

Free Ride: how digital parasites are destroying the culture business (2011) - galapago
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/books/review/free-ride-how-digital-parasites-are-destroying-the-culture-business-and-how-the-culture-business-can-fight-back-by-robert-levine.html?pagewanted=all

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bediger4000
Why post this 2011 (and arguably totally false) editorial now, in 2015?
Because it's filled with odd things like:

 _In “Free Ride,” a book that should change the debate about the future of
culture..._

Did "Free Ride" change the debate? Not that I can tell. MPAA, RIAA and a lot
of other folks want to strengthen copyright, a lot. Instead of an incentive to
produce, copyright becomes ownership of ideas, a culture-crippling idea if
there ever was one.

 _...the 1998 law [DMCA] was supposed to balance the interests of tech
companies with those of artists and media companies. He now expresses regret
that it has had the unintended consequence of making the fortunes of tech
companies while devastating artists and media companies._

Let's see, a quick search
([http://boxofficemojo.com/yearly/](http://boxofficemojo.com/yearly/)) shows
us that even with "Hollywood Accounting", yearly box office revenue appears
constant over the last 3 years. There's also a general upward trend. Too bad
we don't really have accurate numbers on this.

Again, why post this? To mock the article's bizarre assertions because of our
20/20 hindsight in 2015? To try to get the editorial's falsehoods out in
public again, to maintain the Big Lie? Or for some other reason, because I'm
scratching my head.

