Hey Comp1,
I understand and totally agree with what you are saying but having set up and run a humanitarian project here in Vanuatu for the last ten years – without wages and always within the ‘non profit’ arena etc., I have been reduced to a slightly different mindset. Please also note I am a very ordinary working class bloke!
There are a few thoughts to follow here as we step outside the box.
Consider first….you can’t stop piracy! Look at the conundrum from outside of the ‘artist’s’ pure monetary gain
If you make some music, piracy WILL extend your listening audience!
If your videos are pirated, your viewing audience will increase AND your message will be ‘heard’ by more people….Is your message important enough to step outside of commercial interests?.
With so many people on both sides of the equation making a living (and some absurdly so) and the poor people enjoying some of the ‘wealth’ there is a partial ‘win, win’ situation (from an employment point of view)
Hmmm so are ‘artists’ contributing to reducing unemployment (please don’t all shoot at once ha ha).
How much control is being manufactured when a corporation tries to digitise every book on the planet that’s ever been published! or individual songs are downloadable for “a few cents” and didn’t we all watch as computer chips and RAM etc was released in ever so small increments over so many years!
I personally don’t lose much sleep when the big boys cry foul
Tom
