[advocacy] DRM in OGG - A Proposal

[Daniel James]

>  if p2p networks cease, ending some
> distribution of unpublished music, something has been tangibly lost

p2p isn't the only way to distribute independent music, but it is a cheap way 
for the artist. It's just that among the people I know who use p2p, none of 
them are looking for unsigned bands. They want free beer, and regard p2p as 
they would a radio station - nothing wrong with that from the artists point 
of view if they buy a CD later.

Most of those unsigned bands aren't explicitly saying that they want p2p 
distribution, are they? Perhaps that would jeopardise their chances of being 
signed... 

> Perhaps even
> the major labels are no worse off at all due to the existence of the p2p
> networks.

I doubt they are. And they moaned at length about home taping, even though it 
was a very cheap form of 'breaking' new artists.

> I use p2p networks so that I can tell good music from bad music. Record
> labels pushing rubbish music don't like this.

When I was about 15 I had to rely on music newspapers like the NME and Melody 
Maker for buying advice, since I had relatively limited access to the music 
itself. Then I discovered the scam - the two 'rival' papers were published by 
the same company, on two floors of the same building! Hardly impartial 
either, since they depended on record label advertising. I was disappointed 
by many of their recommendations for the 'best new band' etc.

Perhaps the true benefit of p2p is that it reduces the phenomenon of 'CD 
disappointment' where a CD has one good track, destined for airplay, and 12 
'fillers'. The CD gets played a couple of times, and then left on the shelf. 
Bad for profits, good for music. 

> (even true 'piracy' is not stealing, because no owner of
> a legal copy is deprived of their copy)

A label might have a lot of unsold copies of an album left in a warehouse 
though, and fail to cover the costs of recording. Plenty of artists get 
dropped by the major labels - they are businesses, after all.

> being told that music is not
> available at any price offends me.

Even if the person witholding the music is the artist? Some p2p music is demo 
material that the artist may not wish to be released because they don't think 
it's good enough. Some is just fake - a friend played me a 'Frank Zappa' 
track from a p2p network that was most definitely not Zappa.

However, there are music hoarders. I've heard of a case where the owner of a 
unique Joe Meek acetate refused to allow it to be released on CD because he 
thought it would be worth more if no-one had ever heard it!

Cheers

Daniel
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