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Financing a Record with Free
It’s inspiring to see people breaking out of the box and coming up with truly creative ways to use free content as part of a business model. Free culture makes for better business—just not for the crusty middlemen. Definitely check out Georgia Wonder. Both during store hours and after the store closes each night, they’ll…
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Paying Attention to Filesharing
Filesharers are all too often characterized as lawless neanderthals who “just want things for free.” Of course, the evidence shows that in fact, digital sales are increasing and many studies have suggested that sharers actually buy more. Unfortunately, two of the most popular conclusions from this completely overlook the nature (and power) of global information…
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How to Save the Music Industry
I first started getting interested in “copyfight” and issues related to filesharing in college, where I was introduced to a local network where resident students across the university campus could connect and share what they loved on- and offline. As the music industry continued to ratchet up their anti-sharing campaigns, I thought that the iTunes…
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Who Really Has the Moral High Ground on Filesharing?
A number of people I have talked to claim that they do not engage in filesharing because “it’s wrong,” a sentiment that seems deeply rooted in the idea that sharing files involves taking something that doesn’t belong to you; that is, stealing. These people believe they are taking the “moral high ground” by refusing to…
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The Tenenbaum Farce
Despite media attention that suggests otherwise, the number of cases brought by Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) members against their customers that have actually gone to trial can be counted on one hand. One of the most recent of these is the trial of Joel Tenenbaum, the case that set itself up to be…
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To Arr is Pirate
The voting results are in and the Swedish Pirate Party has gotten at least one seat, probably two, in the European Parliament. You’ve really got to hand it to these guys: they’ve done a lot of work to get to this point. In only three years they’ve gone from a startup political party established groups…
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Music, Evolved
I have been talking about the evolution of content distribution in my last couple of posts, and I’ve pulled together some thoughts about how this has affected the music industry specifically. Robert Heinlein said it best in his 1939 novel, Life-Line: “There has grown in the minds of certain groups in this country the idea…
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The “Right” to Get Paid?
The concept of an artist’s “right to get paid” for their efforts inevitably arises in any discussion of filesharing and the future of the web. The thought is that artists have worked hard for what they’ve produced and as a result, should be guaranteed some kind of compensation. Following this is the idea that if…
Matter, Energy, and Life of Michaela A. Castello.