Re: FSF : lackeys of their corporate masters

[Martin Dickopp]

Stefaan A Eeckels <tengo@DELETEMEecc.lu> writes:

> On Thu, 06 May 2004 13:21:03 +0200
> Martin Dickopp <expires-2004-06-30@zero-based.org> wrote:
>
>> > It is fairly obvious that today, the
>> > system is out of kilter, but it's equally obvious that the 
>> > availability of cheap reproduction makes it impossible to
>> > produce certain (maybe desirable) reproducible goods.
>> 
>> Maybe I'm missing something, but the latter is not obvious to me at all.
>> What goods are impossible to produce due to cheap reproduction?
>
> If it costs me $1000 to produce the first copy of my
> music CD, and I cannot hope to recoup these
> costs because the first bloke who buys it makes copies
> without paying me a dime, I'll think twice about 
> spending $1000. Maybe I'll revert to composing music
> for the guy who pays me to play at his table, or
> maybe I play someone else's music because I have
> no time to compose. Or maybe I only make music to 
> relax, and sell insurance for a living.

IMHO, your view is somewhat too economy centered.  Art has been created
from millennia, long before the present "Western" copyright system
existed.  For example, many painters of the past (whose paintings are
nowadays traded for tens of millions) have died in poverty, but the fact
that they couldn't make a living by creating artwork during their
lifetime hasn't stopped them from doing so.  In short, people sometimes
do things even without economic incentive.

I agree that nowadays, it is becoming increasingly difficult to make a
profit by /distributing/ music, but at the same time, the need for
companies in the business of distributing music decreases.  So while I
do indeed believe that the future for the "music industry" looks rather
dark, I don't think less music will be created.

Martin