sounding like a broken record about file-sharing

[johncomic]

Apparently Lily Allen has recently goosed a new spate of activity in the debate re file-sharing, artistic copyright, etc. I'm sure I have posted about this before but can't lay my hands on it now, so I'll weigh in yet again with my $0.03 CAN:

If I am, say, a professional musician, that means I am trying to earn a living by making music. Part of how I do that is by selling recordings of my music. If you obtain a recording of my music without paying me for it, you are depriving me of a portion of my livelihood. Basically, you are saying that you are entitled to decide “how much money I am allowed to make at my job”. [I've actually heard people argue that so-and-so “has already earned enough, they don't need any more”...] Or, you're telling me that I have no right to expect to be able to make a living this way.

Yet if I, the professional musician, were to take it upon myself to decide how much money you are allowed to earn, and I actually had the power to do something about it, how would you feel about that? You OK with it? Or are you merely OK with the idea of you being able to screw over an artist in a way that you yourself wouldn't wanna be screwed over?

Comments

[johncomic.livejournal.com]

Perhaps people need to kill a few geese before they will gain a better appreciation of golden eggs?

[ginsu.livejournal.com]

I think most would actually need to experience life as a royalty-earning creative worker. It is such a different paradigm that the challenges and complexities, and what they imply on a mass scale, are not easily grasped otherwise.

It really does remind me of the debate about global warming. People who can't or won't independently consider and evaluate abstract information well will instead just look at their current experiences.

They don't see the temperature climbing much, and anyway who cares if it gets a degree or two hotter, so what's the big?