Print

Print


This is a whole other discussion, Lou. My argument would be that the gutting and disuse of antitrust 
laws in the 1990s was very damaging. Remember that major antitrust victories were won against AT&T 
and others in the 1980s. Nowadays, two or three players in an industry is considered "competition." 
We know that's not true. Megaglomeration on the scale of the past two decades probably made Teddy 
Roosevelt spin like a gyroscope in his grave! The megaglomerates are too big NOT to corrupt market 
economics and to buy and thus corrupt government. They MUST do those things to maintain their 
positions. The whole system is haywire right now, all out of balance.

This all has a bearing on ARSC. First of all, fighting megaglomerates over copyrights is a real 
tough slog. Any progress made is commendable because it's hard-won. But regarding ARSC itself, all 
members should beware of top-down edicts from far-away committees. Be most wary of "standards" and 
any sort of "Good Practices" mandates (as opposed to helpful and informative suggestions). I always 
assume any such thing is the lowest acceptable denominator, or is specifically tailored to benefit 
someone involved in its creation. Specific recommendations or edicts on techniques, preferred media, 
etc should be studied with a shaker of salt before being adopted by an individual (sometimes they do 
make very good sense, and in those cases, usually, we've already been doing them or described them 
in the first place to those writing the documents). We should always do our work as proud 
individuals -- take responsibility for our work, let our ears and common sense be our guides, and 
treat historic and rare audio recordings with respect and care.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lou Judson" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 03, 2013 11:45 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Folk Music in America


> But, Tom, in the 21st Century there is no free market - that is now a euphemism for a corporate 
> controlled oligoploly, a cover phrase for buying out everything they can afford and squashing the 
> people intended in "of, by and for the people" - when did we lose the ral free market?
> <L>
> Lou Judson
> Intuitive Audio
> 415-883-2689
>
> On Jul 3, 2013, at 8:29 AM, Tom Fine wrote:
>
>> I think it would have been much wiser to put the public airwaves out for bid every XX years, say 
>> once a decade. Use the money at the LOCAL level to fund public education (which is a true "public 
>> good"). Let the free market (the listeners themselves) decide what they want to hear over the 
>> airwaves, and vote with their pocketbooks whether they want to support advertisers on stations 
>> they don't like (or even be aware of said advertisers since they're not listening to said 
>> stations).
>>
>> Of COURSE a centralized command-down system would get corrupted to serve the interests of a few. 
>> It's foolish to expect anything else. What in past history or human nature indicates otherwise?
>>
>> -- Tom Fine
>
>