[d@DCC] Numbers don't crunch against downloading

[Russell McOrmond]

In reply to:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1101682208233&call_pageid=971794782442&col=971886476975&DPL=IvsNDS%2f7ChAX&tacodalogin=yes

  I am so thankful that Michael Geist is trying to help inform Canadians.  
It is as if the Recording Industry lives in a parallel universe different
than our own.  It is further frustrating because parliament has largely
been unwilling to talk to people outside the incumbent special interests
who have a very outdated understanding of the issues.

  I will offer some additions to the alternatives to P2P that account for
a drip in music sales.  When I look at all of these competitors and
alternatives I can't believe anything other than P2P helping music sales
by being cheap advertising.

  I am an independent software creator. At the same time that the
recording industry took a minor dip in sales the .COM bubble was bursting.
This sent shock waves across much of the economy.  I knew many in the
high-tech sector that were buying CDs beyond what they had the time to
listen to simply because they had massive amounts of disposable income.  
When the .COM bubble burst it should have harmed the recording industry
far more than happened.

  The recording industry massively reduced new titles, their major source
of income, by an amount that was greater than their dip in sales.  What
was left was not music that I was interested in, with much of my music
purchasing was World Music and Indy labels which are largely competitors
to the major labels.

  When the old-industry labels sued Napster rather than modernizing their
business models, I started a personal boycott against the major labels of
the recording industry.  I know many people tired of being asked to pay
money to people who are so insulting.  The recording industry also
launched massive lobbying campaigns to harm the Internet and any other
citizen-enabling standards-based communications, putting at risk the much
larger and productive electronics and electronic communications
industries.

  The recording industry is not offering so-called "legal" downloads in a
usable digital format.  As a Free/Libre and Open Source consultant am no
more likely to be a customer of Microsoft or Apple than the Conservative
party is to give a massive campaign contribution to the Liberal party.  I
am locked out of so-called "legal" digital downloads by the tieing of the
selling of the music to the purchase of Digital Rights Management software
from one of these vendors, something that is questionably legal under the
Canadian Competition Act.

  The recording industry lobbied for the legalization of music downloads
for personal use via P2P in exchange for the levy on blank media, and
provided no evidence that they owned anything being uploaded in a recent
P2P case against 29 P2P users.  The recording industry seems to largely be
a victim of their own incompetence, not the activities of others they wish
to pass the blame to.

Russell McOrmond
Ottawa, Ontario
http://www.flora.ca/

-- 
 Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/> 
 Code is Law: how software code regulates the activities of citizens,
 and acts similar to law.  How do we ensure transparency/accountability?  
 http://www.flora.ca/russell/drafts/code-is-law.html
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