[advocacy] Music Online Competition Act Ramifications??

[Daniel James]

> Unless some kind of copy-protection is available (optionally) to
> Ogg files, you will never see big-name music available legally. 

This is a commonly held opinion, but I'd like to point out that 
pay-to-play downloaded music is neither established nor proven. The 
content industry talks as if such a system existed and was already in 
use by the majority of people. Time for a reality check?

Personally, I stopped buying pre-recorded music cassettes as soon as 
I got a turntable (mainly for reasons of sound quality), but I 
carried on using cassette technology for quite a few years after 
that. Mostly to make fair-use copies of my own vinyl.

Likewise, Mini Disc (and even DAT) was originally presented as a 
pre-recorded format, but I don't think the majority of discs/tapes 
going into those machines were ever pre-recorded.

The content/hardware industries will always present any new 
technology as if its only use was to play their ready-made 'carrot'. 
Think of the number of Sony Walkmans (and clones) sold without a 
record button, or line input.  When we refuse to limit ourselves, out 
comes the legal stick.
 
Daniel

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