| Maybe I can add something valid from another perspective. First, I thought the point of this particular thread was the economic side of things - we know about all the other aspects of art and they aren't under discussion here. We're talking about having the dough to continue making art full-time. I used to be an academic - a little blip in my life where I was involved in literary criticism. We had to publish articles and books, and in them, we had to quote. Seeing as how this was, for the most part, an exercise in CV enhancement (for the university as well as personally), there was no money involved and nobody cared - we could quote from living authors' copyrighted works for academic rather than commercial purposes, but the publisher still had to get permission. However, the minute there was money involved, every concerned party wanted to be paid, so right of use cost money. What's the problem? Someone is using someone else's creation - for which copyright and intellectual property rights exist - to make money, so permission must be had and fees or percentages paid. How much sampling and remixing is for non-commercial use? Authors and performers and all of the other folks involved in the bit being used by the other person should be paid. If so-called consumers want to sample and remix and post stuff and share it with their friends - non-commercial use - we seem to have another issue. The software company that made the stuff the remixer is using is paid, the internet provider is paid, the host site is paid - everyone seems to get paid except the people who make the content other people are playing with. Is that just? Sure, an artist can say "Go ahead - knock yourself out", but this is a pretty good example of how so many people put artists on another level, as if money isn't and doesn't need to be a part of their lives. Magari!!! We have to eat, pay rent, buy stuff, some even have families and other economic responsibilities. What's wrong with paying artists for their work, just like everyone else with a legitimate gig? It baffles me that people still think artists don't "knead the dough" or it isn't important. Sure, we do what we love - but lots of other people do, too, and get paid for it. Money may not be important in an abstract sense, but it sure is necessary living here in the West. Doc Rossi On Oct 8, 2009, at 10:38 AM, Louigi Verona wrote: Hey guys! |