Artists Could Benefit From Hard Drive Fees

Concerning the “legal mechanism” to ensure artists are paid for their work (“Whose Art Is It Anyway?,” Sept. 29), why not put a levy on either computer hard drives or the CD-ROM drives through which the majority of the original copying and digital uploading takes place? It would be an additional fee paid when one purchases a computer drive. Those fees would then be distributed as royalties to the artists, songwriters and publishers (the artists and writers whose songs are downloaded the most frequently would get the biggest piece of the pie).

If this idea ever flies, remember, you saw it here first. I am the sole copyright owner of any original idea contained herein.

DREW JESSEL

Simi Valley

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First, let me agree that it is critical that we find a way to compensate creativity. I do not use Napster and do have moral reservations about any form of profiting from artistic expression that does not compensate the artist. I think the current copyright system is pretty corrupt, and does not serve its purpose well. The danger isn’t in the concept of intellectual property; it is in the accumulation of the intellectual property in the hands of the few.

The story mentions that patenting fire seems very unlikely. Unfortunately if a corporation discovered the Grand Unified Theory of Everything, they would be certain to patent it today. There was a serious question whether the human genome was going to end up patented or not. Some things should not be owned, and I lean to thinking that culture, mathematics and science are among them. The open source software movement also bears inspection as an example that there are more ways and sometimes better ways to motivate creation than money.

I know a lot of struggling artists who would be more than thrilled just to be able to make a living doing what they love. Perhaps the audiences will be smaller, but there might be a connection between artist and listener not present today.

JAMES F. FLYNN

Sunnyvale

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Everywhere the story mentions writers or musicians you can also add professional photographers.

Our industry is also in the midst of a huge transformation in imaging and the sale or creation of those images. As a full-time wedding and portrait photographer, I am totally reevaluating the way we price our work. I and many others in this field are now being forced [for survival’s sake] to price ourselves for the creative efforts of an assignment. With the proliferation of high-resolution scanners and inkjet printers, the public can scan and print our previews “proofs” with astonishing clarity and photo-like quality. I now have all my images scanned into digital images and with image presentation software, presenting this to the client for selection. All selections and wedding album design will be done in the studio.

MIKE LEE

Mission Viejo