From mike Sent Mon, Oct 19th 1998, 23:49
From mike Sent Mon, Oct 19th 1998, 23:49
Jeremy Wells wrote: > RIAA wants proprietary, encrypted technologies to be used on all on-line > music recordings The RIAA doesn't know what it wants. Michael Robertson's editorials on MP3.com make it pretty clear that the RIAA is only trying to stifle the free exchange of music on the net in an effort to buy themselves time to develop their own solution that protects their revenue streams. As far as I know, the RIAA hasn't offered any serious proposals of its own, aside from legislation that gives them leverage to effectively tax any technology that could be used for piracy, and to sue whoever they think is costing them revenue through their traditional streams. What needs to happen is for someone to promote a music distribution model that works with emerging technologies and that the labels, RIAA-represented and not, can benefit from without anyone getting screwed. (And "all music should be distributed freely" is not an option; it's akin to saying "all intellectual property should be in the public domain" or trusting the entire world to be nice.) Unfortunately, the RIAA is too short-sighted to come up with a good strategy, and will probably resist and go down kicking and screaming when someone else does. > The RIAA, BMI, and ASCAP were created for the greedy by the greedy and > designed to screw the little guy. Granted, none of the A's in RIAA stand for Artists, and they have little purpose other than to act as protectionist lobbyists and lawyers for the major labels. But.. Your assessment of BMI and ASCAP is half right. They were originally designed to protect the little guy. There was a time when if you wrote or your label issued a good song, somebody else with more money and influence would swipe it, record their own version and make gobs of money off it while you were lucky to get paid once for it, if it all. So these organizations did (and do) protect the original writers of songs that make money. However in practice, these organizations now screw the little guys because the fees they collect mostly get handed over to the relative handful of songwriters who had the biggest hits. Basically they're all the music mafia, they all suck, and this has little to do with IDM so I'm going to change the topic. Someone mentioned Newbuild recently. The www.808state.com site mentions that in October, "Newbuild is to be re-released on vinyl and CD through Rephlex in the UK accompanied by a single." Exciting for some, and disappointing to us snobby trainspotters clutching our original, mint vinyl. October's two-thirds over. Any sign of the release yet? - Mike ______________________________________________________________________ Mike Brown / Hyperreal | Director, Hyperreal Music Archive PO Box 61334 | http://www.hyperreal.org/music/ Denver CO 80206-8334 USA |