[ Date Index ] [ Thread Index ] [ <= Previous by date / thread ] [ Next by date / thread => ]
On Wed, May 2, 2012 at 9:48 AM, Brad Rogers wrote: > The difference is that the govt got revenue from the sale of tape-to-tape > copy machines (VAT, Duty, etc.). They get no revenue from PB. Ergo > PB is bad from their PoV. I don't think this is the reason why file-sharing is seen as a problem, whereas tape-copying wasn't. Or, actually it was -- see for instance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Taping_Is_Killing_Music -- though nowhere near as much. Firstly, the quality of a tape copy is inferior to that of the original. Yes, I know mp3s don't have cd quality, but many people buy their music through iTunes/Amazon these days and there is no difference between original and copy. Secondly, file-sharing allows people to copy music that is 'owned' by someone on the other side of the world and makes it easy to make many copies of the same original. For your average customer, this wasn't the case in the area of tapes -- you always needed to know someone who possessed the original. And thirdly, many people used tapes to make copies for personal use (to play them in their walkman or car stereo). So making tapes illegal -- or putting a levy on them -- would have affected many people who did nothing wrong. That doesn't mean I agree with ISPs having to block The Pirate Bay -- if only because from the little I've heard of it, it seems rubbish for technical reasons. Frankly, I do think the music industry needs to get over the fact that what they've done well for many decades -- bringing the music from the artist to the listener -- can now be done far more easily and far more cheaply. They need to find a different way of generating income, or perhaps they'll end up going out of business. Such is life. Many companies running horse-drawn carriages went out of business when trains and later cars became available -- but some continued by setting up their own taxi-companies. Martijn. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq