Don Henley wants to censor the internet in the name of Copyright.
Who knew that by writing a few songs which ended up being popular gave him (the creator) so much power to get legislation changed. As Peter Parker’s grandfather said, “with great power comes great responsibility”.
It feels like this whole industry of “intellectual property” is becoming more a police state than anything that’s meant to foster creativity.
And while Henley is testifying, there is one crucial segment which is not represented for these Copyright discussions.
From a U.S point of view, that is 229 million American adults who use the Internet to pay bills, to learn, to work, to socialize, to watch content they pay for and to create.
And the public is not part of the conversation and it’s the public who have their rights taken away to please the corporations who hold the rights to content.
These corporations, like the Majors (Sony, Universal And Warner) won a suit against telecommunications company Cox for $1 billion.
They convinced a judge and jury that the ISP is responsible for policing what its users do with their internet access.
If only we can hold the gun makers and knife makers accountable for what their users do with their devices.
Imagine that.
And instead of the labels doing something worthwhile to compete in a vast changing marketplace for the creators they claim to represent, they want the ISPs to play the Copyright Cop for them.
The majority of income the labels get, comes from streaming services and mp3 downloads. And none of these services were created by the labels.
But they still want stronger Copyright restrictions because apparently piracy still exists.
Come on. Really.
Warner Music was valued at $2 billion in 2004 and today its valued at $15 billion.
And 10% of the population will never pay for content. Michael Eisner from Disney said that once upon a time. So why bother with them.
How crazy will Copyright get?
A lot more crazier than right now because the public is never in the discussion.
I just commented at Max’s site the other day when Henley drummed for Guns at Farm Aid 30 years ago! Henley is so grumpy looking all the time was the other remark I made. lol
I read some of his testimony and it feels like someone has stolen some of his cheese and his really bitter about it.
But I still dig his tunes.
Yeah I do too but he’s still grumpy lol