3363 Poor Dead Tango Musicans and the Tango Music in MP3
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 20:20:23 +0200
From: Ecsedy Áron <aron@MILONGA.HU>
Subject: Re: Poor Dead Tango Musicans and the Tango Music in MP3
Dear Christian and Jean-Pierre,
IMHO You are a little bit too much influenced by US music industry
propaganda.
I don't think that the fees of dead musicians is a question of moral or
ethical importance. In case of living musicians it is. However, considering
the amount of (legal) tango CDs available in some countries (like mine) it
is not really a question of lost revenue for them either. (if they did not
bother to make their CDs available to these people thus they wouldn't be
able to sell anything to these people - and don't come with worldwide
availability of CDs through mail order: if you expect INTERNATIONAL
protection for copyright then offer international availability, for
reasonable prices in the target country, in the target country's currency at
known outlets, in easy reach of the target audience)
Of course in any country where I could easily find a shop (within a few
miles) selling such CDs, the situation may be considered differently. Is
there such except Argentina (where it isn't worth to copy because the
original is almost cheaper)?
Before you ask: I do own a lot of originals. I don't really have copies of
whole CDs, but I do have some downloaded mp3-s (free on todotango...) and
some grabbed songs on my PC.
A different aspect (OFF TOPIC WARNING): IMO the music industry is simply
robbing people out. And not the musicians... Just think: if you buy a CD you
(in theory) bought a 'license' to listen to that album anytime you want,
wherever you want, while you are the only listener. However, when you hear a
song from the album in the radio, on tv, at a concert, at a milonga,
anywhere...then the owner of the radio/tv station, the organizer of the
concert/milonga will pay copyright fees for the public performance (the
amount of this fee usually depends on the number of listeners). Which means
that the music industry is sometimes being paid several hundred times (in
case of hit singles) for the very same thing (you listening to the song
"XZ")!!! The fees in question aren't so negligible either. With this
technique the music industry is motivated to make larger and larger
advertising campaigns (and develop new methods - like MTV, videos etc.) to
create larger profits from the same thing. In pop music some albums are sold
in 10 million copies. They are bickering about the exploits of the digital
age, when they are the ones using it! Since it is much cheaper to reach
people, much more people have access to replaying devices, much cheaper to
produce albums but still, album prices are not lower than 50 years ago...
(in Hungary they are much higher - considering purchasing power parity, of
course) What are you paying for? The marketing hype? So we aren't paying for
the music (and the musicians) then...
Naturally, a solution should be found so everyone gets what's due, but the
present situation is unfair.
I believe there is a little misunderstanding (result of good international
lobbying by the industry again for over a century!!) with copyright as well:
copyright is to make sure no-one 'steals' the idea or intangible product and
makes profit out of it without paying the original creator. However, in the
case of personal copying we are not making profit, we are taking profit away
from the creators by not buying. Of course, in the extreme event of selling
only very few CDs and everyone else on the planet having that one copied, it
might become unprofitable to create music (art, etc.). However, legal
protection is based on the theory that costs related to the product must be
dispersed among the users of the copyrighted material, evenly. With the
present method you cannot talk about 'dispersing'. It is much more like
double-taxation (multi-taxation - but I'd say robbing you blind with
international and state backing). Also there is the problem, that no-one
controls profits. If you sell something twice the market price by misleading
the buyer that might count as a felony in most law systems... Why isn't that
true to copyright, where fees are collected with the fervor of taxes???
Cutting this long story short: the whole business is too murky to say a
clean yes or no to copying, but I'd say until what you do is NOT illegal and
you feel like doing it, you SHOULD.
(Hungarian copyright law explicitly states that "copying for personal
(official meaning: non-business) purposes is allowed". This means that any
borrowed CD may be copied as long as it is for free, and copying is done by
the person involved (no third party copying).)
Cheers,
Aron
Ecsedy Áron
Aron ECSEDY
Tel: +36 (20) 329 66 99
ICQ# 46386265
https://www.milonga.hu/
