[OT] Where ill conceived copyright laws can lead

[Kay C Lan]

On Thu, Oct 11, 2012 at 1:02 AM, Bob Sneidar <bobs at twft.com> wrote:

> I came across this article, and thought to myself that the whole notion
> about "licensing to use" vs. "buying to own" can go completely sideways if
> we don't apply some real common sense to the issue.
>
> Sideways? I'm actually surprised that there isn't more of an uproar over
the simple fact that Steve Jobs has virtually made media ownership
disappear all together.

When my grandpa died my brother inherited his Edison Phonograph and a box
full of recordings (wax cylinders, which pre-dated the more modern shellac
discs, which eventually became the ultra-modern vinyl record).

When my father died I inherited a bunch of vinyl records; Glen Miller,
Benny Goodman, Muddy Waters, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee.

I have most everything the Beatles recorded on vinyl, and everything they
recorded (plus a lot that was 'found' well after their split) on CD. When I
die I know a certain son will be very keen to take possession of those.

But, what of my current 2TB of iTunes purchases; music, movies, TV shows,
apps? Sure I could leave my ID and password in my will but that's only
going to work for so long.You can't combine or split accounts.

But it's even worse than that, I can't even move countries without loosing
the lot! Transferring accounts is not possible.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2443094?start=45&tstart=0

My prediction is that this will all come to a head when some big company
goes bankrupt and a canny accountant realises their claimed assets of a
$100K of software is actually worthless because it can't actually be sold
at a fire sale! Thus accounting practices will have to change so that
regardless of price and the number of employees, all company software
purchased for Macs/iPhones/iPads will have to be recorded as assets worth
$0.

Finding musical gems at a garage sale is headed for extinction; interesting
considering Steve was known for frequenting rummage sales in search of rare
Bob Dylan recordings.