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Mark Allen
Director , Screenwriter , Composer
542,311 views| 255  Posts

Obscurity

This is a quote of Tim O'Reilly (CEO of O'Reilly Media) which I find so astute and applicable to members of this site that I'm quoting him for discussion with no comment of my own:

"Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy."

I originally saw this quote on the cinematech.blogspot.com blog.

about 16 years ago 0 likes  17 comments  0 shares
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cinematech.blogspot.com is a very good blog and has been for a very long time. No surprise the author is a reporter by trade. I realize the quote can sound pro-piracy - but I like to think of it as more about prioritizing your concerns. I think of the one million people on myspace who feel they are actively pursuing their art and just the enormous amount of competition there is to be discovered by an audience. Yes, piracy is not helpful to artists - but perhaps until an artist is known enough to be pirated, they need simply focused on being known and exposed. I like the quote because it doesn't inherently have a point of view, yet states something that seems true.
about 16 years ago
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It definitely begs the question... could or would one be an artist with no audience.
about 16 years ago
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Juhana - no no no that's all wrong! Love the Artist.... LOVE THE ARITST... ...please? :)
about 16 years ago
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Cokie - it seems true because the fact of the matter is most artists will never have to worry about about piracy because no one will ever want to be exchanging and trading their music for free much less for money. If artists are popular enough that piracy becomes a real issue - then they're no longer obscure (meaning not one knows who they are) - and they have greater opportunity. So - the quote is basically saying "worry about getting to the point that people want to pirate your art more than you worry about people pirating your art."
about 15 years ago

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Languages Spoken
english
Location (City, Country)
Los Angeles, United States
Gender
male
Member Since
April 13, 2007