k wrote:
] I'd like to think that ultimately the dust will settle and a
] compromise will be found...

I wish I shared your optimism. I don't. This debate started in the 70's when Bill Gates wrote his famous letter to the home brew computer club complaining about people pirating Microsoft products. Since then it has become more and more widespread, impacted more industries and institutions, and it shows little sign of abating.

The impact that things like Linux and P2P file sharing networks are having on industry today is massive and dwarfs anything we've seen in the past 30 years.

There is no compromise that can be found. Whether you are talking about movies, music, articles, books, software, medicines, designs for electronics.... Everything that matters is Intellectual Property.

We have various ideas about how to construct economic systems in our society. They all relate to the distribution of goods and services. Ideas are neither goods nor services. We've set up a very naked emperor here. We pretend that ideas are goods. We punish anyone who doesn't go along with it.

This might have been sustainable when ideas accounted for 5% of GNP, but sooner or later we are going to have to face the fact that we don't know how to build an idea economy.

What makes matters worse is that we've pushed our little ruse to its absolute limits. Copyrights are perpetual. Things that are too obvious to write about are patented. The idea that what we're doing is promoting science and arts is hardly discussed or considered. We're clearly not incenting artists and scientists and engineers. The former two are considered poor professional choices from an economic standpoint and the later is quickly going the ranks. We're entrenching our economy, not based on the beleif that it brings out the best ideas in us, but based on an interest in protecting the physical things influential people garner from it. We're incenting lawyers. We're ensuring present investors make a solid return even if the model doesn't make sense.

Compromise would require the RIAA to put art before their economic interests. Thats just not going to happen. Nor will you see it from anyone else in their position.

We're blowing a bubble. Its a huge, glaring contradiction in our method of organizing our society, and its getting bigger and bigger and bigger with each passing year. This bubble is going to pop. But don't worry, it'll take a few more decades.

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