Saturday, February 02, 2008

The Slow Life and Fast Filesharing

Grandma Ann's comment to The Slow Life brought up an interesting point:
How about Slow Music, too? That's where you spend years learning to play an instrument so you can entertain your friends and family, but most of all yourself, with your own music every day. Get others to join you and have loads of fun!
I have always wondered if musicians are as likely to illegally download copyrighted music files as "laymen". If you have worked years to hone a skill, do you honor the right of someone else to make a living off their skill? Someone else studied this phenomenon and concluded that, unfortunately, musicians are actually slightly more likely to illegally download music. Oh, well.

I think about this more than the average person. I don't really make a product. I live by my wits. I am only worth what people will pay me for my analysis. Respect for intellectual property and copyright law matter to me. Of course, having reasonable IP and copyright laws that are worth upholding are also important to me. We live in interesting times.

If you have access to Ravelry, have you been following the forum about the $94 neckwarmer (stockinette tube)? It has evolved into an interesting discussion about the value of skills like hand knitting and designing. There are 370 posts so far!

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