Reply #105: Many of those positions will be obsolete in another 10-20 years [View All]

[Ignacio Upton]

The idea of a collective album is going down the proverbial crapper, and physical media made for music is nearly dead. Oh, and in terms of compensating the artists, explain to me why the RIAA should be allowed to have their royalty rates lowered further?

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003466811

Many people involved in making horse and buggies lost their jobs due to the rise of the car (ie. horse breeders and farm hands) but the government didn't create a DMCA to protect theirs'. If we employed the intellectual logic of copying=stealing, then I am a thief for using TiVo or a VCR...wait, according to the MPAA, I would be a thief:

http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/betamax/

And what about taping songs off of the radio? The RIAA and its foreign counterparts saw it as stealing back in the '80s:




...And what about the right to copy songs from CD's and put them onto mp3 players like the ipod? According to the RIAA, even this is stealing:

http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/139091

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004409.php

Copyright law as it stands today is an illogical paradox. If I buy a CD or album from itunes, don't tell me what I can do with it. Otherwise, don't sell the music, and only offer the option to rent it. Copyright was set up to promote technological progress, not so groups like the RIAA and ASCAP can sue dead people and girl scouts.