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TechCentralStation says that it's "Time to Play Hardball on IP." The article emphasizes the point of view of the creators:
[A]s Songwriters' Guild of America President and country music song writer Rick Carnes told an audience at a forum on a property rights at the Heritage Foundation on March 15, "I am familiar with all my songs more than anyone else alive. And I can assure you they don't want to be free. Being free makes them feel cheap and unloved."
. . . .
[Carnes also said: ]"Intellectual property that isn't defended isn't worth a dime. It won't feed the family. It won't pay for the house note, the medical insurance, the college tuition. It isn't worth the risk to build it. Because if you build it, they will come and steal it. No single songwriter could ever sue all the millions of people who download (his or her) song on the Internet." Terry McBride of Nettwerk Productions gave similar testimony earlier this month at the Digital Music Forum in NYC: his backlist catalogue of music has been devastated, which makes it extremely difficult for his artists to build long-term careers.
I find the observations of participants in the business of music about the effect of P2P on their lives quite compelling, far more useful than wrangling over the methodologies of academic studies that are trotted out to deny that any effect is occurring. ("Who are you going to believe? Me, or your own eyes?")
In other words, I think the Oberholzer/Strumpf study that is cited regularly by the foes of copyright is presumptively nonsense, since it is contradicted by the experience of the people most directly affected. For serious methodological critique of this work, see Stan Liebowitz' website.
posted by James DeLong @ 9:15 AM | Internet: P2P, Search Engines...
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