You know who peddles false hope to naive would-be artists? People who go around implying that but for all those internet pirates, there’d be full creative employment for all of us. That the reason artists earn so little is because our audiences can’t be trusted, that once we get this pesky internet thing solved, there’ll be jam tomorrow for everyone. If you want to damn someone for selling a bill of goods to creative people, go after the DRM vendors with their ridiculous claims about copy-proof files; go after the labels who say that wholesale lawsuits against fans on behalf of artists (where labels get to pocket the winnings) are good business; go after the studios who are suing to make it impossible for anyone to put independent video on the internet without a giant corporate legal budget.
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The real cost of free | Cory Doctorow | Technology | guardian.co.uk
A fantastic piece, really worth 10 mins of your time to get a better grasp of the minefield between art & creativity in these file-sharing times.
And isn’t someone getting paid a large sum for a lecture the same as someone getting paid lots for giving their DVD away with a newspaper or playing a gig?
