Life in the Network

This debate or fight if you might call it has been raging for quite some time. I guess if I were to take sides i would definitely be leaning more towards the side of ethics rather then trying to just follow the laws of copyright because we have some execs getting their underwear all up in a bunch because of basically free advertising. Im not entirely sure as to why these companies or big wig record companies are really getting all that upset. Barlow makes the statement, "The RIAA is unalterably convinced that the easy availability of freely downloadable commercial songs will bring on the apocalypse, and yet, during the two years since MP3 music began flooding the Net, CD sales have risen by 20 percent. " The issue is not that record companies are struggling to make money, but there just seems to be a stubborn scent floating through the laws of copyright and those acts passed by congress to these related issues that they are just finding it hard to actually jump into the reality of what the net has become and where it is going. Barlow also makes a fantastic point when he states, "No law can be successfully imposed on a huge population that does not morally support it and possesses easy means for its invisible evasion." This is quite an issue that cannot be won in court. It is not feesible to try and prosecute 20 million plus users of persay illegally downloaded content. "Even though entertainment execs are exceptionally slow learners, they will eventually realize what they should have understood long ago: The free proliferation of expression does not decrease its commercial value. Free access increases it, and should be encouraged rather than stymied." This one ideal that I think will take quite some time to come into its own. As Barlow also pointed out we will just have to be dragged through litigation until something extremely proactive in cryptology occurs or the laws become a moot point and the system actually does fall back onto some kind of ethical cushion. "It's captivating to think about how much more freedom there will be for the truly creative when the truly cynical have been dealt out of the game." Once again an ideal that will take some time to come into effect. The reason why there will always be pirated content is because of the creative geniuses that exist and in reality are actually in the business of free advertising for big record mogul cynics.
Now to try and adress this wonderful issue of DRM' sand the role they are playing. In my opinion the lack therof in effectiveness. After reading the articles with regards to these DRM's it seems as though apple and even the rest of the companies that employ these wonderful hurdles are just prolonging the inevitable. This DRM media is only accounting for 3% of total content sales, the rest of the 97% of content are mostly generated by users or pirated, or P2P sharing. "With regards to the DRM..... If such requirements were removed, the music industry might experience an influx of new companies willing to invest in innovative new stores and players. This can only be seen as a positive by the music companies." This mindset has to be embraced by american companies. Oversea distributors of mp3's over the net will be taking over sales sooner or later if American content generators don't start working together with the creative people of this internet day. I get all of my music through russian mp3 sites because its 8 times cheaper than itunes and can be placed into any format you like and copied as many times as you want. We are just slightly behind on the bandwagon of internet file sharing. It is still viewed as a negative when it should be seen as a positive.