Comment comment 394 (Score 2, Insightful) 708
What the fuck is "a guy who doesn't see anything good having come from the Internet" doing on the internet in the first place, and how can "a guy who doesn't see anything good having come from the Internet" think that the internet "had a transformative impact on our culture and holds enormous potential to improve the prospects of humanity, and in many instances already has." Isn't improving the prospects of humanity a good thing?
"ow many people will be as motivated to write a book or a song, or make a movie if they know it is going to be immediately stolen from them and offered to the world with no compensation whatsoever?" I would. Imagine a world where only people who have a real message go out and say something. Where people who don't give a shit about their message, don't utter it. Wouldn't that be great?
"if we don't figure out some way to prevent online chaos, the quantity, quality and availability of the kinds of entertainment, literature, art and scholarship we need to have a healthy, vibrant culture will suffer." This dude needs to visit an image board. Even if quantity suffers; there's already more material coming out each second then any one person could possibly experience in an hour. What about quality? Is that people will copy it really a reason to adher a lower standard? Also; who defines `quality'. According to my standards; the `quality' of TV has been staggering downwards even before anyone not an university had a connection capable of reasonably downloading video content, or the ability to record it.
"But I also want their future to be filled with the kind of music and books and films and other creative sparks that have enlivened my life and our culture through the years." sounds like a good reason to download it from the internet. Music by pretty much any band which has not made it to #1 in the charts multiple times cannot be found in the stores any more. The same counts for music. And good luck finding books from that age as well.