Music was a big focus of day one of the Mesh Conference with a keynote from Ethan Kaplan and a panel that included CRIA's Graham Henderson, David Usher, and Arts & Crafts Kieran Roy. Interestingly, the word "copyright" was never mentioned. The Kaplan keynote (liveblog here) focused on the value of "experiencing" music over possessing the "artifact" and pointed to ways that artists can connect with their fan base. Henderson acknowledged that the industry "backed the wrong horse" and that the DRM strategy that restricted the way consumers could enjoy their music wasn't a clever strategy. Left unsaid, however, is that if the commercial strategy was a failure then why is the industry insistent on pursuing a legal reform strategy that is based on what it admits was a mistake?
Music at Mesh
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Er, because, Michael, they are clueless and refuse to think outside the box, maybe? We’re talking Graham Henderson here after all. Not much worthwhile comes from him.
mesh08
Michael
I wonder if the big winner in DRM was to be Microsoft? With a closed source gatekeeper on our computers (media centers) did they have a good chance of being the only route to music and video?
Just wondering.
Denial
I think they’re trying to repeal the free-market axiom that says: When conditions change, companies must adapt or go under.
The internet and all the technology it’s spawned has changed the conditions for these corporate giants radically, in ways they really haven’t come to grips with, mostly because, I think, they grew up in the old near-monopolistic model where they pretty much controlled content, distribution, price, etcetera, and never foresaw that they might have to learn another.
They don’t want to adapt; they can’t, because they don’t know what to do. So instead of accepting that their old business model (pre-DRM, I mean) has failed, they have attempted to get governments to change the rules (tilt the playing field back in their favour, where they seem to feel it was naturally meant to be), so they don’t have to change to a new business model. Because, to repeat, they can’t.