Klarinet Archive - Posting 000005.txt from 2010/07

From: Joseph Wakeling <joseph.wakeling@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Sheet music copyright
Date: Thu, 01 Jul 2010 03:50:32 -0400

On 07/01/2010 06:23 AM, Kevin Fay wrote:
> But one might reasonably ask the question whether, in terms of overall
> public good (which the law is intended to support) the cost to dairy farmer
> and Dairy Queen is outweighed by the collective social benefit of private
> individuals being able to engage in such friendly and helpful private,
> non-commercial ice cream stealing?

Not an equivalent situation. I can't give someone an ice cream without
first physically taking it away from someone else (e.g. the dairy farmer
or the Dairy Queen). I can duplicate an electronic file a million times
without anyone else losing that file, because I'm not sharing an object,
I'm sharing information.

Apples vs. ideas, and all that.

Now, if, given a pint of milk, I could _duplicate_ it (not take it) with
the same ease that one copies a computer file, would the sane reaction
to that ability necessarily be to tell me that I shouldn't do it, that I
should put the ability of farmers to make a living based on a system of
control and scarcity of supply above the needs of the people of the
world for nutrition?

Or would the sane thing be to say, "Amazing, this solves the problem of
food scarcity," and redirect the reward system for basic producers along
different lines from charging money per unit shipped?

> What makes is "non-commercial" is that the internet poster "sharing" the
> song isn't charging Eleanor money. Mr. Brown's point is a good one - it
> *should* be commercial when Eleanor buys the sheet music at the store, from
> which he makes his living.

Mr Brown's point that he needs to make a sustainable living is a good
one, and it's a fairly reasonable point that _where money is being
exchanged_ some of that should be filtering back to the composer. But
the devil is in the details of how, and what the consequences of that
are for the rest of us.

It's not clear to me that when electronic files are being shared among
private individuals without money changing hands, this is something that
should be constrained. Better to recognize, I think, that control and
scarcity of supply in these circumstances can be achieved only via
measures that involve systematic institutional and technical intrusion
into the daily activities of every individual. And given that, to find
a different reward scheme for composers like Mr Brown than a fee paid on
a per-copy basis.
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