John VanSickle wrote:

>>   My question is why. Why is the music industry specifically so 
>> privileged?
> 
> Because they have friends in the legislature.

I was going to say they have rich lobbyists.

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47f22236@news.povray.org...
>  The music industry has more people in government positions than the
> software industry? Maybe the music industry is more organized and thus
> they have succeeded in doing this better than the more disorganized
> software industry has been able to?

I think it's simply that authors' societies and other rights collection 
societies have been around for decades or even centuries (the French one was 
created in 1850). Music
has been in the spotlight for a long time and public, harsh debates about 
music rights and rights collection go back into the 19th century (and into 
the 18th century if one considers author's rights in general).

OTOH software started post-WWII as an obscure, marginal industry that only 
became mainstream in the late 1980s so property rights issues concerning 
software didn't emerge until very recently. Possibly the problems weren't 
noticeable until the late 1990s, when the web became popular or even the 
early 2000s with broadband access.

G.

-- 
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>  One thing I don't understand is why the music industry is so privileged
> over other industries?

Well the size of the industry can't be the reason.  Worldwide there was 
20x - 30x more spent on software than on music.

I guess the music industry just got their act together as a group to protect 
their interests and managed to convince lots of governments to their way of 
thinking.

Actually lots of big industries manage to get special treatment from the 
government, cigarette manufacturers, car manufacturers etc, so I guess the 
software industry is just the odd one out.  Maybe MS and Adobe etc should 
get together and get some taxes on DVD-Rs to be shared out?

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scott <sco### [at] laptopcom> wrote:
> Maybe MS and Adobe etc should 
> get together and get some taxes on DVD-Rs to be shared out?

  No thanks! The point of my rant is that these unfair privileges should
be *removed* from those industries, not to extend the same unfair taxing
privileges to everyone.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Stephen wrote:
> On 1 Apr 2008 06:53:27 -0500, Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote:
> 
>>  What does it tell about democracy and basic human rights when it's
>> a bunch of private companies who run the government for their own benefit?
> 
> We could always try a dictatorship, a benevolent one of course. Any
> volunteers? :)

Me!  Me! :)

-- 
...Ben Chambers
www.pacificwebguy.com

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Warp wrote:
> John VanSickle <evi### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
>> Because they have friends in the legislature.
> 
>   The music industry has more people in government positions than the
> software industry? Maybe the music industry is more organized and thus
> they have succeeded in doing this better than the more disorganized
> software industry has been able to?
> 
>   What does it tell about democracy and basic human rights when it's
> a bunch of private companies who run the government for their own benefit?
> 

Democracy is a lousy system.  The only thing going for it, is that it's 
better than anything else we've tried.

(Sorry, can't remember who originally said that).

-- 
...Ben Chambers
www.pacificwebguy.com

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Chambers <ben### [at] pacificwebguycom> wrote:
> Democracy is a lousy system.  The only thing going for it, is that it's 
> better than anything else we've tried.

> (Sorry, can't remember who originally said that).

  Someone has also said that democracy is a dictatorship of the majority.

  IMO he's wrong. In practice democracy really is a dictatorship of a
minority. It just fools citizens to believe that it isn't.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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"Warp" <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote in message 
news:47f21448@news.povray.org...
>
>  Let's compare it to another very similar industry: The software industry.
> Both music and software are both intangible intellectual property. The 
> exact
> same copyright laws protect both music and software. They are by all
> practical means almost identical things from a legal point of view.
>

(Caution: Sarcasm may be employed)

Or better yet, let's compare it to the paper industry.  Specifically, blank 
"copy" paper, for use in copy machines.  Obviously, this is going to be used 
(and indeed has been used) to make multiple copies of copyrighted material. 
Instead of buying 26 copies of the latest Forbes magazine, just to give all 
of the board members a copy of the latest article, the CEO decides that 
he'll just use the copy machine.  26 copyright violations right there. 
Within his organization, you could probably find millions of violations, 
with thousands happening each day.  Why isn't the print media pursuing 
these?  Print Media has been losing revenue over the last several years, and 
obviously, this has to be the culprit.  Hundreds of billions of dollars per 
year are lost due to articles that are illegally copied.

Therefore, to make sure that the print media industry does not suffer 
irreparable damage due to this type of piracy, we should add a fee (tax) 
onto each ream of copy paper that gets sold.

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And lo on Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:53:27 +0100, Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> did  
spake, saying:

>   What does it tell about democracy and basic human rights when it's
> a bunch of private companies who run the government for their own  
> benefit?

That it's the same as it has always been. When has any government not been  
run by a bunch of selfish people? All we have here is a change of  
ownership from the aristocracy who at least had the decency to be up front  
about running everything rather than hiding behind the scenes.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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Warp wrote:
> John VanSickle <evi### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
>> Because they have friends in the legislature.
> 
>   The music industry has more people in government positions than the
> software industry? Maybe the music industry is more organized and thus
> they have succeeded in doing this better than the more disorganized
> software industry has been able to?
> 
>   What does it tell about democracy and basic human rights when it's
> a bunch of private companies who run the government for their own benefit?

Since the exploitation of the law for the benefit of a few is far worse 
(and has a body count) under every other system, I'm not going so say 
that the present situation is a sign that democracy should be ditched.

And if private companies really were running the show in either Europe 
or the United States, there would be no business regulation.

Regards,
John

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