Re: Stallman calls for an end to file sharing war

[Alexander Terekhov]

Barry Margolin wrote:
[...]
> BTW, we already have a program where the government pays artists: the
> National Endowment for the Arts.  Does anyone really want to see that
> become the sole way that artists get paid?

Over here in Germany it is not the government but rather voluntary
association of music professionals. The association is voluntary and it
is acting as copyright licensing agency (they also have a pension fund
for "full" members). The government merely supports it by imposing
levies on empty media, computers, etc. and levies merely provide
additional funds (additional to licensing fees) to distribute among
members. Note that members must pay membership fees and even licensing
fees for use of their own copyright rights assigned (for a limited time)
to the agency. The agency explicitly points out that membership is
economically feasible for already established music professionals:

http://www.gema.de/index.php?eID=download_file&file=382

"Bevor man sich zu einem Beitritt entschließt, sollte man sichergehen,
dass eine GEMA-Mitgliedschaft für einen selbst auch sinnvoll ist. Denn
ein Beitritt ist erst dann möglich und für das künftige Mitglied
wirtschaftlich rentabel, wenn eigene Musikstücke bereits öffentlich
aufgeführt oder gesendet wurden beziehungsweise auf Bild und Tonträgern
im Handel zu erwerben sind."

regards,
alexander.

-- 
http://gng.z505.com/index.htm 
(GNG is a derecursive recursive derecursion which pwns GNU since it can 
be infinitely looped as GNGNGNGNG...NGNGNG... and can be said backwards 
too, whereas GNU cannot.)