Audiophiles and music lovers may be interested in
Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music, the new book from music critic and
Sound Opinions cohost Greg Kot. The book is being billed as "the first definitive account of the digital music revolution," and takes an appreciative look at a world in which peer-to-peer file sharing and CD burning are commonplace tools. It can be argued that such technologies are not only blessings for independent musicians looking to gain wider audiences, but also gifts to the music lover who cannot get enough.
In fact,
I like to see it that way. But, then again, I also tend to
buy a physical copy of whatever it is I'm enjoying. If you were to do a search on, say, "file sharing" here on the
Stereophile website, you'll see that the topic is complicated, controversial and, at times, even frightening. For instance:
From October 2001:
No Slowdown in File Sharing
Napster may be down for the count, but audio file-sharing is more popular than ever, according to a study released October 10 by research firm Jupiter Media Metrix, Inc.
From April 2003:
Conflicting Rulings From Copyright Battlefront
Federal judges have issued somewhat conflicting rulings in the ongoing legal battle over illegitimate file sharing. As the situation stands at the end of April, individuals may be held responsible for copyright violation, but the services they use in the process may not.
From December 2004:
Supreme Court Tackles P2P
On Friday, December 10, the US Supreme Court agreed to examine whether online services Grokster Ltd. and StreamCast Networks, Inc. are liable for copyright infringement. Both services enable users to share music and other forms of copyrighted material, and both derive revenue from advertising.
From July 2005:
Peer to Peer's Promise
The music industry has been telling us for years that peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing is a bad thing. But a New York company has decided the record labels had it wrong and that it merely needed to harness P2P's power.
From September 2005:
Copying and Sharing Recorded Music (The Dos and Don'ts of Copyright Law)
The introduction in 1982 of the compact disc ushered in the age of digital audio….
Unfortunately, digital technology has a dark side. The ability to make perfect digital copies of music, in conjunction with the ability (via the Internet) to share such copies with hundreds of thousands of people, has created a copyright-infringement nightmare of epic proportions for the recording industry (and, potentially, the film industry).
From March 2006:
On the Fair Use Frontlines
The way things used to work was that new products and capabilities would come out and then there'd be tussling to figure out what would be permitted. That happened with the VCR, DACs, and with DAT. Today, formats get crippled on the drawing board long before a consumer ever sees them in the marketplace. Most of the time, when crippled products arrive, people never know what they're missing.
Indeed, there is much to explore. And I'm curious about Kot's point of view.
