Re: Re: [LUNI] Forgive me OT (MP3)

On Thu, Jul 04, 2002 at 04:21:39PM -0500, Vitaly McLain wrote:
> Moved from LUNI.

Good, 'cause I'm going to push off into even more untopical waters.  :-)

> I try to buy CDs instead of downloading MP3s, although my MP3 directory is
> 1.57Gb in size. I usually download a few MP3s, see if I like the artist, and
> if I do, I purchase the CD. Thus, my MP3 winds up being for preview
> purposes/discovering new artists, not for ripping anyone off.

Which is the way most of the world works.

I was going to write more about this, but I think I'll just point to Baen's
website, in particular the free library and Eric Flint's essays on why Baen
is giving away free e-editions - entire, complete books - of many of its
authors' titles.  The short form is that they expect it to make them more
money.  Eric has written about that in various of the "Prime Palaver"
essays - see #7, for example, for discussion of some admittedtly limited,
preliminary results - but they're REAL results, unlike the groundless
"billions and billions" handwaving the RIAA and Hollywood keep tossing off.

That's enough.  If the issue interests you, you want to take a look at
Baen's library and webscriptions program, and Eric's ongoing discussion of
these matters:

www.baen.com			the top page, of course

www.baen.com/library/		the free library, with link to the palavers
				(its all in frames from here on, alas)

Non-random sig this time, for obvious reasons.  :-)

-- 
Here's my message to the record industry and its allies:
I'm not a thief.  I'm a customer.  When you treat me like a
thief, I won't be your customer.  -- Dan Gillmor