From: Adrian Tymes (wingcat@pacbell.net)
Date: Tue Jul 16 2002 - 20:17:42 MDT
Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
>>(Anders Sandberg <asa@nada.kth.se>):
>>
>>What worries me most right now isn't theft, but that the fear of theft
>>leads to a closing of technology in order to protect obsolete business
>>plans. If the record industry is saved at the price of the ability to do
>>arbitrary computations or the possibility for ordinary people to be
>>media producers, then it has not been worth it.
>
> ...And all the more tragic when the actions we take to save the industry--
> if they do that at all, for which there is precious little evidence--do so
> not for the benefit of the creators whose work we want to encourage, but
> only to the benefit of middlemen who rightly deserve to lose their jobs
> as technology makes them obsolete.
...and all the more tragic if it turns out that said middlemen have done
this same analysis, and are using the excuse of fear of theft when they
do not honestly fear theft, but do fear being made obsolete. (Their
facade has been cracking in a few places - like this one TV exec who
claims his viewers made a "contract" with him not to skip ads. These
words are so blatantly false that I do not believe they would be said
except by someone looking for an excuse.)
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