[oclug] Music Downloading and Copyright

[Mike Hoye]

On Fri, Apr 02, 2004 at 11:14:47AM -0500, Stephen M. Webb wrote:
> 
> And yes, this is on topic, since there is essentially no difference between 
> music sharing and Free Software such as Linux.

Strangely, I don't own any GPL'ed music CDs.

>  In both cases, the 
> information wants to be Free, meaning the natural market forces make the 
> music (or software) essentially free (as in beer) and only artificial 
> controls (CRIA, Microsoft etc.) can inflate the price through restriction of 
> supply.  

That's incorrect. Digital media has essentially zero scarcity, and
Microsoft will sell you a million copies of XP Pro if you can afford
them. They don't charge $400 (or whatever) a copy because of scarce supply;
that's a price that the market will bear.

"Market forces" don't act in the way you've described here; there's a lot
about perceived value and hidden costs that you've glossed over or ignored.

> Any judgements that affect music are bound to affect software 
> eventually.

They affect software now. This whole thing isn't really about "the
right to copy". It's about the right to distribute, what constitutes
distribution and who's to blame when licenses are violated. 

-- 
"The key to performance is elegance, not battalions of special cases."
- Jon Bentley and Doug McIlroy