13 Dec
2002
13 Dec
'02
9:53 a.m.
On Thu, 12 Dec 2002, Wayne M. Smith wrote:
I became dubious as soon as he trotted out the
"sample-then-buy" myth. While
this argument might not have been laughable 4-5 years ago before CD burners were
cheap and widespread, it's preposterous today. The rest is largely "blame the
victim" drivel in the form of
"you-haven't-given-us-what-we-want-in-the-form-we-want-it-so-that-justifies-our-
stealing-it-from-you-until-you-do" -- or as O'Reilly cutely puts it "Give
the
Wookie what he wants."
Hi Wayne.
I don't find it preposterous at all. I burned one CD of Napster-derived
Jimi Hendrix music that I liked (and passed a couple copies around). I
bought probably 10-15 CDs based on music I had discovered through
Napster.
I reward artists that make music I like by buying their albums. I suspect
I am not alone.
Ever since Napster went away I have returned to my normal buying habits of
1-2 CDs per 6 months. The drivel being played on the radio does not
compel me to go to the store.
If you buy that, then you probably subscribe to that
mainstay of the hacker apocrypha that Jon Johansen created DeCSS because he
wanted to view DVDs on a Linux machine. Right.
Yes, I buy that. There is nothing wrong with DeCSS, just like there is
nothing wrong with a radio scanner, a lockpick set, a gun, etc. They are
all just tools.
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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