Reader Comments on Aardvark Daily 9 January 2003

Note: the comments below are the unabridged submissions of readers and do
not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publisher.
 

From: Peter Jenkins
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: AFC Disks...

I like this idea, but the problem with it is the artist
loses out.  There is no way of telling what people are
going to copy onto these disks, so how to you pass the AFC
fees onto the artists?  Should ALL artists get the same
money?  Dont think so - I could myself bcome an artist just
to get a share of the fee.  Music quality will go down.

Things would change dramatically if AFC was introduced.  I
could see music stores would only order in a few copies of
each title and have CD burners in store for people to make
CD's (After all it would be legal...).  At the listening
posts you could select tracks to burn onto your own CD and
take it away.  This would be fantastic :)

From: Ian McDonald
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: CD Audio's

What you propose already exists!!

I did some digging as to what CDR Audio and CD-RW Audio are
and why the cost twice as much as a normal CDR, CDRW. The
answer is that these can be used in a normal PC or those
standalone duplicating units sold by Philips etc (which
only accept these).

The difference in price goes to the recording industry.

Have a search on google for CDR Audio or similar phrase and
you can find more info.




From: Peter
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: Levy on blank CDs


Placing a levy on blank CDs is inherently unfair.

I use lots of CDs for backing up my data, for storing photos
from my digital camera and for GPL software (= Linux
distros).  Why should some big music corporation get money
because I want to store my own files?

On the other hand, does the existance of this levy mean it
is lawful to copy music CDs as much as you want?  They can't
have it both ways.

From: Chris
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: Music Royalties

I've been doing a bit of thinking about the whole business of copying
music, and making sure that artists get paid, as I've been helping some
friends put together a song in what's become a makeshift home studio. It's
amazing how much work goes into getting just one three minute song to
sound decent, and artists definitely deserve some sort of payback.

An idea that popped into my mind the other day, was why not put
some kind of serial number on CDs, provide an optional online
registration service, and offer freebies or discounts eg to concerts for
users who register their CD. If each CD can be only registered once, but
played anywhere regardless of whether it's registered or not, the original
purchaser is going have a distinct advantage over anyone who only has a
copy. Like if you have a copied CD, but have to pay twice the price of
someone who's supported the artist to get into a concert, isn't that going
to be a bit of an incentive to buy their albums? This could even work in
with special music CDR media. Instead of charging a royalty fee with the
disk, include a serial number on the disk, and once a user has burned what
they want to it, allow them to register that unique serialised CD online
for a fee, and in return, receive some discounts or other incentives to
make their purchase worthwhile. Once a given serialised CD had been
registered, making bit-for bit copies would provide the music, but not the
incentives, while 'pirates', using serialized CDs would actually be acting
as a very cheap distribution chain for the record labels. Of course people
could still copy using ordinary CDs, but if you had the choice of a plain
ordinary CD copy, and a serialised one that you could register for a fee,
and get various benefits from, wouldn't you be just a little annoyed if
you found you had to go out and spend way more than what it would have
cost you if you'd been able to register your CD on things like concert
tickets and various other merchandise?




From: paul
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: CDR Tax

Don't suggest such a thing.  Comrade Helen will jump at the
idea of taxing  the poor suckers in this country some more.
"50% of the tax to me and 50% to the RIANZ" The artist will
not see a penny of it.




From: Allister Jenks
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: It's even easier than that....

Good grief everybody.  It really is so much simpler than
you all make out...

To fairly apportion the money to the artists, just up the
price of the original CD!

Even the RIAA could cope with that.   ;-D

Seriously though, they could make life a lot simpler for
themselves by *lowering* the prices, as has been argued on
here before.  But where's the money for all the middlemen
in doing that.

Now Have Your Say

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