Interesting Tim O'Reilly article. - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

14 Dec 2002

...
 You think the *public* has control over that? Yeah,
yeah, people vote with
their wallets, but before they do that the candidate CDs have to be made
available for puchase. The record companies control that, and they also
control the amount of promotion that a particular candidate gets.
Promotional agencies like MTV play right into the herd mentality of pop
music buyers, convincing a few that the herd is buying album X. Those few
buy album X, and then the rest of the herd follows suit. Essentially people
are *told* what to buy. 
As much as it was a farce comedy, the movie Josie and the Pussycats shows 
almost exactly what the RIAA/MPAA would love nothing more than to have 
(and discount the subliminals, they are just about there already).

...
 Do you think that P2P is going to damage this control
system? 
Potentially. Right now, the public has no choice... if a studio doesn't 
want to promote an artist (can we still call them that?), the public has 
no access to their music. P2P removes the studio from the flow control. 
It is now possible for a small garage band to record their own music... 
AND get wide spread distribution via P2P sharing. Essentially, the need 
for the recording studio at all is starting to disappear.

THAT is what scares the hell out of them, and THAT is the heart of all 
their complaints and cries for new laws. They are doing nothing more than 
trying to secure the need for their own existance (with the wonderful 
side effect of being able to have total control over what we see and hear 
at all times)

-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>