[Gllug] Re: Anti-DRM event in Central London tomorrow!

[salsaman]

Leo Hickey wrote:

> Simon Morris wrote:
>
>>> If you are unsure of why DRM is a really bad idea you could watch
>>> Lawrence Lessigs keynote presentation from LinuxWorld last month. It
>>> is a really great introduction to the problems the Free culture
>>> movement is facing at the moment.
>>
>
> Is it? Well I just watched it and from that speech alone I don't see 
> why DRM is such a bad thing. He gives a handful of examples. One of 
> which is some guy who made a film for $200 and then was given a bill 
> for $400 000 for the licensing of the music he used in the film. Why 
> shouldn't this guy have to pay for the music he used?

Did the original artist of the music make up every note, or was it 
"influenced" by other music ? Is $400,000 a reasonable amount to pay for 
using one piece of music ? Is there a better model, for example a 
donation/street performer system, like many artist use to support their 
work ?

You seem to be tied into an either/or mindset, either somebody who wants 
to use a work pays up whatever extortion the rights-holders see fit to 
charge, or else it's theft.


> Another example was someone who remixed Beatles tracks without 
> permission and was not allowed to sell the remixes. So what? why 
> shouldn't the Beatles be able to say they don't want these remixes sold?

Because the music is 40 years old ? Because it's hardly likely to make 
even a tiny dent in the Beatle's income ? Because, one could argue, 
these songs are so well known they no longer "belong" to the Beatles, 
but have rather entered the "global culture", in the same way that 
"Mickey Mouse" is part of the global culture ?

I believe the tune "Happy Birthday" is copyrighted by somebody. How 
would you feel if you had to pay a licence fee every time you sang it ?


Gabriel.
http://lives.sourceforge.net : because the media should be free, because 
the media should be open

-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug