Bowie on IP

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>Excerpt from a profile of David Bowie by Jon Pareles, in today's NYT 
><http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/09/arts/music/09PARE.html?todaysheadlines>:
>
>>Heathen" is the first album from Mr. Bowie's own recording company, 
>>Iso, which has major-label distribution through Sony. In 1997, he 
>>sold $55 million of Bowie Bonds backed by his song royalties; the 
>>next year, he founded the technology company Ultrastar and his own 
>>Internet service provider-cum-fan club, Bowienet (davidbowie.com). 
>>In a nod to his art-school background, his bowieart.com sells 
>>promising students' work without the high commissions of 
>>terrestrial galleries.
>>
>>His deal with Sony is a short-term one while he gets his label 
>>started and watches the Internet's effect on careers. "I don't even 
>>know why I would want to be on a label in a few years, because I 
>>don't think it's going to work by labels and by distribution 
>>systems in the same way," he said. "The absolute transformation of 
>>everything that we ever thought about music will take place within 
>>10 years, and nothing is going to be able to stop it. I see 
>>absolutely no point in pretending that it's not going to happen. 
>>I'm fully confident that copyright, for instance, will no longer 
>>exist in 10 years, and authorship and intellectual property is in 
>>for such a bashing."
>>
>>"Music itself is going to become like running water or 
>>electricity," he added. "So it's like, just take advantage of these 
>>last few years because none of this is ever going to happen again. 
>>You'd better be prepared for doing a lot of touring because that's 
>>really the only unique situation that's going to be left. It's 
>>terribly exciting. But on the other hand it doesn't matter if you 
>>think it's exciting or not; it's what's going to happen."

That means you'll give away copies of your Next Book and the _Left 
Business Observer_ for free, go on speaking tours like traveling 
lecturers of the Lyceum Movement (Cf. 
<http://www.tncc.vccs.edu/faculty/longt/FriendshipBook/LyceumMovement.htm>), 
and begin to charge us for the privilege of chatting with you here? 
;->
-- 
Yoshie

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