One of the most significant problems which has arisen since the popularity of digital art media (primarily music in mp3 compression format) is the issue of artist compensation.
When looking at the advent of the popularity of digital art media usage by the general public one can weigh the pros and cons. This author believes that the pros far outweigh the cons. The pros include vastly wider dispersion of art and access to art in the world. The dispersion and access to art on an unprededented scale can have nothing but a positive influence on the world. Art is part of human culture, and human culture benefits from richness of expression.
Culture is one thing which defines humanity, so wide dispersion and access to art is something that increases humanity.
But with the extensive pros which have come with the forms of digital art media comes cons. One must really consider though what is meant by con. Merely propagating something which came before is not necessarily good if that thing which propagates itself was not properly grounded. Merely altering preexisting structures is not inherently bad. One can weigh positive and adverse impacts of changes and consider what, in the long run, is ultimately most beneficial for all parties concerned.
In this paper I propose a solution to the problem of artist compensation which has arisen from the popularity and now extensive if not almost exclusive use of digital media for the transmission and representation of artistic works.
One characteristic of virtually all digital information, down to the level of the very packets of data which get transmitted over the Internet in staggeringly vast amounts every single day on planet Earth and which themselves are organized into still higher level subunits, is that it contains metadata.
Each “packet” of for example TCP traffic which form the basis for most modern communication, contains metadata which relates to that packet and is essential to ensure its correct transmission from one endpoint to another.
Each “message” of an email message is sent using the SMTP protocol which again contains essential metadata about the message which mostly relates to the routing and delivery of the message.
Digitally encoded art media also contain metadata. Images taken with digital cameras contain EXIF data about various parameters related to the photo. Mp3’s optionally contain ID metadata which can identify various things about the audio such as artist, album, genre, year, etc.
This paper proposes a new industry-wide standard for all digital art media to append to metadata of all digital art works a field which enables the consumers to provide compensation to designated partys for each work.
This proposal is good not only for the technical reasons outlined above, but for aspects that extend well beyond technical considerations.
In considering means for compensating artists when digital media is consumed, already there exist various competing methods to compensate artists. Yet all existing methods fall short for a number of reasons. This author maintains that all other methods fall short because they ultimately do not integrate in an ideal manner with actual consumer behavior and instead require the forcing upon consumers behaviors which are not natural. By “not natural” this author means behaviors which consumers would not ordinarily take on their own for a variety of reasons.
One can argue that, with the rise of entirely new modes of human activity and expression in conjunction with the advent of the new technologies, along with these modes a new Tao arises. This Tao is defined by a multiplicity of factors which relate to fundamental aspects of human functioning, electronic devices, and digital technologies, and the nature of new technologies themselves.
It is important to understand that these are things which often extend beyond the realm of human control. For example humans might set up a system of traffic signal lights along streets in order to efficiently accomodate traffic. While it is humans who create the actual streets and devices for trafic signaling, in fact what defines optimal or ideal modes of signaling and traffic engineering are not things determined by any human being.
In a more traditional philosophical consideration they can be considered a priori technical axioms which humans utilize to their advantage (e.g. for the purpose of facilitating traffic), but they do not create them.
Similarly, humans employ mathematics extensively in their endeavors, but it would be clearly wrong for any human to claim that they create or control the truth that 2 + 2 = 4.
This is why software patents are generally a catastrophically bad idea. The vast majority of software patents are tapping into aspects of a technical Tao which humans do not create. Humans only gain advantage by tapping into, by utilizing this Tao and it is every human’s inherent right, and to their advantage, that this Tao be promoted and understood. For any private entity to intentionally limit or stifle any other’s comportment with the Tao is fundamentally unjust.
The system presently proposed for solving the problem of compensation of artists for the consumption of digital media is based on this Tao of how technology operates and also upon human behavior. It does not punish nor intend to alter, curb, or in any way modify human behavior from that which is most natural and efficient. It does not need to impose anything upon humans in order to work. For the above reasons alone it is far superior to all other methods for compensation.
This system proposes that all digital media contain a metadata field, appended to their existing metadata or perhaps incorporated into a new system for metadata, which identifies a party which is responsible for receiving compensation for a particular work.
When human beings collect art their first and most primary concern is to first gather it and accumulate it. They then begin a process of selecting from that which was accumulated. Each individual, based upon their preferences and tastes, will make selections appropriate for themselves which no others can make.
In the end the individual ends up with a collection. One major flaw with other models of artist compensation is that they attempt to impose payment at the gathering and acquisition phase. The model proposed here does not. Instead, based on human behavior and natural means of comportment with digital technology, it suggests conducting compensation at the collection level, after artworks have been acquired and selected.
One other major flaw with the existing model of compensation is that it disrupts the acquisition and selection phases of art acquisition by consumers. This ultimately is one of the most detrimental aspects of the existing model, as by disrupting acquistion and selection it thereby significantly limits that amount of works that consumers will ultimately access, thereby also significantly limiting the number of works that they will enjoy and want to place in their collections, and therefor also wish to compensate artists for.
This method of compensation is superior because it is based on works that a consumer actually enjoys, and has already gone through a natural process of selection of.
This paper does not go into how such a method can be implemented, although this author can make the following suggestions. With regard to digital audio media for example, an individual will go through an extensive process of first collecting, then selecting music that he or she likes. The ultimate end of this process is when the individual is actually listening to and playing music. It becomes part of a playlist Enjoying a piece and wanting to hear it again mean that the individual really wants this piece and is happy with it.
At that stage the individual is most likely to want to compensate the artist of the piece. Therefore if there were a function built into music players which simply allowed the individual to allocate a given amount of funds towards each artist in a given playlist, this method most closely matches the individual’s desire to give compensation with what he or she is listening to.
Each individual could be responsible, based upon their own financial means, of allocating a certain sum of money which they then will choose to disperse to all the artists in a playlist. By clicking a button, said amount of funds will be automatically allocated and distributed to each party which is designated in each digital piece’s metadata field.
In fact, the system could go beyond this. Already most systems for digital playback contain rating fields. So not only can an individual designate that they want to provide compensation to artists for selected works, they can also assign a weight to different works. Works which a person is particulary fond of and therefore wants to rate highly will receive a proprortionally higher share of compensation when the funds are automatically distrubuted, based on ratings.
In light of the above considerations of this paper, it is clear to this author that organizations such as The Pirate Bay, far from doing wrong, in fact are champions of the Tao and of justice. Despite the continued onslaught of private interests which intend to restrict, impose, and stifle human endeavor, The Pirate Bay have promoted and upheld a higher standard which ultimately is far superior to all other models.
This author sincerely believes that if The Pirate Bay and other analoges are ever stifled, it will be a significant setback for humanity inasmuch as art is a basic part of being human.
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