Isn’t it interesting how we see the following pattern appear over and over? Some law is held up as a solution for some problem and ends making it worse. Copyrights help make sure artists make enough money to make more art? Patents encourage innovation? It makes you wonder if there is any government program that isn’t bullshit.
Psy Makes $8.1 Million By Ignoring Copyright Infringements Of Gangnam Style | Techdirt Lite
A couple of months back, Mike wrote about how Psy’s relaxed attitude to people infringing on his copyright helped turn Gangnam Style into one of the most successful cultural phenomena in recent years, and that includes becoming the most-viewed video on YouTube ever.
Ah yes, the maximalists will retort, this free-and-easy, laid-back approach is all very nice, but it doesn’t put food on his table, does it? If you want to make a living from this stuff, you’ve got to enforce copyright to stop all those freeloaders ruining your business. Well, maybe not:
With one song, 34-year-old Park Jae-sang — better known as PSY — is set to become a millionaire from YouTube ads and iTunes downloads, underlining a shift in how money is being made in the music business. An even bigger dollop of cash will come from TV commercials.