Brazil Considering Legalizing File Sharing 233
An anonymous reader writes "It looks like Brazil may be the country to watch if you're interested in much more consumer-friendly copyright laws (assuming US diplomatic pressure doesn't interfere). As that country goes through a copyright reform process, among the proposals is one that would create fines not just for infringing, but also for hindering fair use and the public domain. Also, there is a big push underway, with widespread support — even from some artists groups — to legalize file sharing in exchange for a small levy (~$1.74/month) on your broadband connection. Of course, one reason why Brazil may be doing it this way is because of the massive success the Brazilian musical genre technobrega has had by embracing file sharing as a way to promote new works, and making money (often lots of it) through other avenues, like live shows."
Re: Levy (Score:3, Interesting)
What is a little weird about this model is that it ultimately creates a quasi-governmental funding basis for the arts: everyone pays a flat fee that gives them unfettered access to all the world's music (film, etc.) - then, who decides how that money is allocated?
Gee, what a concept (Score:5, Interesting)
Musicians making money from performing music to live audiences. You know, the way they did for thousands of years (figuratively speaking).
Its only in the last 200 years or so that we have had the idea that musicians should make money for a recording of their performance. Perhaps that was the real mistaken concept, and filesharing/easily created copies of musical recordings are merely bringing things back to normal.
I don't download music at all. I also don't buy it. I barely ever listen to it outside of occasionally turning on a rock station in the car. I don't miss it much either.
Honestly, since there is no way they are ever going to stop filesharing, its not a bad idea to legalize it IMHO. Its like legalizing marijuana. It wouldn't hurt anyone if they did that in my opinion, but it would let the government tax the sales. Perhaps thats a solution? Let the government tax your time on a P2P network? Nah
Nobody? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:No more HollyWood films in ... (Score:4, Interesting)
Yeah. Hollywood's going to close down because people can freely share their movies in another country.
Re:No more HollyWood films in ... (Score:1, Interesting)
The US exports and produces very little, almost everything is manufactured in Asia or some developing country with cheap labour.
Uh-huh. That's why the US has exports over 1 trillion dollars? And believe it or not, the US does make a lot of things, just not so much in the way of junk volume good. Instead the US basically makes the parts that make up the factories that make those Asian goods.
Funny how that works.
Re:No more HollyWood films in ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Well the problem (Score:3, Interesting)
Create the first few missions and release them. Tell people that if they like what they see, they should pay/donate to you to create more.
Isn't that much better? We pay artists to create, not to make copies
Re:Who would have thought (Score:4, Interesting)
Now, suddenly any schmuck can make a perfect copy of a CD and distribute it to millions of his closest friends on the Internet.
Long story short you could make many really good analog copies of the first generations, but it didn't last and one person with bad equipment destroyed the chain. What changed with perfect copies as opposed to near-perfect copies is that you can have infinite generations. You don't need to give it to a million friends, only a few as long as they in total pass it on to more people. It's a little bit like a nuke going of, if you have a ratio >1 there's a chain reaction until you run out of reactive material.
Fractional people sound silly so let's just start with 10 people having it and each giving it to 1.2 people on average. So those 10 give it to 10*1.2 = 12. Those 12 give it to 12*1.2 = ~14. Those 14 give it to 14*1.2 = ~17. Those 17 give it to 17*1.2 = ~20 and so it keeps going growing exponentially with 1.2^n until you run out of people who'd want it. And nobody did more than share a little over one copy. There is no big bad wolf, only many equal peers.
Re:Who would have thought (Score:1, Interesting)
Computers have also lead that there are a more than a dozen composer that create studio qualite work in each and every neighbourhood.
If I were dependent on a business where people would be willing to do my work for free just because they think it is fun then I would really reconsider what the fsck I was doing.
Re:File sharing is already legal (Score:3, Interesting)
The distinction is both important and meaningless. File sharing itself is not illegal, but the term is usually applied to what the protocols are used for: copyright infringement. It's a much less loaded term than "piracy" when used in a formal sense.
You can make the argument that piracy is too harsh a word for individual copyright infringment, but you could also make the argument that "file sharing" in the context of infringement is basically a way of legitimizing something illegal... a kind of PR. Calling it file sharing is a bit like calling illegal aliens "undocumented workers". It's a kind of spin.
Re:No more HollyWood films in ... (Score:5, Interesting)
I've spent a fair amount of time in Brazil in the past decade. If you wanted to position yourself to live in a country that's going to be in really good shape over the next few decades, with good quality of life and vibrant economies, you could do a lot worse than learning Portuguese and moving to Sao Paolo or Campinas or any of several smaller cities in Brazil.
There really seems to be a progressive spirit and socially responsible direction to the way Brazil is heading. There are still plenty of problems, as you would expect in a country so large and so relatively young. But they seem to be proving that you can be a developing country that will compete in the world economy without selling out entirely to corporate interests. It's not entirely paradise, but there are places in Brazil where you'd think you died and gone to heaven. There are opportunities there. And even in Rio de Janeiro, where there are horribly poor slums and rampant corruption, there are indications that things might turn around. They're smart enough to be taking the bits of European Socialism that work best, and the bits of capitalism that seem to work, and not worrying about what America and Morgan Chase think.
Brazil is destined to be a success story, I think. And a good example for other South American countries. At least it'll be a success as long as the US can keep from sending assassins to take out any political leader who dares speak to Hugo Chavez, and putting in some military dictator so the corporations can rape Brazil too.
Re:Gee, what a concept (Score:4, Interesting)
Yet, that music would still be played. I make beer, cider, wine, paint and produce lots of other stuff that no one pays me to make. I give most of it away as I could never use it all. I still even have a day job. We would be far better off with more people creating art/music/culture and them making less money at it. You might still have a few big stars, but not everything is done for love of money.
Re:Taxes (Score:3, Interesting)
How exactly can the government be expected to "fight music piracy" any better?
I would expect that in any reasonable society protecting a government granted monopoly from noncommercial infringement would rank pretty low on the scale of stuff to worry about. I would expect in a society with as bad a wealth distribution, and all that entails, as Brazil would make that even lower on the scale of stuff to worry about.
levy (Score:3, Interesting)
Fuck that. I don't infringe copyright. Don't steal my money. No new, undiscovered band is going to see this money. It's no different than taking money from the subscribers and giving it to Microsoft, because someone might download MS Office.
Re:No more HollyWood films in ... (Score:2, Interesting)
If the US loses the Brazilian presidential elections this year, we(Brazilians) will be in world of shit. I have already seen a few minor US news articles in which Brazil is is honored with the hip tag "enemy state", and grouped with Cuba, North Korea, Syria, Iran and Libya. It should be interesting observing a "crisis of democracy" first hand, notice how government had to contest to audit the Brazilian voting machines a while ago.
Re:Gee, what a concept (Score:2, Interesting)
Musicians making money from performing music to live audiences. You know, the way they did for thousands of years (figuratively speaking).
Its only in the last 200 years or so that we have had the idea that musicians should make money for a recording of their performance. Perhaps that was the real mistaken concept, and filesharing/easily created copies of musical recordings are merely bringing things back to normal.
It was also an artistically very liberating concept. It allowed musicians to create music that is not meant to be reproduced in front of and by live audiences., or which cannot be. It freed music of some of its functional restraints. In this way, it increased the range of the arts and contributed to an extension of our view of the world and the way we experience it. Much of the "serious" music of the 20th century belongs into this category, but also large parts of contemporary electronica.
At the same time, and intertwined with the former, it created economic independence for hitherto unknown numbers of musicians, exploitation by large and small labels as well as ridiculous excesses of accumulation by a few notwithstanding.
You may be right that this concept has reached the end of its economic feasibility, and you certainly are right that it will have to be replaced at least partially with something else. But just as well you would be wrong to pretend that nothing of value would be lost.
Re:Who would have thought (Score:2, Interesting)
Instead -as the intent of copyright law as it was granted- the law serving to help artists against publishers, it is now more of a law used against the very people which grant it, in general.
Re:Gee, what a concept (Score:3, Interesting)
My music money is to go to artists that I like. Plain and simple. That are the artists that I want to continue playing.
Yes that's egoistic. But I couldn't care less if Britney Spears ran out of money and stopped producing music.
However my taste is not everyone else's taste. Other people may want to support other artists, which is also fine with me. There are a lot of other people who do like Britney and are happy to support them with their money.
Nothing wrong with that either.
And in the end we have a huge field of musicians. Some make lots of money, as they have many fans. Others can come by nicely because they make some interesting innovative music that appeals to quite some people. Others maybe don't make much, maybe they are not that good, or just not well known (yet), still they will continue to play because they like it. And that's good too. Maybe they are good musicians, then good chance they will get known and start receiving more income. If only from ticket sales for their concerts.
And incidentally it's this last and largest group of musicians that can benefit most from file sharing, as that's how they can gain an audience.