I am aware that the printing press was the impetus for copyrights. And I wasn't really trying to draw a distinction between plagiarism and copyright, just show that in some cases (performing art and writing) that there are differences in execution. You only detailed how stuff becomes traditional - I don't think anything I said regarding that contradicts you. And I don't exclude trademarks and patents, either. In the real world, a patent is something that gets the inventor prestige, but inventions get stolen all the time anyway. Inventors are pressured to sell their patents so the purchaser can bury it etc. The system isn't really all that good, so focusing on a teenager downloading Slipknot from Napster reminds me of draining a pool with a thimble.
I'm not quite sure what you're getting at with the whole business of how tough it is to be a noted and financially stable artist. I realize that. That number certainly doesn't *increase* with the intrusion of the middlemen, though. And my whole point is that art should not be "packaged, promoted, and distributed" - the necessity for that is a fallacy. The reason music and such can be stolen is because it is so cheap to copy. It costs something to *produce*, but that is a simple matter of the current middlemen becoming more like investment bankers. They bankroll production (and advertising, if they want) rather than "finding and cultivating talent." I don't think they do much of a service there. Some of the "talent" can't perform their way out of a wet paper bag (can anyone say "Milli Vanilli"?? I thought so).
History is full of artists who got popular *in spite* of the big money. If there weren't big middlemen in the way, I don't think we'd lack for good art. We'd only have to pay less for it, and word-of-mouth advertising would rule supreme. Instead of surfing the net for good artists, people would probably take recommendations from friends. I do that now anyway. I don't go into bookstores and music stores to shop. I have enough recommendations to keep reading for the next 500 years.
Cheers,
Bryan
