[NTLUG:Discuss] MI2 boycott

[Christopher Browne]

> Brian Koontz wrote:
> ...why is DeCSS the process that's at fault here?  You might as well
> sue Linus because he wrote a kernel that can move bytes from one
> device to another...it makes about as much sense to sue the people
> who make video cables.

This is a critical point, and your mention of video cables has a _crucial_ 
distinction.

-> Copies made via the _analog_ means of moving signal from one place to 
another wind up suffering from degradation.  The 25th copy isn't as good as 
the first.  And a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy ... to the 17th power may 
wind up being nigh unto unreadable.

-> In contrast, _digital_ technology, by using thresholds that can virtually 
_eliminate_ such degradation, allow making a virtually infinite number of 
virtually perfect copies.

People taping music off the AM radio wasn't all that much of a problem, 
because the degradation of quality meant that they'd always find a 
"professionally recorded" cassette or record to be superior.  The introduction 
of FM stereo technology worried the recording industry, as it "upped the bar." 
 But the analog copies were _still_ inferior.

The whole MP3 phenomenon, where it's _easy_ to make _perfect_ copies of CD 
quality, has got to be scaring the Music Industry to _death_, as it threatens 
their _control_.

I see _them_ as the "pirates," heavily-armed adversaries on the "high seas," 
threatening penury to anyone that won't accede to their control of 
music-related money.

If MP3 technology combined with the web made it practical for me to _directly_ 
fund the musicians that _I LIKE_, it seems to me that this cutting-out of the 
"music pirates" would be an outrageously _GOOD_ thing.

I probably spend $100 on music recordings in a year.  Of that, it is likely 
that about $5 actually goes to the artists that produce the music.

The thing that has got to frighten the recording industry is the thought that 
I could go to a web site, and $50 to the artists, of which they might have 
overheads that would chop it in half.  Which would still leave them with five 
times as much money as they get now.  And would leave me with a chunk of money 
left over...
--
Rules of the Evil Overlord #14. "I will not waste time making my
enemy's death look like an accident -- I'm not accountable to anyone
and my other enemies wouldn't believe it." 
<http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html>
cbbrowne at ntlug.org - <http://www.ntlug.org/~cbbrowne/lsf.html>