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your page for family genealogy: they’d all have to do the same
kind of continuous checking and re-checking of every file you
publish with them.
It would be the end of any publication that couldn’t foot the
legal bills to get off the ground. The multi-billion-page Internet
would collapse into the homogeneous world of cable TV (remem-
ber when we thought that a “500-channel universe” would be
unimaginably broad? Imagine an Internet with only 500 “chan-
nels”!). From Amazon to Ask A Ninja, from Blogger to the Ever-
lasting Blort, every bit of online content is made possible by re-
moving the cost of paying lawyers to act as the Internet’s gate-
keepers.
This is great news for artists. The traditional artist’s lament is
that our publishers have us over a barrel, controlling the narrow
and vital channels for making works available — from big gallery
owners to movie studios to record labels to New York publishers.
That’s why artists have such a hard time negotiating a decent deal
for themselves (for example, most beginning recording artists
have to agree to have money deducted from their royalty state-
ments for “breakage” of records en route to stores — and these
deductions are also levied against digital sales through the iTunes
Store!).
But, thanks to the Web, artists have more options than ever.
The Internet’s most popular video podcasts aren’t associated with
TV networks (with all the terrible, one-sided deals that would
entail), rather, they’re independent programs like RocketBoom,
Homestar Runner, or the late, lamented Ze Frank Show. These
creators — along with all the musicians, writers, and other artists
using the Net to earn their living — were able to write their own
ticket. Today, major artists like Radiohead and Madonna are leav-
ing the record labels behind and trying novel, Net-based ways of
promoting their work.
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