derivative work

John Naughton had a nice column last week in The Observer (at the guardian) trashing the British Phonographic Industry. Triggered by their spokesperson’s statement that “For years, ISPs have built a business on other people’s music,” Naughton awarded it “Fatuous Statement of the Month” and went on to excoriate their arrogance and the legislation they’re pushing to mandate ISPs to deal with copyright infringement. And properly Naughton pointed out that “ISPs have indeed ‘built a business’. They’ve done it by providing an internet connection for upwards of a billion individuals and businesses across the planet.”

But what I thought was funny was the spectacle of the phonographic industry, which represents record companies, complaining about someone else “building a business on other people’s music”. The irony kills.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 24th, 2008 at 9:21 am and is tagged blinks, copyright, music, telecomm commentary, copyright, irony, pyramid schemes, recording industry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. 539 views.