A recent email to the Commons Select Committee for Culture, Media and Sport:
In response to being called a criminal by the ifpi and hearing that the Commons Select committee has been told by the "generous" BPI that even though I am a criminal I will not be pursued. I thought I would pass my comments, which are more in line with the National Consumer Council.
Since I could afford to buy music I have shared it. My brother and I would rarely buy the same record, it made no sense. When we started to travel we made copies on to tape to take with us, when we left home and split our combined collections we ensured we had a copy on tape. Our friends would give us tapes and we would give them tapes, if we liked an artist we would go out and buy more of their work, but would be unlikely to replace the album on tape. At every stage of this process our music collections grew, at the rate that our collective income could manage. We never considered what we did illegal or immoral, and still don't. Now we are in the digital age copying is easier, click-drag you're done, but technology doesn't make me a criminal.
I have tried to transfer some of my vinyl to a digital format, I am told this is illegal. I will not buy a digital replacement, I would rather spend my money on a new CD or occasional iTunes download. I spotted the AllOfMP3 web site and thought this would be a cost efficient way of replacing my vinyl. From my perspective I want to give an artist the full dollars from a new purchase, but don't want to spend twice and in these circumstances AllOfMP3 let me give some money to artists, and get my digital music too. Sadly, I am being told that AllOfMP3 don't give any money to artists via their Russian artists organisation, but I am still happy to pay them to convert my vinyl.
One of the ironies of the digital download debate is that most of my vinyl is second hand, my money never really made it to the artists at all. Yet now the record companies expect me to pay more for a product I would find hard to sell on. One of the reasons I still buy CD's is to ensure I actually get a substantive product.
What I want is for the legislative bodies to get in line with public wishes. We all understand the need for artists and companies to make money, but we also have an understanding of fair use, and have a pretty good idea of where the moral boundaries fall. Once people feel they are entering a darker world, they start to lose their restraint and to this extent piracy will grow. Only when record companies recognise fair use will piracy recede, but record companies will only do this when forced by law to change. Our MP's must stand up for their constituents and defend the fair use of our purchases, stop conceding to the lobbyists and sort out the law.
1 comment :
I am full of sympathy for these views. Its rather like books, are we supposed to never lend a book? I read an interview with the Macca man the other day, he said he really enjoyed High Fidelity but said as a cheapskate he never actually bought it but the book got passed around the family. Now there's a guy who makes a fair bit out of copyright laws, but guess what cus he read High Fidelity and liked it, he talked about it, promoted the author to friends. Thats a marketing man's wet dream - friends recommending to their friends, their peers, that's the message and the medium bang bang on the one. And as for new artists, who's going to buy an unkown? Normally the adventurous or those that got a copy from the adventurous and liked it. Even me, I never thought i'd buy a Kylie album, but my brother in law gave me an MP3 of her greatest hits and guess what, a bit later I bought myself a copy of her last album, an impulse purchase, a purchase that would never have been made witougt that MP3 - that illegal transaction between friends!!!
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