Here is a not altogether fictive story without happy end:
Some people like and collect operas. In Munich, their paradise is at “Beck am Rathauseck”, because Beck has an exquisite music shop. Every collector coming to Munich will drift towards the place. Here, he will find CDs with opera recordings that you will have to look hard to find anywhere else.
Mostly, he will find what he has been looking for and buy a few rare or totally new recordings. Consequently, his collection of CDs with operatic music will continue to grow all the time. First he celebrates the hundredth recording, then number 200, 300 and eventually 500. No matter how large his collection, he will always find many recordings he still wants.
The CDs will continue to get heavier and heavier, weighing down the shelves with pound after pound of material. There will no longer be any structure or system to the collection. To rectify this deficiency, he will store all titles in a database, before eventually copying all the CDs on the PC hard disk.
From then on, the CDs will no longer be needed. The collector will probably keep them for nostalgic reasons. Incidentally, however, nobody knows the physical life period of a CD. But a private PC also has its disadvantages. You have to save your data at regular intervals, which is inconvenient. So you come up with the idea of copying your operas onto a secure server.
Now let us assume that there is another collector who has the same hobby and the same problem. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to use the server together? So the collectors combine forces and copy all their CDs onto a server. The collection will grow quickly.
It turns out there are even more friends of operatic music. With time, a “community” is built – they all copy their goodies to the server and enjoy all the songs. Now you want to be careful! This can easily end up being called a music exchange market. Nobody really knows how long this kind of activity is legal and where you reach the point of turning illegal. Will the friend of operatic music eventually face prison time?
And in some way or other, it does make sense, doesn’t it? Why should anybody bother to buy CDs if you can easily get everything on the exchange market? Poor “Beck am Rathauseck”. And poor music editors. And very poor entertainment industry, indeed.
But what exactly is the damage (as far as business turnover is concerned)? And how much of it is justified? Do the modern copyright laws still fit modern times? How much protection is appropriate for melodies and texts, for example, opera texts?
Here is another question: maybe we should protect the users, for instance from the concerns?
The day before yesterday, I read that the world’s 3,000 biggest enterprises caused damage to nature to the tune of 1.7 billion Euros by abuse of resources, air and water pollution and the dying of species they are the ultimate reason for. Remember that nature is the most precious capital we humans have on this planet!
Is this all in fair proportion? Or is it another example of what happens so often: the small wrongdoers are hanged, while the big ones are home free?
RMD
(Translated by EG)
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