I’ve mentioned several times that instead of sueing their customers and crying to congress for new laws that the recording artists need to move on to a business model that works with the current technology. What I haven’t done is suggest a new model to replace the old one. I think that in order to maintain any credibility on this subject I ought to point out one that I believe could work.
ASCAP is an organization that collects royalties for public, non-dramatic performances of their members works. These royalties are collected in the form of a license that gives the holder the right to "any or all of the millions of musical works in the ASCAP repertory." Why not extend a similar license to individual downloaders? Similar licenses are available from BMI for many artists who are not represented by ASCAP.
Why couldn’t these organizations offer a download site that allows one to pay a fixd price per month and download as much music as they like for as long as they hold a license? It would be much cleaner and easier than sueing the customer. Wouldn’t it?
About Larry D. Burton
I'm a 55 year old controls engineer who just likes tinkering with stuff.
Finished high school at a local institute of learning. Decided it wasn't a good time to be a healthy, physically fit 18 year old with no college experience. Entered college and started working toward a degree in animal husbandry.
1975-1976
Discoverd that I was not going to be a very good husband of animals so I left school to figure out what I might be good at. A local beverage company took pity on me and paid me to go from place to place making sure their on tap beverages were maintaining their high quality.
1976-1979
Got out of quality control and into vending. Learned about control systems and refrigeration also learned that vending machines are heavy and vending doesn't pay all that well.
In 1977 I found myself married
1979-1981
Dedicated myself to installing and maintaining commercial refrigeration equipment. Found myself on the roof of a local grocery store one night in the middle of an ice storm replacing a compressor and figured it was time to get back into school.
1981-1986
Got my but back into school at night and changed jobs to keep the mechanical and electrical systems of a local coporate hospital in working order. The job expanded to unstopping drains and burning lab samples and amputated body parts.
1986-now
Finished school and took on a job designing, installing and maintaining industrial control systems. Along the way I picked up a bunch of computer skills that became very useful connecting various industrial controllers to one another and moving the data into coporate databases. I now operate Dallas Bay Technologies, a one man shop specializing in technology solutions for industrial problems.
