
Bassnectar responds regarding music piracy - Syama
http://www.bassnectar.net/2011/08/fan-bass-leaked-music/
======
kingkawn
It's also interesting to see how much less serious this is to musicians and
producers who weren't in the business before the mp3. This is the only world
he knows, so he knows how to work it.

~~~
cageface
It also sounds like he derives a lot of revenue from a healthy live following.
Musicians that aren't as performance-oriented are probably less sanguine about
this.

~~~
r0s
Like Jonathan Coulton?

[http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/05/14/136279162/an-
inter...](http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/05/14/136279162/an-internet-
rock-star-tells-all?ft=1&f=1106)

I'd argue the opportunities for digital distribution far outweigh the risky
and extremely limited opportunities of traditional physical media. The smaller
artist has a major lack of publicity muscle. Piracy can provide just that; on
a potential scale almost completely inaccessible to unknown artists.

I work for a small record label, I understand the problem very well.

------
nextparadigms
Always great to see artists' perspective on "piracy", the people actually
making that "copyrighted work" and having to make a living out of it, rather
than the opinion of the big corporations.

~~~
patio11
_Always great to see artists' perspective on "piracy"_

Do you mean that sincerely, or do you mean it is always great to see artists'
perspective on "piracy" when they're equivalent to your perspective on piracy?

I make a living selling "copyrighted work", and it determines whether I eat on
any given day. I am not a big corporation. I think pirates are value-
destroying parasites, and their justifications are self-serving proto-
philosophy drizzled over gigantic entitlement issues. The fundamental
justification for piracy is that stealing stuff is a lot preferable to buying
stuff if stealing stuff carries no social cost to it.

I implement DRM and, worse to pirates, changes to business models which are
100% effective DRM++: put the bits which need protecting on your server, gate
access to them based on payment. This both helps me continue eating and gives
me that piece of mind that only people who are not getting their stuff stolen
have.

That is just this artist's perspective, of course.

~~~
slowpoke
Oh dear, where do I start...

First off, _stealing_.

I don't give a crap how often you and others like you spout this bullshit, it
doesn't make it any more correct. It's not stealing. It never was, it never
will be. If you are unable to understand the consequences of digital media,
that's a pity, but not the fault of the evil, evil pirates.

Second, that's a pretty nice appeal to emotion. Frankly, I don't give half a
fuck whether you starve to death. If your business model cannot keep up with
technology and you refuse to adapt (or worse, try to fight the change, which
is ultimately a losing battle to everyone's detriment, _including_ you),
that's _your_ fault. The evil, evil pirates are just a convenient excuse.

Third, if you really /need/ all this bullshit to get people to buy your stuff,
then your doing something very, very wrong. Deliver a good product at a
reasonable price and people will be happy to pay for it. Stop developing
_against_ the evil, evil pirates but instead _for_ your valid costumers.

Fourth, if 'free culture/software' is a 'self-serving proto-philosophy
drizzled over gigantic entitlement issues' to you, I can't help but feel sorry
for you.

~~~
patio11
Hiya Slowpoke. You seem to be new to HN. That's cool. We're very much unlike
some other Internet communities which you've spent time on. In particular, we
place a wee bit of emphasis on treating people like they are people, even when
interacting with them over HTTP.

My name is Patrick. Pleased to meet you. I run a business which helps teach
little kids to read, and spend a lot of time on HN as my hobby. A lot of HNers
know me, have spoken to me, or have shaken my hand in person, because I'm a
fairly personable guy. Most do not say "Hello Patrick, pleased to meet you, I
don't give half a fuck whether you starve to death." That would be a wee bit
uncouth.

We have guidelines here for the community's consensus on talking to each
other: <http://ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html>

I'd also like to leave you with a video from Derek Sivers, who also happens to
be a HNer. I think the lesson is rather important.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfwwHa-7Ux8>

~~~
saturn
While slowpoke's rudeness is to be deplored, you set yourself up for that.
Attempting to tie your survival (ie whether you eat) with a political concept
(support, or otherwise, of the current intellectual property regime) is a
pretty poor argument. "Either you agree with me, or you want me to starve to
death!"

I also don't appreciate the call to some kind of moral high ground - "I run a
business which helps teach little kids to read". Yeah yeah. Maybe slowpoke has
devoted his life to curing cancer in kittens. Wouldn't make any difference to
his argument, either.

~~~
joshuacc
"I also don't appreciate the call to some kind of moral high ground ...
Wouldn't make any difference to his argument, either."

In fact, the moral standing of participants in an argument does make a
difference. It informs us regarding the credibility of their moral judgment.
For example, the moral judgment of someone who knocks over convenience stores
for a living is probably a wee bit less reliable than the moral judgment of
someone who spends his time serving the poor in soup kitchens.

~~~
saturn
Well, at the risk of further downvotes, I think that's totally irrelevant. No-
one is down at the soup kitchen asking what the volunteers have to say about
intellectual property reform. It is a complicated topic and the personal
altruism of the person making the argument has basically nothing to do with
anything.

------
maqr
These views about piracy seem almost identical to the pirates' views about
piracy.

Many nfo files include things like "try before buy" or "if you like this
release, please buy it".

