Hi Lynn

really a though (but a good) one. Well I prefer to pay for the things I can obtain legally. Of course there are things you simply cannot get and there are countries that don't broadcast everything Nat was appearing in. Still it's a thin line between sharing and stealing. But I'm not a saint. What I do - really - I'm getting my appetite there and then buy stuff I like if I can get it.

Frankly speaking I'm enjoying youtube a great deal, tho' I know most of the things by standard of already existing laws there are illegal. No need for new international legislation and I applaud everyone who's been on the streets against this sort of try to get the internet under control of a few companies. Lots of this uploading is appreciation. Please think about it, the fans who upload this stuff don't make any money out of it!

And most of them don't upload whole bits of work. Those who do risk very much by doing so and I keep on saying this - and believe me I'm not very popular for doing so. It's not a sign of courage to do it this way, quite the contrary. I'm a fan myself and I know it's not easy to draw the line. But you gotta know where you stand and stop where it's becoming illegal and dangerous for yourself. And thinking about it right to the end you gotta accept that, yes, you are stealing from your star if you're not paying. That's that and that's not what fans do.

The things you see up here with Nat's site aren't full versions of his work, merely citations or excerpts of his appearances on screen. Nat's a generous man and with this website he likes to give something back to his fans. And that's all that has to be said about it. I'm happy to do my bit, have been doing it since 2003 now and I still find joy in making people happy and talk about his work...

Cheers!

webmistress

Lynn,

I don't see anything negative in your words and your statement. It is a though question. That's all. I think if they'd charge a small fee that would be fair. You see here in Germany we do pay authors and musicians via a company that collects fees even from copies you make from pages of books!

That's bit weird, but it works, the consumer doesn't even notice and the creatives get their money. I think that's just fair.

As far as I can remember, in the starting days of the internet there was something called napster, a music download thing. The music industry hated it, then they bought it, couldn't figure out how to use it. And it died, and along came new illegal download stuff. Pause for almost 10 years. Along came Steve Jobs, used all the technology that was there and sold music for small fees on an unbeatably well designed device - what a success!

I think that if the huge companies wouldn't be that greedy, people would pay. And if they allowed people to make private copies for themselves that wouldn't hurt much then, right? I think that the copyright protection madness doesn't help it. It never will. There are too many nerds out there who take it as a challenge to tell the companies who's boss...

Cheers!

webmistress