Stop Microsoft
Miscellaneous => Intellectual Property & Law => Topic started by: mobrien_12 on 12 April 2004, 21:46
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http://slashdot.org/articles/04/04/11/2019235.shtml?tid=141&tid=188&tid=98&tid=99 (http://slashdot.org/articles/04/04/11/2019235.shtml?tid=141&tid=188&tid=98&tid=99)
http://www.theregister.com/2004/04/09/pigopolist_price_hike/ (http://www.theregister.com/2004/04/09/pigopolist_price_hike/)
Apparently the record labels wan't more money per online song... like up to $3.00.
Idiots.
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Oh god... :rolleyes:
I'd also like to quote one Slashdot poster, when he said something I've been thinking for a long time:
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It's NOT capitalism. (Score:5, Insightful)
by nathanh (1214) on Sunday April 11, @06:58PM (#8833381)
(http://www.manu.com.au/)
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If the market will bear $2.99 CD's then they have the right to sell at that price. Don't like it? Don't buy. Unfortunately for you, there are millions of people who WILL pay the price.
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That's not capitalism. Capitalism is where they charge $2.99, you don't like it, so you buy from SOMEBODY ELSE at a LOWER PRICE. That process continues until it's impossible to produce the song any cheaper.
They've been selling at 99c for ages. Now they are discussing a unilateral hike of 200%. That should be your first warning sign that capitalism is not working here! Where are the other online vendors selling the same songs at 50c? Or the same songs at 10c? If 10c is unrealistic (maybe it is but I suspect it isn't) then THE MARKET will find the actual sustainable pricepoint. The very second you hear that the RIAA is deciding the "sustainable" pricepoint instead of the market is the very same second you should have realised this is not capitalism. This is a cartel.
If capitalism was working then the prices would have dropped for music. That's how it works in every other industry. Company A makes steel bars for $1/bar at 10% profit. Company B thinks 5% profit is sufficient and sells bars for 99c/bar. Company A decreases their production costs (perhaps by innovating new techniques) and sells bars for 95c/bar. THAT is capitalism. It's using THE MARKET to drive innovation, reduce costs, self-regulate the quantity of production, while still producing the cheapest goods.
In the music industry the prices have gone up and up and up. Even faster than inflation. While production costs have gone down - a music studio and CD production facility can be built in your spare bedroom for under $10k these days, compared to $10s of millions only 2 decades ago - the CD prices have not dropped. Why? Because this isn't capitalism! Production costs are down, yet prices are up. Market is flooded with alternatives, yet prices are up. Look at the big picture. It's NOT CAPITALISM.
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Bloody fuck....this is absurd...how greedy can these people get?
$2.99 per song???? Thats more per song than if you bought the entire CD...which eliminates the fucking purpose!
I would actually support up to $1.99 per song if the downloads were uncompressed and DRM-free.
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You know what, I don't like 99
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I download, but only because I just can't find a lot of the music I like ...anywhere ...except on some random user's HD.
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Boycott?
Stop buying, stop downloading. Perhaps they will listen?
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That isn't going to happen. Also, the RIAA would use that as an excuse. If a boycott happens, their sales go down, they blame it on P2P, lawmakers believe them.
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quote:
Originally posted by PseudoRandom Dragon:
That isn't going to happen. Also, the RIAA would use that as an excuse. If a boycott happens, their sales go down, they blame it on P2P, lawmakers believe them.
Apathy will be the end of the freedom you enjoy. I can understand why Calum got so pissed and left.
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(http://downhillbattle.org/riaa/lawsuits_label.gif) (http://downhillbattle.org/riaa/payola_label.gif)
quote:
Let
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quote:
Originally posted by ecsyle.artformsdesign:
Apathy will be the end of the freedom you enjoy.
Sorry, but the end happened a long time ago (http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/hr3162.html).
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quote:
Originally posted by PseudoRandom Dragon:
Sorry, but the end happened a long time ago (http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/hr3162.html).
Oh. I guess that means we should all just bend over and take it in the ass. Right. Fuck it. Lets just let them do whatever they want because we can't do shit to stop it.
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Vote for Kerry. That is a step in the right direction.
Do you think I voted for Bush? Do you think I am going to vote for him now? Do you think I like it any more than you? HELL NO! Unfortunately, there is only so much I can do to change this country. If this shit keeps happening I am going to Britain or Canada.
You still think I am indifferent about this?
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quote:
PseudoRandom Dragon: Vote for Kerry. That is a step in the right direction.
Do you think I voted for Bush? Do you think I am going to vote for him now? Do you think I like it any more than you? HELL NO! Unfortunately, there is only so much I can do to change this country. If this shit keeps happening I am going to Britain or Canada.
You still think I am indifferent about this?
Do you really think the PATRIOT act will disappear under Kerry?
He voted for the PATRIOT act when he was a senator, and I haven't heard anything about Kerry being anti-PATRIOT act.
And don't think that the UK or Canada are going to be any better than the United States.
I think it's best to stay in the country you grew up in, because the culture shock might be too great. Even when that country speaks your first language.
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I don't know if Kerry will remove the act for sure, but I DO know that Bush will not remove it, or may even further enhance it.
Cold day in Hell b4 I vote for nader.
I visited Canada. My head is still intact. I don't think it would take very long for me to get used to it (though I would rather move to Britain, it is nicer there).
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nader rocks. he seems to actually give a shit. and he is pro legalizing the leafy green last time i checked. theis dumbfucks could stand to make alot of money off of legalized weed. from taxing it like 5 bucks per 7 grams or something like that. and our prison system wouldn't be so overfucking loaded. leaving room for murders rapist, pedofiles, and other types you wouldn't want at your 12 oclock tea party. but no, we get assholes that bend over for big business and allow shit like the dmca to be passed. if you cna't afford the music simply steal it. steal enough music to cuase a drop in record sales. let them blame p2p, let them hunt familys down until america wakes up. be a martyr for freedom.
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quote:
Originally posted by Refalm:
He voted for the PATRIOT act when he was a senator, and I haven't heard anything about Kerry being anti-PATRIOT act.
Bush says Kerry will take it out. Hmmm...
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quote:
That's not capitalism. Capitalism is where they charge $2.99, you don't like it, so you buy from SOMEBODY ELSE at a LOWER PRICE. That process continues until it's impossible to produce the song any cheaper.
Well that all sounds very nice, but he's making it up. If that's what he thinks capitalism is then capitalism isn't working anywhere, nevermind the record industry. Where is anything being sold "as cheaply as it can be produced"?
[ May 04, 2004: Message edited by: flap ]
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quote:
Originally posted by xeen:
$2.99 per song???? Thats more per song than if you bought the entire CD...which eliminates the fucking purpose!
BINGO! have a cigar!
of course this is intended to kill the concept of downloadable music, because the existing music corporations cannot see any way other than physical media with finite musical capacity to make money from.
This half assed effort will not succeed i predict in getting people to forget downloadable music ever existed. Apart from anything else many artistes willingly allow their stuff to be downloaded. have a look on my site for an example, (link in sig) i think you can get something like 4 or 5 CDs full of stuff by maybe a dozen artistes, if you also root around in the forums for urls.
also just look at the huge amount of billy corgan, smashing pumpkins and zwan mp3s you can now download courtesy of mr corgan himself. A lot of bands (green day, radiohead etc) have said they don't mind this sort of distribution of music and in a way the executives and agents are going to end up stuck in the middle between the fans and the bands, who are of like mind.
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quote:
Originally posted by Calum is NOT a moderator:
A lot of bands (green day, radiohead etc) have said they don't mind this sort of distribution of music and in a way the executives and agents are going to end up stuck in the middle between the fans and the bands, who are of like mind.
I find the hypocrisy of bands like Radiohead frustrating. They complain at not owning the copyright on their own music, and not being allowed to permit their fans to freely distribute it. Yet they don't seem to realise that it's their own fault for signing to record labels in the first place, and that they're only helping to perpetuate the current system by collaborating with it.
[ May 07, 2004: Message edited by: flap ]
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quote:
Originally posted by flap:
Well that all sounds very nice, but he's making it up. If that's what he thinks capitalism is then capitalism isn't working anywhere, nevermind the record industry. Where is anything being sold "as cheaply as it can be produced"?
[ May 04, 2004: Message edited by: flap ]
As long as it isn't musical or electronic... Wal-Mart is a good example of that. They sell so much crap that they can cut prices lower than smaller stores can. Customers buy from Wallyworld, or in that guy's terms, SOMEBODY ELSE.