Eventually, home copying may become so widespread that estimating its extent from sales figures may be unsatisfactory. This method is already unsatisfactory for musicians who distribute without the help of record companies; if any musicians need additional support, these are the ones. We may need another way to estimate usage of any given piece in order to distribute the tax funds.
Predictor: Stallman, Richard
Prediction, in context:In a 1993 article for Wired magazine, Richard Stallman, president of the Free Software Foundation, head of the GNU project and a MacArthur Foundation fellow, writes: ”A new law recently passed by Congress … taxes each unit and each tape or recordable disc sold to consumers. The tax funds are handed out to various participants in the music industry … The stated purpose of the law is to ‘compensate’ musicians for home copying. But the law diverts 57 percent of the funds to record companies and music publishers… most of the remaining funds will go to musical superstars and thus do little to encourage or assist musical creativity. Meanwhile, users are denied the full power of digital technology: easier copying and changing of information … Eventually, home copying may become so widespread that estimating its extent from sales figures may be unsatisfactory. This method is already unsatisfactory for musicians who distribute without the help of record companies; if any musicians need additional support, these are the ones. We may need another way to estimate usage of any given piece in order to distribute the tax funds.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Copyright/Intellectual Property/Plagiarism
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: Copywrong
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.03/1.3_stallman.copyright_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney