From: Peter Gannushkin <shkin@shkin.com>
Hello Steve,
Saturday, November 30, 2002, you wrote:
Cac> Please tell me why, if someone copies and keeps one of our releases, thereby Cac> depriving me of the sale of that release and our artist for the payment of Cac> the sale of that release, why this *isn't* theft?
Pretty simple. Lets say I'm making hamburgers and selling them. You bought one, tasted it and then made copies of it, invited friends and you ate them. Did you steal something from me? No. Did I get less money because you didn't buy hamburgers from me, but copied them instead? Yes. Was it theft? Of course not. Now, tell me, what is the difference?
Christ, are you serious? Curlew has a particular hamburger that they own the rights to. They contract with Steve/Cuneiform to distribute that particular hamburger. Copies of an artwork are not like copies of a generic foodstuff like hamburgers. If you manage to duplicate Curlew's blend of eleven herbs and spices in your CD burner and can create exact copies of Curlew's hamburger, you are cutting into Curlew's rights as an artist and Steve's rights (agreed into by contract) as distributor of the Curlewburger. You are stealing Curlew's and Steve's right to profit from Curlewburgers. There are Britneyburgers and Curlewburgers and Burnt Weeny Sandwiches and Bingcrosbyburgers. We're not talking about "hamburgers" here. We're talking about aural artworks, and your "reductio ad absurdem" is heavy on the "absurdem." Are you saying there's no difference in the flavor between a Britneyburger and a Curlewburger? Because the flavor difference is what Curlew has contracted with Steve to market, and the special picquance of a Britneyburger (urgh, my stomach is rolling) is what she's contracted with whatever-the-fuck-her-label-is to market. Copying CDs is theft. It just is. Instead of that question, we need to be talking about when and where the theft is justified. And sorry Steve-at-Cuneiform, I think sometimes it is. Ah'm Hongry! William Crump
On Sat, 30 Nov 2002 17:21:28 -0600 "William Crump" <crumpw@bellsouth.net> wrote:
Curlew has a particular hamburger that they own the rights to. They contract with Steve/Cuneiform to distribute that particular hamburger. Copies of an artwork are not like copies of a generic foodstuff like hamburgers. If you manage to duplicate Curlew's blend of eleven herbs and spices in your CD burner and can create exact copies of Curlew's hamburger, you are cutting into Curlew's rights as an artist and Steve's rights (agreed into by contract) as distributor of the Curlewburger. You are stealing Curlew's and Steve's right to profit from Curlewburgers.
I suspect that a burger is rather more like a live performance than a CD. Chez Panisse (around the corner from me, but maddeningly out of my price range) will happily sell you books of their recipes, knowing that you'll try to cook them at home. But your result will almost undoubtedly not be as good as theirs, and also will not come with the restaurant's ambience, so you'll be likely to return to the restaurant, perhaps with even a greater appreciation of the food. Musically speaking, the recipe book might be analogous to a detailed transcription of a performance. Yes, you can learn to play every note of the transcription of the "Kind of Blue" album, but you're not going to end up sounding like that band, and might appreciate it more. OTOH, I suspect restaurants that contemplate the far future get the willies when they contemplate the Star Trek food replicators and holodeck. -- | jzitt@josephzitt.com http://www.josephzitt.com/ | | GPG: A4224EFA http://www.mp3.com/josephzitt/ | | == New book: Surprise Me with Beauty: the Music of Human Systems == | | Comma / Gray Code / VoiceWAVE Silence: the John Cage Discussion List |
participants (2)
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Joseph Zitt -
William Crump