14 Dec
2002
14 Dec
'02
9:32 a.m.
On Fri, 13 Dec 2002, Wayne M. Smith wrote:
As others have pointed out, what are the alternatives? Offer a viable,
reasonably affordable alternative and the customers will come. Cling
pathetically to an increasingly outmoded business model and you will be
relegated to the dustbin of history.
Exactly. So then I take it you agree there was nothing inherently wrong
with creating DeCSS, but in how it is used?
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
* Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *
I reward
artists that make music I like by buying their albums. I suspect
I am not alone.
You are in the vast majority, but it only takes a small minority engaged in
theft to turn the economics of the business upside down. The LA Times ran an
article last week where they interviewed college students about music buying
habits. Student after student stated that they hadn't bought a CD in a few
years, and offered all the usual justifications -- greedy recording industry,
rich artist, etc. No one mentions all the employees -- who rely on those greedy
artists et al. for jobs -- who have been laid off as sales have turned down. 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.
I agree, in general. But you could say that a nuclear device is a tool as well.
It's all in that "how you use it" thing.