[Rockinghorse Winner[_6_]]

Do the producers of music really hold the rights to the distribution of
*copies* of their art? Doesn't art, produced for the public, *belong* to
the public? If you only wanted to produce art for registered users, you
could keep your art off the public airways. You could refuse to sell
copyable media - for instance you could only produce records lp's.

I don't really understand why this should be such a problem for an artist.
If you want to retain absolute control over your product you can do so -- at
the price of your popularity (and income). If you don't want to forgo your
income and your popularity, then I think welcoming and accepting that people
are going to share your art is a small price to pay.

After all, it IS the public sharing and discussing your art that provides
the artist his living, and that made him or her who they are. I think this
is a bit like a 'cutting off your nose to spite your face' kind of thing.
Does anyone have a different take on these things from the one the RIAA is
promulgating? Do they have a legal or moral leg to stand on?

I destroyed all my MP3's a while back, and don't use Transmission, usenet or
other methods to download mp3 files anymore. However, I've never been
satisfied with the line put out by the music industry that this is a neat
moral and legal question. Is anyone else doubtful about these issues?

Is it always wrong to make crappy sounding mp3's from redbook CD's or to
share and trade these mp3's? Where was the RIAA in the '70's and '80's when
people passed around tapes of records with impunity, and no one thought it
was wrong or was accused of doing something wrong? How does the fact that
copies are more easily made today or that these copies are better (though
far from faithful) reproductions bear on the ethics or legality of making
them? Do I have a legal right to trade mp3's with other people, or is this
question settled in the courts?




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