[Hudlug] Elvis Costello! I spit on the floor!

[Chris Wood]

On Wednesday 25 September 2002 13:02 pm, you wrote:
> There's two points here:
> 1. They can't give it away, absolutely not and shouldn't have to.
> Capitalism, used responsibly, is a force for good. However, its been
> demonstrated a million times that the 5 (yes only 5) record companies
> charge over the odds for their product- irresponsible capitalism (v v
> bad). Further to that, the monopoly (oligopoly) created by the big 5
> forces new and genuinely original talent to the wall. Through the
> Digital Millennium Copyright Act and DRM they are shutting down your
> rights to choose and your last chance to deny them their stranglehold on
> the market. My experience of the music industry is that its a corrupt
> business filled with people standing on each others heads, trying to
> grab the next crumb. The precedence for this behavior was laid down by
> the people that run it.
>

I'm surprised it's as many as five!
Sony, Bertlesmann (sp?), EMI (maybe?) - I've run out already!
I don't understand why DRM shuts down freedom of choice as you suggest.
To me it just seems like a method by which owners of recordings can ensure 
that access to their material happens in a controlled (paid for) way.
The small independants can still choose to give their music freely away if 
they want, however I suspect that they too will want to charge for items 
over the internet.

> 2. The quality of home recordings is only limited by the acoustic
> quality of the recording environment. Technology has gifted us with
> cheap and accessible means to produce exceptionally high quality
> recordings. You just don't need SSL, NEVE, and Neumann anymore.
>

I bow to your knowledge on this one. However I would have thought that the 
average artist or band recording in someone's bedroom would not be able to 
produce something that sounded much better than a good demo tape.

> The music industry thrives on independent artists and record companies
> taking things into their own hands. Technology and the Internet is the
> means to achieve this. Anything that stands in the way of this is
> detrimental, and I believe DRM is.
>

I still don't see how you reach the conclusion that DRM gets in the way...

C.