As I read about the moon and air and charging for smells, I couldn't help but think TANSTAAFL or rather TANSTAAFSOL. The music industry like the Moon is a harsh mistress and what makes a mistress a mistress is that it costs you to keep her.
There's plenty of free music, one can even make it one's self or have a friend make it for you. Ownership of a musical performance is no different from ownership of a book, except in so far as it is easier to share.
Nobody is pillorying Simon and Schuster because they charge for ebooks. Nor are they declaring Amazon to be an impediment to progress because they sell such books for far more than the cost of delivery. Come to think of it, nobody is holding Apple accountable for profiting as the principle conduit for the music industry's model.
That's not to say that the legislation put forward recently is good or that the draconian punishments of downloaders are appropriate.
But creative works should be controlled by their authors, and musicians and filmakers are not flocking en masse to copyleft schemes.
There's plenty of free music, one can even make it one's self or have a friend make it for you. Ownership of a musical performance is no different from ownership of a book, except in so far as it is easier to share.
Nobody is pillorying Simon and Schuster because they charge for ebooks. Nor are they declaring Amazon to be an impediment to progress because they sell such books for far more than the cost of delivery. Come to think of it, nobody is holding Apple accountable for profiting as the principle conduit for the music industry's model.
That's not to say that the legislation put forward recently is good or that the draconian punishments of downloaders are appropriate.
But creative works should be controlled by their authors, and musicians and filmakers are not flocking en masse to copyleft schemes.