I was reading an article in the paper yesterday about record companies adding protection software to CDs to control how many times they can be copied. The record companies are blaming piracy for lower revenues in recent years, but many feel that once they have purchased a CD, it is their's to do with as they wish. One guy was quoted as saying "I have paid for the music, so I should be able to do whatever I want with it.
I have a few thoughts. Of course I do, otherwise, why the hell would I be writing this.
First, when you purchase a CD, you have not purchased the rights to the music recorded on it. What you have purchased is the right to play it for the enjoyment of yourself and your friends. You cannot play that music in an enviroment where people have paid to gather. So yes, every movie you go see that plays music in the soundtrack has paid the owner of the music's rights for the use of that piece of music.
Ask yourself this. If the technology to copy CDs was not available commercially, and you wanted to give your girlfriend that CD you first made out to, what would you do? You would go out and buy another copy. So every time you copy a CD, you are depriving the owner of that music's rights the royalties they are legally entitled to. And I would argue they are entitled to it ethically. Why should they not be compensated for someone enjoying the fruits of their labor.
If you don't like the system, lobby to change the intellectual property laws. And good luck with that.
However, I would also argue that while piracy may be eating into record company profits, another reason for the decline in sales may be that we have finally figured out CDs cost too freakin much. Come on. When the technology was new, sure there were R&D costs to be recouped. But a CD costs somewhere around 2cents to produce, so why do they still cost between $16 and $18 retail?
Perhaps if we began paying recording artists more reasonable sums of money, and record company executives were compensated a little less, we might drive the cost of CDs below $10, where it should be. I mean, really, how much money is enough?
Another benefit of reducing artists' compensation would be the reduction in talentless people producing records as a way to get rich. Cheaper CDs and quality music in one fell swoop?
Where do I sign up?
1 comment:
I partially agree with you however, when casette tapes were all the rage I liked to make compliations of my favorite songs and take them with me to work or in the car. It's a bit different with cds. While I understand that the artists must make a buck and I do not want to deny them the royalties. I certainly don't want to purchase another expensive cd, take it to work and have it get stolen out of my desk or car. I do not copy cds to sell for money, just as I never made tapes of vinyl for profit. I think if they lowered the prices on cds they might just find that pirating goes down. I doubt music execs would take a pay cut to save their industry. In a broad generalization, when anything applies to big business-lining one's own pocket takes precident over any moral or ethical standard. Remember Enron, and lets not forget AIG's CEO getting slammed for fraud and embezzelment, I mean it's sad but ethics are a thing of the past.
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