In Finland, paying money to the artists to be discouraged under new law
The new copyright law is supposed to discourage piracy and support artists. However, according to this Digitoday article, there is no actual punishment for copying an illegal MP3 file from the internet (you just need to delete the file), but if you take your copy-protected CD that you have paid good money for to compensate to the artist, and rip it into MP3s to carry on your iPod, you can be fined and possibly even lose your computer.
Now, in exactly which way is this good for the artists?
The law and the directive on which it is based have been badly written, and they need revisions. Quickly.
Edit: Turun Sanomat grows a spine, and comments the law harshly in their editorial: "Without thorough corrections the copyright law is going to become yet another one among the multiple laws that cannot be enforced." (Translation mine, thanks to Samuli for the tip.)
Edit2: Even the artists are getting pissed off - apparently ÄKT (our version of RIAA) has been listing artist names on their "we support the new copyright bill" without telling the artists themselves...
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| "Main_blogentry_220905_2" last changed on 22-Sep-2005 22:26:08 EEST by JanneJalkanen. |
Comments
This is a terrible law. Personally, I own 1000+ CDs for which the artists have received their hopefully fair compensation. I have ripped all of these onto my computer and then onto 16 DVDs (much more portable) and I pretty much only listen to then as MP3s except in the car which doesn't support the format.I have also "borrowed" MP3s of many artists from my friends and nearly every time I've liked the music I have run off and bought more of their CDs. If I were only to learn about new music via the radio, I'd be listening to Brittany Spears 24/7 and brainwashed by Clear Channel. In my opinion, lesser known artists benefit from their music being shared since radio stations have such a dismal selection of music on them these days.
--Joel, 22-Sep-2005
Yes, it is a terrible law. It was lobbied into the EU legislation by using the DMCA as a model, and Finns being so... obedient, we're trying to copy the directive to the last letter. Or to be precise, our Ministry of Education is.
--JanneJalkanen, 22-Sep-2005