[clue-talk] The War On...?

[Timothy Klein]

On Dec 29, 2004, at 10:22 PM, Angelo Bertolli wrote:

> I agree.  We definitely don't want people thinking they can make their 
> own rules and not have to live in society.  But I think a lot of 
> people are just disgruntled by the media industry.  Yes, sharing 
> copyrighted works is (and should be) illegal.  But it's been perverted 
> way far beyond appropriate protection for people who want to put forth 
> effort into creating works of art.  Let's forget about the insane 
> amount of time that a copyright is valid (should someone who writes 
> one really popular book in their lifetime never have to ever work or 
> grace the rest of us with their magnificent prose again?)  Instead, 
> lets just look at the industry in question:  music and video.  Maybe 
> someone can explain to me why the RIAA can escape anti-trust laws.  Do 
> they still exist?  (Trust: A combination of firms or corporations for 
> the purpose of reducing competition and controlling prices throughout 
> a business or an industry. dictionary.com)

I don't know if it was the RIAA in particular, but American music 
companies have not escaped anti-trust laws.  Like Microsoft, they have 
been accused, tried, convicted, and punished as criminals.  But, 
whereas a conviction like that is usually the end of meaningful work 
for a person, corporate "people" go on doing just fine as convicted 
criminals.  Which is one reason why not a penny of my money goes to 
Microsoft:  I don't like doing business with convicted criminals.

But yes, music companies are monopolies, and they have used their 
monopoly power illegally, and that is beyond any shadow of a doubt.  
They have been convicted for just that, yet they continue to do so.  
Our government shows little interest in doing anything about this 
criminality.  That's one of the reasons I tend to think this particular 
empire happens to be in decline...

Mr. Nagy mentioned copyright length, also:  I think he is being way too 
generous.  20 years:  that is all anyone should get.  Not a day more.

But ultimately, this is an empirical question.  Copyright was put forth 
for a specific reason:  to provide incentive for people to create.  Yet 
we show zero interest in finding the right number, as far as copyright 
length should  be.  Odd that.

Tim
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Timothy Klein: tecce at silverklein.net
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