Posted by Bill Van Dyk on 11/15/05 14:22

> One key fact is that the copyright holder still *does* have the right
> to decide to expose and sell their product efficiently, inefficiently,
> or not at all. You, on the other hand, have NO rights to that product
> or that decision. You have NO right to decide how the product should be
> exposed or distributed.

Not quite that simple. I absolutely agree, though, that any musical
artist has every right to NOT distribute their music on CD. Go for it,
Ashlee! No problem there.

But... the general public, the consumer, made the choices (from among
competing technologies) that established vinyl, then cassette, then CD
as the format of choice for musical recordings.

The public also has a right to expect that providers of content compete
fairly in the market place. If Ashlee wants to issue her recordings on
vinyl, she can. That way nobody will steal her work. Some other artists
might conclude that they could compete successfully against Ashlee by
issuing their work on more popular mediums, but who am I to second guess
them! So if you want Ashlee's work, buy her vinyl album. That's your
choice and you're free to make it.

But she should not have the right to collude with other recording
artists to force Pioneer and Toshiba and Sony to hijack the CD format
and impose changes on it that the public didn't ask for and don't want.

She and the other artists are absolutely, totally, completely free to go
to Toshiba and Sony and Pioneer and offer to pay them to develop a new
uncopyable technology that will only be used to distribute her music on.

The public, I'm sure, will adopt it in droves, especially once they
understand that they can't use it to make their own recordings or
assemble their own music collections, or play it on the portable players
they already own.

Go for it Ashlee! Please!

(Incidentally, I don't mean to pick on Ashlee. I really don't know
anything about her other than the Saturday Night Live gaffe.)

Bottom line. I have no problem with artists switching to a new medium
that prevents copying. As long as other artists have the right to
continue using copyable mediums like the CD or Radio or television with
a stereo signal if they want to.

Now you're a young artist. You want to become famous and have people
hear your music and sell a few CD's and tickets to your shows. You
gonna join the proprietary, protected gang, or offer your stuff to the
public on their medium of choice?

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