What's sickening is that whenever you try to even question the copyright laws now, they turn against you like you just wanted to kill a puppy, with remarks such as "So now Eric Schmidt is above the law?"

Not many seem to sit down and question just how ridiculous these laws have become. Just because it's a law doesn't mean it's a good one, or it should exist in the first place. Just look at how they managed to extend for another 4 years the Patriot Act, even though they had much opposition from the public.

I also do think the Internet is different. There's no scarcity on the Internet, or at least it's insignificant compared to real world. Content can be copied and distributed almost for free. It has also become very cheap to create content, and it's becoming even cheaper. These are natural forces on the Internet that they can't simply shape with some laws.

And is it that ridiculous to wonder if maybe copyright really isn't suited for the Internet, and they need to rethink their business models for the new Internet age? It's not like it's the first time in history when large companies either were forced to dramatically change their business models, or became extinct because of disruption. Why would the Internet be any different?

Besides, it's not like it's a coincidence the Internet helped foster many more disruptive innovations to real world businesses. It's not just music and movies that get disrupted here, it's pretty much everything else, too. And a big part of this disruption is due to the fact that the disruptive businesses that are established on the Internet also tend to offer free services or very cheap ones. That's not a coincidence. It's a fundamental law of the Internet that drives the prices of the products down.

We welcome all the other disruptive innovations that come from the Internet, so what makes the music and movie industries so special? I don't even think the music and movie industries will be affected, it's just the large corporations that are part of it now that will be lose if they don't transform their business models.

Did the phone/smartphone industry die because iPhone and Android phones appeared, and are "killing" the old incumbent companies such as Nokia and RIM? Of course not. The phone industry is actually growing faster than ever. It's just the old companies that are dying or are severely threatened by Apple and Google.

I think artists will do just fine in the Internet age, with or without the labels. The Internet is about empowering the individual and like we're seeing in the book industry, the authors are starting to skip the middle man and self-publish their own books, and give them at a lower price, while still making more money than they did before when they only got 20% at most from the publishers.

Bottomline is copyright is not compatible with the Internet. Rather than try to change the Internet, which is about a lot more than just the music and movie industries, and a lot bigger than any one Government, they should try to change their own business models and adapt like every other business that has moved to the Internet.

And for God's sake, stop trying to protect the past. Have we learned nothing from GM? Trying to "save jobs" in the face of a huge paradigm shift is a dumb thing to do. But like I said, I'm sure those industries and the artists themselves will do fine. It's the current companies that won't.

The Mckinsey report itself at eG8 said that the Internet is actually killing jobs. Yes, the Internet is killing jobs!! But the next part also said it's creating 2.6 jobs in return for every job lost. I remember reading that the Industrial Revolution also killed 25 million jobs. But it created 44 million new ones. What we're experiencing now is the Internet Revolution. The labels should get used to it. This is much bigger than them.