On Fri, 2003-07-04 at 08:57, Daniel James wrote: > > Bo Diddley listened to (and borrowed from) every other blues > > musician around at the time. > > Of course. He did have some original contributions to make, but he > just didn't get the financial rewards for them. So when I hear the > industry moaning that p2p is ripping off musicians, I sense > hypocrisy. > Yeah. I agree completely there. It's just ripping off the RIAA's member organizations (a very talented bunch I'm sure you'll agree ;) What's really interesting is that the RIAA and MPAA are constantly bitching about p2p ripping them off but in almost all of the big cases recently (Harry Potter, Madonna) the cat's been out of the bag before the film or CD was even released. So yes, they get p2p traded, but DRM wouldn't have helped a bit. They need to police their own people a bit more carefully. I actually don't understand the MPAA's position on DeCSS. They deliver a good product for a fair price (2 DVDs, special features, liner notes, sometimes a poster for about US $20). As I said above, their stuff is pirated long before it gets to a DVD. > > The fairy tales *are* public domain, Mickey Mouse was an original > > creation. > > I think you'll find that there was little original about Steamboat > Willie. > > > You can legally parody Mickey Mouse any time you want > > (it's been done a million times). > > Actually Disney have a long history of suing parodies - Air Pirates > being the most famous I think: > > http://reason.com/links/links011703.shtml > I haven't seen this, however, if they were using the name Mickey Mouse and/or making the character look almost exactly like Mickey Mouse then that's not a parody and they should lose. > > My point was that > > *everyone* has had it bad at some point in their life. No one has > > exclusive rights on suffering. I get real tired of hearing that > > old line - you can't play blues because you're A) white, B) not > > poor, C) didn't grow up during the depression, D) not an > > alcoholic/addict, E) not from Mississippi, F) fill in your reason > > here. > > I think Clapton et al have every right to play the blues, just not to > claim ownership of them. To illustrate the point, the RIAA could now > sue an original Delta bluesman with a freely downloaded Clapton track > on his hard drive. Doesn't that possibility, albeit theoretical, > strike you as a bit odd? > Not a bit. Each song, with the exception of near duplicates (My Sweet Lord) is a unique work of art. Whether you like his work or not, Andy Warhol was an artist. Did the guy that originally did the Campbells Soup labels sue him? > > Music, of any genre, is not the sole property of any one > > group of people. You can still play and write good reggae even if > > you're not from Jamaica ;-) > > Clapton also covered I Shot The Sherriff of course. Ironically, UB40, > who are from the UK, partly white, and therefore not authentic enough > for most white reggae fans, were massive in Jamaica. > Exactly. Jan
