Radio as a harbinger of Internet piracy

Secretive science is this story. At school, everyone was forced to cram the dates of the beginning of World War II or the year of the baptism of Russia. But somehow it was modestly hushed up that everything that was read in jammed textbooks with bad pictures is an obligatory projection of everything that we ourselves have to go through. In the end, it is not so important when the Second World War began, it would be more important to be able to see the same pre-war notes in relations, for example, Ukraine and Russia. But now I do not want about politics. My blog, however, is about copyright. Which, by the way, is no exception to historical processes.

The main problem of copyright today is Internet piracy. The most respected experts and show business bison frown and shake their eyes in dismay. No one knows what to do with Internet piracy. Passport Internet - as an option from the East. The criminal liability for a couple of downloaded tracks is from the West. Lobbyists of draconian anti-Internet laws shrug their hands from high stands, saying that copyright has not yet encountered such a problem. The numbers of losses from piracy are lined up in long lines, exceeding trillions, go into space. I even met a comparison of piracy with plague for the market. But the gnarly and quiet voice of history is barely audible, if you only pay attention to it, whispers: “Fig you! All this has already passed! ”


30s of the twentieth century. Summertime Great Depression in the USA. The global economic crisis. The purchasing power of the population tends to zero. A huge number of people faced a real threat of hunger. The music industry has not bypassed the crisis. Nobody buys records. In fact, their sales have stopped. New records are not available. They are even pointedly burned in the square. But the commercial effect of this does not occur. No money left.
However, even in the face of hunger, people find time to think about music. Music distracts from black thoughts and allows you to survive depression. And then a radio comes into people's homes. Free music now sounds in every home. It was a short and incredible breakthrough in the music industry. And what did he mean for record companies? That's right - losses, piracy, disaster, plague.

Here are some links on this topic:
webs.ashlandctc.org/jnapora/hum-faculty/syllabi/Parra1.htm
www.radiostratosphere.com/zsite/behind-the-dial/radio-in-1930.html
www.recording-history .org / HTML / musicbiz3.php
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertainment_during_the_Great_Depression

The solution was found quickly enough. Licensing conditions for radio began to provide for the payment of royalties. The method of monetization has changed - instead of trying to collect money from the end customer, a point was found for convenient collection of payment of royalties. The introduction of this method was also not easy, because it broke the coherent logic of the old business. The same questions: “Why should I pay the same amount as the guy who listens to the radio all day?” - were exactly as relevant then as they are now with regard to the content subscription model.

Let's see what this story led to.
Is at least one copyright holder fighting the radio now? “Of those who keep their minds, I do not know such people.”
Has radio killed the music industry? - Looking at the success of Justin Bieber and Stas Mikhailov, I find it difficult to answer. But at least the radio is not to blame.

During the Great Depression, the threat of hunger contributed to the increased sensitivity of copyright holders to the market. Then lobbyists in the Senate could not change the indisputable fact that people are physically unable to pay for the old format of musical goods. Now, while the safety margin of society is clearly not exhausted. However, the old woman-story only chuckles, carefully writing everything down in textbooks with bad pictures. We will see.