Spider Robinson Gets It

[unixronin]

Not that it should come as a surprise.  But go read his latest diary entry.  And so does Tom Rush, if you're into his music (I'll freely admit I've never heard of the man):

Dig this:

If you go to http://www.tomrush.com, you will be offered a chance to download several entire superb Tom Rush albums, for US$9.98 apiece.

Did that get through? Slip him a credit card number, flip him a sawbuck, he zips you a great plate. That's it. Downloads in seconds, unzips in a few more seconds-you're done. Import it into iTunes, transfer it to your iPod, good to go. Or, if you like, burn it onto a blank CD for another quarter, and now you have a Tom Rush album for only ten bucks and change. And Tom Rush gets to KEEP the whole $9.98.

Is that beautiful? You just did everything that a big record company does to justify keeping 90% of the money from a twenty-buck CD…and it cost you a quarter for a disc and however many pennies you spent being on the internet for five minutes. And, you didn't wait one minute for the package to arrive in the mail from amazon, or pay a penny in handling or taxes. An extra copy for the car stereo will cost you about a quarter.

It gets cooler: these particular albums are NOT AVAILABLE in any store or from amazon. The only ways in the world to get 'em are either to buy 'em at a Tom Rush concert…or to download 'em from his site and burn your own…at half the usual cost…all of which goes to the musician.

In the parody of a "legal agreement" window offered, Tom admits you can certainly rip him off if you want to, by burning fifty free copies for fifty friends, and he can't stop you. But he sure wishes you wouldn't, considering how cheap he's selling it, and he kindly asks you to just send your friends to his site instead, if you wouldn't mind.

I don't mind a damn bit.

Tom understands what I've been saying for decades: the only real answer to copyright theft is: don't rip people off in the first place. The real answer to piracy is: don't gouge. People would rather not rob you, unless you make it irresistibly attractive. Sell it at a fair price, and it's just easier for everybody to be honest.

Comments

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

Too bad Jef Raskin didn't invent the GUI.

-Ogre

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

No, Jef Raskin didn't invent the GUI. Xerox PARC invented the GUI, and both Jef and Bill Gates' crew ripped it off because Xerox let them. Jef was more like the Henry Ford or the Bill Boeing of GUI, he made it accessible. Or maybe more like the Tex Johnston of GUI... Tex was Bill Boeing's test pilot, what barrel-rolled the Dash-80 over Lake Washington during SeaFair with a bazillion people looking on. Said to an ashen-faced Bill Boeing: "Relax, Bill, I think he just sold your airplane."

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

That was my point.

-Ogre

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I think Spider can be forgiven that particular inaccuracy.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

He works for Jim Baen. He's seen the figures Eric Flint put up. Of course he Gets It.

Of course, I'd expect Jake Stonebender to Get It even without that influence.... After all, he's got Mike Callahan crawling around up there between his ears...

Thanks for the link. I'd no idea Spider had started a blog.

[koyote.livejournal.com]

sweeet. the real place to push this meme, of course, is indie/local groups. I'll start pinging any that I know.

[suzilem.livejournal.com]

Tom Rush. Ah. 1960s. Most specifically, "The Circle Game" written by Joni Mitchell (which is on the soundtrack for "The Strawberry Statement")

Yesterday a child came out to wonder
Caught a dragonfly inside a jar
Fearful when the sky was full of thunder
And tearful at the falling of a star
Then the child moved ten times round the seasons
Skated over ten clear frozen streams
Words like, when you’re older, must appease him
And promises of someday make his dreams
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and dawn
We’re captive on the carousel of time
We can’t return we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game.

Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now
Cartwheels turn to car wheels thru the town
And they tell him,
Take your time, it won’t be long now
Till you drag your feet to slow the circles down
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and dawn
We’re captive on the carousel of time
We can’t return we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game

So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty
Though his dreams have lost some grandeur
Coming true
There’ll be new dreams, maybe better dreams and plenty
Before the last revolving year is through.
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We’re captive on the carousel of time
We can’t return, we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game