Aufgelesen

Demokratie ist, Downloads zu legalisieren

Aaron Swartz hatte der New York Times auf Anfrage ein feines Stück Text geschickt und darin (Musik-)Downloads verteidigt. Die NYT hat den Text nicht gedruckt ("The Times had decided not to tell kids to break the law") - daher stand er bei Aaron im Weblog - und, ungekürzt nun hier:
Stealing is wrong. But downloading isn’t stealing. If I shoplift an album from my local record store, no one else can buy it. But when I download a song, no one loses it and another person gets it. There’s no ethical problem.
Music companies blame a fifteen percent drop in sales since 2000 on downloading. But over the same period, there was a recession, a price hike, a 25% cut in new releases, and a lack of popular new artists. Factoring all that in, maybe downloading increases sales. And 90% of the catalog of the major labels isn’t for sale anymore. The Internet is the only way to hear this music.
Even if downloading did hurt sales, that doesn’t make it unethical. Libraries and video stores (neither of which pay per rental) hurt sales too. Is it unethical to use them?
Downloading may be illegal. But 60 million people used Napster and only 50 million voted for Bush or Gore. We live in a democracy. If the people want to share files then the law should be changed to let them.
And there’s a fair way to change it. A Harvard professor found that a $60/yr. charge for broadband users would make up for all lost revenues. The government would give it to the affected artists and, in return, make downloading legal, sparking easier-to-use systems and more shared music. The artists get more money and you get more music. What’s unethical about that?

Footnotes:

“a fifteen percent drop in sales since 2000”: This is from the RIAA’s own chart. In 1999, they sold 938.9M CDs, in 2002 they sold 803.3M. (938.9-803.3)/938.9 ~= .14 (so it’s really closer to 14%, but we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and say 15%).

“a 25% cut in new releases”: It depends on how you count. The RIAA says they released 38,900 new releases in 1999. According to SoundScan the RIAA released 31,734 new releases in 2001, leading to an 18% drop. This isn’t really fair, since we’re using RIAA numbers for 1999 and SoundScan numbers for 2001, and SoundScan probably doesn’t count as many albums as the RIAA does. However, the RIAA said in early 2003 that they released 27,000 new albums the previously year. Apparently embarassed by this information, they’ve since removed it from their website. But if you use their numbers, you get a 31% drop. I’ve split the difference and called it a 25% cut. But I could change this to 30% or 20% if you wanted; I don’t think it would change the argument.

“90% of the major label’s catalog isn’t available for sale”: speech by Ken Hertz

“60 million people used Napster”: according to the New York Times

“50 million voted for Bush or Gore”: according to CNN

“A Harvard professor found that a $60 per year tax on broadband connections would make up for all lost music and movie sales”: see Terry Fisher, Promises to Keep. “Assuming that the ISPs pass through to consumers the entire amount of the tax, that average fee would rise by $4.88 per month” (p. 31) 4.88*12 ~= 59, so I say $60/yr.