Basically, the Fair Use laws were made so that people wouldn't get thrown in jail for copying CDs and cassettes to another medium, at the time, the newly-affordable blank cassette tape. With the advent of the dual-deck cassette deck, which now is fairly standard, people started coying their albums en masse, and the record companies lost their shit over it. Congress stepped in, and basically set it up like this:
1. its ok to copy a CD that you bought for personal use onto another medium.
2. No attempt can be made to SELL said copies, otherwise you are infringing on copyright laws.
3. There was a VERY large tax put onto blank cassettes to compensate for this. At the time, it was about $1 per tape, which doesnt' sound like a lot, but it adds up and made it much less attractive of a solution.
4. Duplicating everying about the recording was in violation of copyright laws i.e., the packaging, lyrics, etc. as the consumer would be trying to reproduce the "whole package" of what an album really is.
So right away, we run into some inconsistencies. First of all, its easier for most people to dub a copy of a CD onto cassette to swap with their friends. And cheaper, as the hardware to do so isn't nearly as expensive. Also, the rampant MP3 swapping that goes on in broadband networks isn't nearly as large as they'd like us to think. It is DWARFED by the amount of copies on cassette people make. As far as disc-to-disc copies go, this isn't complete piracy for a number of reasons. Here is an example:
I love Tool. I consider them to be, without question, the best rock band of the last 10 years, and I find their spiritual message and accompanying artwork to be every bit as valuable as their music.
When Too's recent album Lateralus came out, I couldn't afford to buy a copy. My cost of living went up, I ran into some other expensive things, and I couldn't justify spending money on a CD. I also missed out on buying discs from my other favorite artists, like Fantomas, Bjork, Tomahawk, and some others. My friend, who has a considerably greater amount of spending money than I do, bought these albums. I dubbed them all to MP3, and burned a disc-to-disc copy of Lateralus. I listened to them for months, griping about my financial situation and pledging that as soon as I had some extra money, I'd buy those records.
Guess what I did. I bought them all. I wanted the artwork. I wanted the original CD. I wanted to support the bands, their labels, the manufacterers, because I believe that their music deserves my money. Did I bootleg and listen to their music before I had the money to buy it? Sure did. But I feel I made amends by purchasing it as soon as I could. And I surely don't feel like a criminal for doing so.
And the point remains that we ARE getting raped on prices, the artists ARE getting raped on royalties, and the record company execs DO have limos and airplanes and mansions, and most of us music-buying public are living hand to mouth and STILL spend our money on their product whenever we can.
I HATE BEING BILKED. And that is exactly what the record companies are trying to do. Bilk more money out of people that don't have that much to begin with.
And gee, if they lowered the cost of CDs, there would be more individually owned independant record stores, because the cost of entry into that business would go down dramatically. And that helps the artists that need it most the ones that don't have the backing of MTV and corporate radio.
Perhaps it would also raise the bar on the types of music that get produced in this country. Instead of signing any talentless whore with a nice rack or falsetto-chirping incubi like the Backstreet Boys and their clones, we'd actually get REAL music made by REAL artists, and not the generic, bland, safe, and ultimately stupifying CRAP we're forced to listen to now.
I hate the music industry, can you tell? I almost became a musician but I wanted NOTHING to do with that dirty rotten business.
