I am conflicted when it comes to copyright laws for music and video sharing; I can certainly understand both sides of the debate. If artists have worked to create their content, surely there should be safeguards in place to ensure that their property is protected. One way to do this, which I actually thought was a fantastic idea, was a tax on devices that could store recorded content (for example, iPods). Unfortunately, Her Majesty’s Government for Canada balked at this suggestion by the opposition parties.
As well she should.... it's already been talked about and turned out to be a bad idea. This isn't like taxing tobacco. All the above will do is charge those who probably already are paying for their songs and playing them legally, such as those who use the ITunes Store, etc. to download their songs..... now not only are they being charged for the download they want to listen to, but now the player they're using to listen to it is taxed additionally.... all to give money back to the artist.
Now if the buyer of that song is now being charged twice and paying the artist twice to listen to the one legally purchased product.... why would he continue to purchase songs legally?
All this will do is promote more illegal downloading of songs, since everybody will be charged an extra tax for the players they use.
And some people don't use certain products to listen to Mp3's in the first place, yet will still get taxed.
Yet it still doesn't do much to the person downloading illegal songs.
It wouldn't solve the problem, but rather make it even worse.
While there should be a degree of provided lawful content sharing, certainly the rights of the artists must also be rigorously defended. At least by adding a ‘tax’ that would go directly to artists and their production companies, we would be able to somewhat offset the potential profits that might be lost through content sharing instead of purchasing.
I disagree.
I'm an artist not just because I enjoy the work I do, but also because it's my living. Now while my work might be my living, I won't have work if I don't get my name out there and people interested in my work.
How do I get my name out there if I charge people just to see my work?
Statistics will show that today's musical artist makes most of their money in a year through live concerts/performances and only a fraction of it from album sales.... certainly not anything like it was in the past.
Music albums, singles on the radio, music videos on TV are only advertisements to buy your art, which is mostly the album, but most of the money is when the artist comes into town. Instead of charging you $18.95 for 13 tracks on a CD, they'll now get even more people sucked in charging them between $35.00 - $300 a ticket for a two-three hour live performance, while also charging you extra for food and drink you have there.... and additional merchandise on the way out, like more CD's, shirts, etc.
Now, to put this all together, Wouldn't it make more sense to allow your music to be downloaded and spread around the entire planet to get more listeners, to get more fans, thus eventually many more albums sold worldwide, compared to restricting access to your art and only selling regional, based on just the local radio stations to promote your music.
Besides, with the costs of albums today, the world economy, blah blah blah, many people would rather be able to sample an album first to determine if they want to spend money on it, or if it'd be a complete waste of money and it'd just collect dust on a shelf. It's not like the music downloaded is going to be of a better quality then the actual album. Mp3's compress sound quality, therefore you're never really getting the best unless you do get the album.
Also, nobody get's the official artwork & extra stuff that comes with an album. Getting music online not only helps out the artist in more ways then one, but also helps the fans of the artist. Someone interested can listen to their music, decide if they like it or chuck it.... and if they become a real fan, buy all their albums, go see their shows, get as much merchandise as possible, etc. etc....
And there are many people who are now fans of a band or artist whom if it wasn't for the internet and how the way things are now, they would have never known about them and that band/artist would never have gotten profit from that newly found fan.
Unfortunately some artists and bands can't look beyond what's in front of their face and can't see the bigger picture.... nor do the recording companies.... all they see are album sales dropping on them and going under. They don't adapt to the new way music is distributed..... they don't compensate by expanding their touring and live stuff.... they don't expand their album sales further then the country, when if they looked online, they'd see a teeming market for sales.
Just sell albums online.... charge the fan for shipping to their country.... they'll do it, and you just kept yourself going. I know of a number of bands who don't even sell in stores, but on just one or two web sites.... you send them in your money/credit card, they mail out a physical album straight to your home.... anywhere in the world.... or in most places at least.
But trying to add a tax on every media device
(And that tax was planned to apply to more then just Mp3 devices, but video recorders, digital cameras, memory cards, burnable discs, etc. etc.) is a foolish idea, doesn't solve the problem of pirating, punishes everybody who listens to music, including those who pay for it legally, thus promotes more people into downloading illegally.
