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Story: 'Controlled' music copying okay - record industry group

But copying is "controlled" -- by the consumers, or by customers and users. Today everyone can control their own copying, and that's the way it should be. Everybody can copy the music they own, and share it with others. And that's culture. Culture is the stuff we share with each other.

So copying isn't a problem. If there is a problem, the problem is to make sure that musicians and artists get paid. But copying and file sharing generally don't seem to cause much problems for musicians and artists, according to many studies of the effects of copying and file sharing. Generally, file sharing and copying do not replace or reduce sales, and in fact often they have the opposite effect -- a marketing effect leading to increased sales.

There is no principal difference between "controlled music copying" (i.e., controlled by the big labels) and no copying. Both means that somebody else controls the music you "buy" and supposedly own; that someday you'll lose your music because you can't copy it to new media or new formats when you need to; and that a few moguls gain the power to lock-in and control the music and culture that should be accessible to everyone.

Mogul-controlled music copying is not okay.

Thomas Gramstad
thomas@efn.no
(President of Electronic Frontier Norway)
www.efn.no

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