Subject: Re: [linux-audio-user] Announcing Gnomoradio
From: Daniel James (daniel_AT_mondodesigno.com)
Date: Fri Oct 31 2003 - 11:47:43 EET
> 1) If *the right to distribute* (copies of) a program/music
> piece/whatever is bound to paying money to the original author,
> this piece of music/software/... is not free in the free speech
> sense.
I don't think that's true. You could make a political but highly
commercial record that was subject to censorship in certain
countries.
But I was talking specifically about commercial distribution. I
envisage a scenario where non-tangible digital culture can be freely
redistributed by end users - call it free speech or viral marketing -
but that culture in a physical format, such as CD or DVD, is sold
commercially to pay for the costs of production and artist income.
That's what's happening anyway - it's just that the media giants have
to get real about building a business model out of selling binary
numbers. iTunes might work for Apple, but I can't see many artists
making a living out of that kind of commercial distribution. (Apple
users are well known for being mugs that will buy anything that Apple
offers, anyway. I've listened to music on an iPod, and I thought it
sounded crap.)
I blame it on the dot-com boom. The major labels were sold on the idea
that 'digital goods' would provide massive profit ratios, due to the
near-zero cost of duplication and distribution. But what they hadn't
considered is that while this is true for labels, it is also true for
end users.
> If the
> right is bound to giving money to the creator it is not a free
> good, with free as in speech, because it would violate the "free
> distribution of copies" clause.
Ah - but you're using the 'free beer' sense in 'free distribution'.
> This does not mean, and I never
> intended to say this, that you cannot take money for your work.
Practically, you can't charge money for your work if it is able to be
commercially distributed by a third party without paying you
anything. That third party can always undercut you on retail price,
because they aren't putting any money into development.
Cheers
Daniel
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