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It's easy to sit back and say that the RIAA's ongoing spate of lawsuits against consumers (what I call their jihad) is idiotic and misguided. That's like saying water is wet and you ought to come in out of the rain. But it's a bit harder to figure out what else might be done. A couple of good alternative pieces, then: In a well-reasoned NYTimes op-ed piece, Harvard professor William Fisher lays out a history of the Cartel versus technology. On one end of the spectrum lie technologies over which the Cartel exercised no control, primarily the VCR. On the other end, technologies that were completely controlled, such as Webcasting (and I would add DAT). He then tracks how much money the Cartel made from the new technologies. You would expect that the correlation of control would be linear with profit but in fact it is reversed. The VCR has made more money for Hollywood than anything since Technicolor (and Jack Valenti still hasn't been strangled). Webcasting and other controlled technologies have profited precisely no one. Fisher argues that an Ascap-like model of low/no initial fees and rigorous tracking is a better model in terms of nurturing fledgeling industries as well asn helping ensure that creators actually get paid. Not that anyone in Cartel-land is listening, but we thought it worth mentioning. http://nytimes.com/2004/06/25/article.html Also addressing the "What else can we do" question: Steve Winwood is deliberately using the P2P networks to promote his new material. Here's how it works: he has released a new live version of his popular tune _Mr Fantasy_ onto the nets. A "behind the scenes" video is also in circulation. Each piece contains a small advertisement directing fans to the Web site of _Access Hollywood_, a TV program. On the site, you can find other Winwood tracks, register to win an autographed guitar, and buy his new indie CD. The model here is, as noted, like television. As an artist, you go on a show (like Letterman or SNL) and play, do a bit of advertising for your material, and call it good publicity. Yes, people will record it and make copies, but that's OK - more advertising for you. I'm not sure an overt advertising spot dropped in the middle of a performance is the right way to execute this model, but it's certainly worth trying. Access Hollywood is sponsoring the promotion, including paying the bandwidth costs of downloads. http://finance.lycos.com/article.html |