playable music. Even in the era of 
file-sharing, physical CDs still have a place because most of us are too 
lazy to download songs or burn CDs. Or sometimes we discover a band 
through file-sharing and buy their music to support them. The music 
industry can make money by selling convenience. They can also make money 
by selling collectibles. Another useful function they serve for bands is 
in the area of promotion and concert tours.

Of course, not all bands want to make it big, so they have no interest 
in the music industry existing. They do their music as a hobby and 
expect little or no renumeration. Bands and artists who aspire to make 
money from their craft can still make money without IP existing. They 
can book shows, sell CDs, t-shirts, collectibles, and so on. People have 
been making art for a long time before IP and copyright came along.

Chuck
Infoshop.org