I wonder if musicians would be so adamant about royalties for replaying a creative performances if they were charged royalties every time they used software, essentially replaying the creative performances of orchestras of programmers and engineers – ceaselessly, inescapably.
You can turn off a radio – but you can’t turn off the droning background hum of technological innovation.
In fact, in such a world, musicians would need to pay royalties to record, distribute, or even listen to their own music.
The funny thing is, that in a free market – this is EXACTLY what happens – except the royalties are paid up-front and bundled as part of the price of software and devices. The only cases where engineers get “royalties” of their creative performances is in the world of patents.
Both are protectionist – and both set their fields back immeasurably to bolster the absurd notion that one should be rewarded perpetually for a single good performance.
40° North 