Re: An alternative to levies on copyright

João Miguel Neves wrote:
> The idea is simple: don't allow the author to sign away exclusive
> rights. Any contract on copyright related rights would have to be on a
> non-exclusive basis.
> 
> Why this is great: it puts the intermediaries in the hands of the
> author. If an author is not pleased with the service rendered it can
> always deal with others. If a work is very successful in the market, he
> can always try to get a better deal from the competition (providing a
> reason for the intermediary to treat their authors well). If new ways of
> exploring their work appear, then the author can exploit them on their
> own.
> 
> Downside: Works whose sales depend on huge marketing won't happen (no
> one will want to risk a huge investment if another intermediary can just
> come and collect the profits). BTW, I don't consider this really a
> disadvantage (Good works always depend more on word-of-mouth than on
> marketing).
> 
> Implementation advantage: it can be done today by authors on their own.
> One example of an "recording" company doing this is Magnatune
> <http://www.magnatune.com/>
> 
> So, do you think I'm on to something or I missed something obvious?

Well, you're not going to get the support of the record companies for
something like this (is that obvious enough?).  

Maybe talk to the 'downhillbattle.org' people -- once they have
destroyed the record industry, maybe they can push to have something
like this put in place.

The idea of splitting apart all the different roles in the record
industry seems appealing to me, i.e. funding from one place,
engineering and production from another, manufacturing and
distribution from another, marketing from another.  That way there is
the potential for the artist (or the artist's management company) to
choose the best people for the job and keep much more control over the
finances and rights.

Whether the record industry could ever be persuaded (or forced) to
work in this way, who can say ... ?

Jim

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