Our world keeps turning faster and yet the government extended the duration of copyright ownership to near a century. How does that make sense? Does an artist really need to hold on to his work for that length of time? Does an inventor? Does anybody?

The big record companies and film studios want copy protection on all CDs and DVDs. Instead of writing more and more complex copy pretection schemes they should spend money on an awareness campaign. It’s simple really, if everybody steals an artist’s work the artist cannot make a living and cannot spend time on his art. That’s all. If you like somebody’s work you should support their efforts by purchasing a CD so that they can create more works that you might enjoy. Ah, but I suspect therein lies the problem not! I get the feeling the public would support artists they like…..it’s the corporations they might have a problem with. I suspect people like to take music for free because they know that most of the money goes to big multinational corporations and not to the artists. With all of the corporate excesses of the last decade it is hard for the public to feel sorry for the losses that these companies take.

Let’s face it copying has always been around. Probably even more in the analog world. I remember meeting a fan after a show in 1990 and she proudly proclaimed that she had personally made 75 cassette copies of my album Nouveau Flamenco for her friends. We are no more at the mercy of people copying our work today than we were a decade or two ago.