[Web4lib] Consumer Group Raises Concerns about Google PrintLibrary

[Thomas Edelblute]

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Chuck0
Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2005 10:32 AM
To: Bob Rasmussen
Cc: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Consumer Group Raises Concerns about Google
PrintLibrary

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
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Thomas Edison bankrupted the French movie producer (whose name I forget)
by pirating his movie depicting a voyage to the moon and distributing
freely across America.  Copyright law is designed to offer protections
from unauthorized reproductions and financial incentives for authors and
artists to continue to create new works. While open source has its
merits, it does not over-ride the need for IP protections.  Hollywood
would not make films without these protections, and some of my favorite
Science Fiction authors would not write without these financial
incentives.

Thomas Edelblute
Anaheim Public Library
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