Hi Phil

Yes this can go on for many a long day but to address a few points you raise.

In my view the music and arts industry are the ones who really let the horse bolt years ago by totally taking the wrong track with all of this.

The entertainment industry is all about providing a service not about litigation and legislation and they should have gotten in early and tried to provide profitable online entertainment to people who wanted it at an affordable price. The profits they have been reaping for decades are based upon a different paradigm where they had complete control of the medium and distribution channels – the VHS machine and Cassette sound recorder were the warning signs and they should have started to do something about it then. The horse has bolted well and truely and they will never be in a position again to fully control their own destiny as a result.

I think the future for these industries will lie in embracing the net and digital technology to provide better experiances at a price people are willing to pay – no easy task given that it is still an industry based upon a model that started with sheet music, records and cinema style movies all of which they controlled and over which they had a monoply.

I think it will take a new generation of thinkers in the industry who are a little more agile in their business planning and not rooted in past obsolete paradigms and prepared to entertain their customers instead of working out how to prosecute them.

As for profit I don’t think we yet have the data to say that the industry is hurting from piracy – sure they are using artists as an excuse but Cinema audiences have never been better because the theatre experiance has never been better from a technical viewpoint its just that the rest of the media is not much better than it has ever been just more expensive. The artists don’t benefit because their percentage from each sale is so marginal and getting more so – it is the cost of the overheads and profit of the megolithic producers/suppliers of product that is killing sales.

I would indicate to you all that a read of this comment by artist janis ian is well worth a read.
http://www.janisian.com/article-internet_debacle.html

Kindest regards
John Parker

Copywright – a legal perspective

Hi
I am the ICT Strategy and Governance Director for an Australian State Government so I have a little experiance in this area.

Welcome to the 21st Century people!!!

The digital age is upon us all and copyright breaches are the norm – this is essentially the basis of the rights management issues perpetrated by online music and video piracy peer to peer file sharing programs such as the ill fated Napster etc.

Each and every day it is estimated that 160,000,000 individual copyright breaches occur on the Net. Yes that is 160 MILLION.

The beauty and trouble with the Web is that it is pervasive and that it has no rules in the accepted sense – these are mostly written in retrospect after the horse has bolted. Existing copyright conventions are simply ignored as a matter of course on the Web.

The reality is that once an item/article is on the net it is open to any abuse whatsoever – the proof that someone is the owner of a work and that a particular individual has breached that copyright is not at all straightforward and requires a huge technical and legal investment. The facts are that in this digital age the minute you put any item in a digital medium such that it can be copied , downloaded or otherwise abused – it will be. I wish it was otherwise but it is not the case. Another legal issue is that laws and cross jurisdictional issues also apply – if I for instance steal a file from a site in the UK and whilst I live in Australia I actually put the file up on a server hosted in Russia for example. If I am the owner of the file do I take action against the Web host, the site owner or even any ISP who allows the trade in my stolen file and in which country – there are 22 BILLION web pages figure it out – it is not within control of individuals.

The answer unfortunatly is realistically if you don’t want it pirated – don’t digitise it and put it out there. People on the Net don’t have the same morals it just isn’t a factor.

I in no way agree with this piracy debate I am just being realistic- unless you are microsoft you don’t have the resources to counter it.

My two bobs worth

Kindest regards
John parker

Hi Ian

I am sorry if you took offence at my comments as I completely agree with you about East Fortune. That is why I travelled 12,000 miles last year to visit it on my tour of major UK museums – I think it is a fantastic place and will only grow in the future. I will again be visiting there this year to further enjoy the facility.

My point was that rather than punt all the Concords off to various museums before they were ready for them they should have been subject to transport to sites close by to Heathrow (not just big museums) or other airports until proper planning and dispersal proceedures could be put in place. I also accept that the notice was less than optimal which is why I think the best plan would have been to observe a moritorium prior to placing them. I think the Concord should have gone to East Fortune but only once they were ready for it. I will probably again this year be unable to see the East Fortune Beaufighter because of the hasty rearrangement that was necessary due to the arrival of the Concord. I don’t blame the Museum administrators for availing themselves of this great exhibit I just question the Timing – Timing is everything

Unfortunately in my photo collection I have numerous photos of the scrapping of quite a few Vulcans etc that were “preserved” and what about the Beverly at Hendon – I am fearful that despite being attractions at present some of these machines may not recieve the same attention in the future and what of the fate of the airframes that are displaced to allow for the Concord display.

Anyway Ian I am sorry if I caused you any distress by my comments – we are all in this hobby for the fun and I regret that it upset you.

Kindest regards
John P

Hi

People don’t come back to Australia – Physics draws them back to the centre of the universe!!!!!

Kindest regards
John parker

Hi Dave

I think the caravan/s were mostly Mariner/Dornier/Cat I can’t say Iv’e seen reference to a Walrus here in Aus. Naturally you are aware that the Walrus being spoken of here was being used as a Caravan but that was in the UK.

Have you seen my post about coming over to NZ in the next few weeks for a couple of days – it would be good to catch up with you.

Regards
John P