|
There's no sales slump. There's a release slump of both singles and albums, and a reduction in selection due to mega-retailers sticking with the top 100, but unit sales of what's available continues to grow in spite of economic downturns. From every analysis I've seen that wasn't funded by the RIAA, they're canibalizing themselves.
However, the industry noises are a great way to push new efforts against fair-use. Really, DRM is a great way to bypass copyright altogether. If a work is protected in any way against backing-up, listening, viewing, copying, storing, the DMCA says you can't legally do diddly unless you pay again. Much like software licensing, the new media rights model is quickly moving toward permanent control over consumption where fair-use is irrelevant. I believe a few years from now we'll look back and see copyright and patent expansion were the means to that end.
__________________
There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195
|