Death to iTunes

my songs are on itunes to be purchased, not stolen

 

God bless those who go to itunes to purchase them.

And God bless those who buy their groceries at Whole Foods.

But there are cheaper places for groceries, and there are cheaper places to download music.

Plaschke's column is sitting in a newspaper rack that I am expected to pay 75 cents to obtain. Or I can obtain it for free somewhere else.

 

I think viewing satellite is more of a gray area since the signals are beamed to me. I didn't ask for the signals to come to my house. If a company can't encrypt its signal properly, that's their fault. (BTW, I pay for DirecTV)

Cable is a little different since you have to tamper with the cable companies' equipment to remove the traps.

 

OK, so singers and writers shouldn't be compensated for their work, or they should keep all their work rattling around in their head. Got it.

 

As usual, you add 2+2 and get 22.

Singers and writers can negotiate contracts. They can demand commercial royalties if, say, Monday Night Football wants to use their music in its intro. They can make their music easily available for a fee at itunes or someplace else (many people will buy). They can perform and go out on tour and sell merchandise and be compensated in many ways.

Just don't expect that everybody who listens to every piece of your music will compensate you every time . . . any more than Chris Jones or Gary Smith or S.L.Price should expect all of us to pay them every time we read them on the web.

 

Who's stopping them from receiving royalties?

 

It's a bit more subtle, but stealing cable usually involves physically hacking in to a network you have no right to physically access.

 

On the rare occasion that I have done some freelance work, I've had several of my articles show up on all kinds of random aggregation content mills. Doesn't bother me a bit.

 

They should absolutely be compensated. There are dozens of ways for them to be compensated that don't involve denying purchasers the fair right to make copies of their own property.