Copyright issues have been a frequent topic of Murphy's posts. We return to this theme today. An article. from ars discusses the multiple and varied voices that have spoken out to debunk the myth, propogated by Big Content, that P2P is the singular cause of decreasing revenues and job loss in the music industry. That this myth is a load of malarkey has been effectively demonstrated by likes such as Lawrence Lessig and EFF. However, the ars article expands the typical circle of P2P-as-Bogeyman skeptics to include officials from the EU and even longtime members of the music industry.
These new critics essentially rehash what has already been committed to paper by Lessig: primarily that the growth of P2P was not a product of rejecting the content industry wholesale, but rather a response to the failure of Big Content to give the consumer what she wanted. Certainly, there are always going to be individuals who want something for nothing. Piracy in some form or another has been a part of human societies going back to the beginning. However, pirates form a small minority of the consuming public. Most consumers wish to support artists and understand that paying for content helps to accomplish that end. The rise of P2P did not signal any sort of move away from this desire. Rather, it signalled frustration with the reactionary policies initiated by Big Content to tighten restrictions on what consumers could do with purchased content.
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