Re: [libreplanet-discuss] DRM is the straw man (was: buying CDs VS Digital Downloads)

[Fabio Pesari]

On 02/20/2016 02:25 AM, J.B. Nicholson wrote:
>
> There are sources that distribute DRM-free recordings that work excellently 
> with free software. Magnatune.com, for instance, will sell you unlimited 
> access to their library in a variety of formats (including FLAC) for a 
> one-time fee and they offer an SQLite database which catalogs all of their 
> current recordings at http://he3.magnatune.com/info/sqlite_magnatune.db.gz. 

While I appreciate Magnatune's offer, it is a cultural ghetto (you won't
find The Smiths, Depeche Mode or Nick Drake there), just like Jamendo.

I don't doubt there are good musicians releasing music on it, however
most of those artists are necessarily derivative of influential nonfree
music: for example, I can't imagine someone who makes progressive rock
and isn't in any way influenced by Pink Floyd, Genesis or Yes.

In short, especially if you are a musician, you will have a hard time
connecting with other people with similar musical tastes if you only
listen to music released on Magnatune.

One might say "who cares" but the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(Article 27) clearly states that participating in the cultural life of
the community is a fundamental right:

> Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the 
> community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its 
> benefits.

DRM is not the problem, and fighting it is a complete waste of time in
nearly all cases: people actually like services like Netflix and Spotify
because they are cheap, and this will *never* change unless proprietary
software is outright outlawed.

The real problem is copyright laws, because works in the public domain
could be distributed DRM-free by everyone.

An example of their unfairness: Miles Davis recorded his best tunes in
the 1950s and he died in 1991, and copyright on his music in many
countries lasts 70 years after his death (if it's not extended
infinitely by the current holders, the record labels). That's 2061 at
the very least, for music that is considered fundamental for our
culture. How can that be fair?

Then there's all those people who listen to nearly all music ever
released "for free" on Youtube and think we live in some kind of
post-copyright world. We don't, and in fact except for videos uploaded
by the labels themselves they are violating copyright, but thanks to the
DMCA this hypocrisy can continue to live on and Google at any point in
the future could report those people for having violated copyright laws.

Back to Magnatune, if you only listen to music released on it, you won't
have much of a cultural life. If that has to be case, you might as well
go all the way and listen to libre music exclusively, and prevent this
bullshit from happening in the future.