The Long War: Music Piracy

Posted by JOE WINDISH, Technology Editor in At TMV.
Apr 28th, 2009 | 3 responses

The Long War: Music Piracy in 1897 (NYTimes)

Via Michael Masnick at Techdirt:

The fact that it focuses on Canadian copyright laws as the problem…nearly perfectly mimics today’s claims from the recording industry. The article even talks about a recent conference held by industry members to create a committee to fight piracy. Basically, it’s the same exact story we see today — and the same bogus complaints. If the industry has shown one thing, it’s that it will consistently overreact to any new change in technology, claiming it’s some massive threat, rather than learn how to embrace it and turn it into an opportunity.

3 Responses to “The Long War: Music Piracy”

1. GreenDreams says:

   April 28, 2009 at 10:24 am

   A Canadian judge told the RIAA the last thing they want to hear from a judge. He said a library is a room full of copyrighted material with a copy machine in the middle. How is offering imperfect copies of music any different? (an MP3 is reduced 90% in size by “lossy” compression, meaning that just like a photocopy, the copy is much lower quality than the original).

   In the case of lyrics and printed music, it's even worse. Anyone can listen to a song, write down the words and post it. Hearing, transcribing and sharing is a pretty tough thing to outlaw.
2. archangel says:

   April 29, 2009 at 3:05 am

   Joe, do you have any leads on how the musicians can embrace and turn it into opportunities, as you mentioned?

   thanks
3. JWindish says:

   April 29, 2009 at 7:33 am

   Archangel, No. But Chris Anderson wrote the book on it. Here's the article that he wrote to kick off its writing.