Artists

[jamesd at echeque.com]

    --
On 8 Jul 2002 at 11:25, Trei, Peter wrote:
> Some forms of creation require little in the way of up-front 
> investment. Others do. Consider movies. While some of the people 
> involved get to do creative work that they love, many don't, and
> they all have to make a living somehow. Would the Key Grip, the
> Focus Puller, or the Greensmen be willing to do their work for
> the sheer creativity of it all? I don't think so. The principle
> shooting for the LOTR trilogy took over 18 months, in New
> Zealand. Do you think they did it (just) for love?
>
> Art forms which require large prior investments need some form
> of remuneration beyond egoboo. Otherwise, they just won't 
> happen.

Let us imagine that all efforts to enforce copyright on the
internet were abandoned, and that everyone in the world has a fat
pipe capable of downloading movies.

First, most people who want to see lord of the rings want to see
it a theatre.  The scene in the mines of Moria, the backgrounder
on the origin of the ring, the dark riders crossing the river, are
all written for the big screen, and are worthless on a small
screen.

Secondly, most people who want to see lord of the rings do it as a
pilgrimage, so they do it when it first comes out, and they take a
date, or go with a bunch of friends.  It is positively
sacriligious to see it on a small screen, or to see it without
making a special occasion of it.  After all this is not just
another Buffy episode.

Thus fat pipes and an end to internet copyright would have had no
significant effect on the profits from the Lord of the Rings. 

    --digsig
         James A. Donald
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D