[TriLUG] (Slightly OT)New Bill in Congress would make file-swapping a felony

Tanner Lovelace lovelace at wayfarer.org
Thu Jul 17 13:17:38 EDT 2003


On Thu, 2003-07-17 at 12:07, Michael Thompson wrote:
> On Thu, 2003-07-17 at 11:29, Tanner Lovelace wrote:
> > If the record companies really want to stop piracy, they
> > should work on offering what their customers want.  You can compete
> > against free, just look at the bottled water industry.
> 
> They are already offering what their customers want, music.  The
> problem is, everyone else is offering it as well (and for free!)
> I would imagine its hard to compete against free when your
> competitor is selling YOUR merchandise for nothing...

Um, no, but thanks for playing.  The record companies are offering
CDs and tapes.  If you want just 1 song, you still have to pay
$15 for the *entire* cd.  From what's happening with p2p networks
and the success of the iTunes store, it's quite obvious that a
$15 cd is not what customers want.  If the record companies would
realize that they would do better.

And, how do you explain the iTunes store's success when you can get 
the same thing on p2p networks for free?  You *can* compete with
free, you just have to do it the right way.

> As long as the P2P pirates are acting unreasonably, the music industry
> will continue to push for unreasonable laws, especially with the
> "Its a free country and I'll steal what I want 'cause its my right" 
> attitude.

Whoa.  No one here that I've seen has espoused this view.  I certainly
have not.  All I've said is that the record companies would have a
much better time dealing with piracy if they would offer the customer
what they want.  Instead, they seem to want to criminalize their
customers.  <sarcasm>Oh, yeah, that's definitely the way to entice
people to buy their stuff</sarcasm>

Times change, things change.  Do you think we should have laws that
protect horse drawn cart makers from Ford and GM?  The record company
needs to give their customers what they want rather than going to
congress and crying about things.

Tanner
-- 
Tanner Lovelace | lovelace(at)wayfarer.org | http://wtl.wayfarer.org/
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