“Thats what you say but actually a lot of creators have seen their income from musicmaking creep so low in part because of piracy that they actually can’t afford to record and compose anymore and have to switch trade”.

So what you’re suggesting here is that we adapt reality to fit the old business model? By force if necessary? Even if we were willing to pay the price of massive collateral damage, this would be impossible. Business people of all time have had to adapt their business model to reality and reality’s changes. This is no different. Trust me, music will not disappear. There are ways of making money off of great artistry and music which do not involve sending around plastic circles.

You claim:

“Studios who used to be booked around the clock are now either deserted or churning out commercial-jingles.”

Again, we have a business model problem. Supply is simply greater than demand. Have you watched the price of semi-professional recording equipment lately?

You claim:

“In what way can Bono be accused of having a censorship scheme when he only stated obvious facts? And shouldn’t you be ashamed by threatening with increasing childporn and terror activity on the net if your beloved filesharing hobby would be at threat!”

In the article (which I’ve read thoroughly) Bono suggests tracking content as a feasible way to save the movie industry. And why track it if you don’t intend to censor/prosecute? To me, it is pretty clear in the text that Bono is of an opinion here, and does not merely state facts – especially if you carefully study the whole “Intellectual Property Developers”-section. Moreover, what he’s stating is not fact, but in fact false. Tracking those who do not want to be tracked is difficult already, and the more we fight for this “selling files”-business model, the better the stealth technologies will become. This will in turn be applauded by those with shady intentions but smaller resources because they will be able to both piggyback on the same technology and hide in the increased noise of encrypted data.

For full disclosure here I also want to be clear that file-sharing is not hobby of mine. I’m in this discussion for philosophical reasons, and even so, I don’t think that file-sharing is really the issue here. Lowering human transaction costs is however. Feel free to read my other posts on the subject if you find the topic interesting. My bottom line belief is that we should keep increasing human efficiency, and that this is how we evolve as a species.

Instead of file-sharing, I indulge in the luxury of a visiting the cinema when watching films (cinema is showing excellent growth by the way, appart from a dip in 2007) and for music I use Spotify Premium which I love, though I hate to see the music cartel kill off all competition to Spotify (Chilirec for example). This kind of illegal abuse of oligopolic power is the real threat to organic free market evolution.

Thats what you say but actually a lot of creators have seen their income from musicmaking creep so low in part because of piracy that they actually can’t afford to record and compose anymore and have to switch trade.

Studios who used to be booked around the clock are now either deserted or churning out commercial-jingles.

“While at it, your censorship scheme would unleash the power of music for innovation of great stealth technologies which would in turn make life much easier for terrorists and child pornographers who now get access to these same technologies.”

In what way can Bono be accused of having a censorship scheme when he only stated obvious facts? And shouldn’t you be ashamed by threatening with increasing childporn and terror activity on the net if your beloved filesharing hobby would be at threat!

But like I said, I appreciate different opinions and welcome you back when you can be specific in your argumentation. Also, I would highly recommend not being anonymous since it would give you more credibility and would allow us to perhaps read more elaborate thoughts that you may have posted on your blog or other forums.

You are obviously engaged in the topic and probably have interesting thoughts for us to share.

Let’s assume for a moment that your conclusion is the right one, and that free distribution of the digital content itself will quench creativity and creators, how do you explain the phenomenon of blogging?

Also, what is the business model you propose then, and what measures do you feel are reasonable to protect that model?

Thanks for commenting! I appreciate different points of view.