From: Regina Pancake (regina@appliedfx.com)
Date: Thu Nov 28 2002 - 22:13:54 MST
>
>That would be far more worrisome if it were even close to the truth,
>but fortunately it's not. I know it's very inconvenient that the
>actual /evidence/ of how music-swapping has benefitted musicians
>doesn't match the ignorant fearmongering pronouncements that the
>RIAA pulls out of its ass to justify its existence, but I think it
>is important that if we are to extrapolate from one industry to
>another, we do so based on facts, not superstition. Jack Valenti
>and his predecessors have predicted the end of the world 100 times
>over. It startedwith broad cast radio and television (which were of
>course going to put musicians and entertainers on breadlines by the
>millions), then the Xerox machine (which was going to bankrupt the
>publishing industry), to the VCR. You can still find Jack's own
>testimony in the congressional record about how the VCR would
>destroy the movie industry and must be banned. But as anyone with
>higher than a room-temperature IQ could predict, he was 180 degrees
>from the truth as were all his predecessors--the VCR greatly
>expanded the market of the movie industry and is now one of its
>major revenue streams. Every time a new technology makes the
>distribution of information easier, the monopolists of the current
>media create a panic about how it will be the end of the world,
>and every time it makes them even richer. It's time to stop
>listening to them cry wolf. How soon people forget.
O.k. Lee,
I do appreciate the longer time line view point here. Maybe I've got too
many trees so I can't see the forest.
So would you maybe illustrate for me just how this will make the industry
stronger this time round?
Seriously, I'd love to hear anybodies opinions please.
Regina
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