[Novalug] EFF to Security Researchers: Tell the W3C To Protect Researchers Who Investigate Browsers

Rich Kulawiec rsk@gsp.org
Wed Mar 30 15:43:33 EDT 2016


On Wed, Mar 30, 2016 at 12:54:33PM -0400, Bryan Smith wrote:
> Every time people disrespect IP holders, they disrespect everyone.

You know, I happen to be working (at glacial pace) on my first record.

And if I ever issue it, I hope that it's pirated to hell and back.

Why?

Because piracy is not my enemy.  Obscurity is my enemy.  And piracy
is free publicity: I couldn't possibly buy 1% of that amount of promotion.

If people hear it, and if they like it, some of them will choose to buy it.
But if nobody ever hears it, which is very likely if it doesn't get
propagated by piracy, then I won't sell many copies.

I'd rather have it pirated 100,000 times and sell 1,000 copies than have
it pirated 0 times and sell 25.

The old ways of looking at IP (including copyright and patents) don't
work any more.  They are being wielded like legal clubs by legacy industries
who are terrified that they can't compete.  And they're right: they *can't*
compete.  Forty years ago I would need to sign my rights over to a record
company in order to have access to the means of production (studio).  Today
I can do everything in my basement.  I can set up my own web site.  I can
run my own mailing list.  I can distribute digitally (no record plant,
no inventory, no trucks, no warehouses, no retail stores).  I can put up
raw tracks and get comments back.  I can put up unmixed versions and let
fans create their own versions.  I can get someone on the other side
of the planet to contribute a drum track.  Why in the world would I
want to deal with a record company?

So yes, the recording studios will tell me to do it their way: of course
they will, they're in it for money.  But I don't have to.  Not any more.
I don't need them or their outdated ideas about IP.

And neither, as more and more musicians are realizing, does anyone else.

---rsk




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