[pp.int.general] cultural flatrate: PP position?

[pp at christian-hufgard.de]

On Mon, Jun 08, 2009 at 09:18:11AM +0200, Reinier Bakels wrote:
> >Mmmh. BUMA/STEMRA takes only 3% of their money (unless they waste further 
> >7% at the stock market...) In germany the share of the GEMA lies at 13%. 
> >Each year...
> >So I think you are having a pretty well organized structure.
> There were (are) specific problems with blank media levies.

Let's solve them. :)

> >Flatrates are in my point of view, a good tradeoff between the abolishing 
> >of private copies and a total removing of copyrights. And we need 
> >copyrights! Otherwise free licences are loosing their base. It's the 
> >creator who decides, what GPL or CC means. If to take him this right, his 
> >work might be taken by someone else, enhance it and make it "unfree". For 
> >music this will be no big problem. CC artists them can try to sue Sony/BMG 
> >if their work is reused withoud permission. What what about free software 
> >like linux?
> 
> Your comment is appropriate, but you confuse two things.
> 
> 1. Yes, an essential aspect of copyright is that the author can decide how 
> his work is used. But this very right is undermined by the assumption 
> underlying (most?) collective rights systems: they assume 1) that the 
> author wants to exploit his work 2) for money. But it is fondamental to 
> copyright that the author is entitled to say: my work is *not* exploited 
> and even *not* published (again).

So an author whoe does not want to gain money "automatically" can free his work - and will in the future receive no more money via levies. Problem solved. :)

> 2. The remuneration scheme. Flatrates, Pauschalvergütungen, levies they 
> are all actually taxes. Any attempt for just "algorithmic" collection and 
> redistribution rules is bound to fail - so they are essentially taxes - 
> that should be used only to remedy market failure.
 
Take a look at jamendo. One of the most succesful artist there is Rob Costlow. More than 100.00 Downloads. Money he received: $1.000
Part of the money comes from direct donations, other is shared mony from the general incomes of jamendo. Of course you cannot share the money based on how often his music is consumed. You will never have a 100% fair sharing of the money. But you can try to find a reasonable fair solution.

> How to reconsile the two? Well, I don't have the Endlösung either.

We won't be able to find it. And even least, if we are looking for the perfect solution. As politicans we have to find compromisses.


Christian