Mick Jones Likes File Sharing
A reasonable guy, that one is. With a new band, too - I didn't even know. I wonder what they sound like. Hmm? What's that? All their music is available as FREE downloads?!?
I don't even care if they're any good. No record label support, not even any "official" releases to speak of - this band has embraced the future. They are willing to do what it takes to shake up the system. It's important that established acts do this kind of thing. I can go on and on about it and it doesn't mean anything, because I'm not a part of this business yet. But if Sting got on his website and pledged his support to Kazaa, things would start happening. And it wouldn't be the doomsday scenario that the record companies would have you believe. We don't listen to the guy on the corner telling us the world is about to end; why do we listen to record company executives that say the exact same thing, and furthermore tie in our own behavior?
"If you download illegally, you're stealing from the artists and record companies. File-sharing hurts our business."
Garbage. People who utilize P2P are forcing the issue; pushing the current paradigm until it breaks; beating the record companies at their own game. We do this because we have been given no other choice. We want the freedoms that current technology offers. Heck, most of us would be happy with the freedoms of 10-year-old technology that has been suppressed and unfairly criminalized. We want everyone to be paid their due. What we don't want is to be restricted - to be told we can't copy CD's onto our computers. To be told exactly when, where, and how we are permitted to enjoy music.
I bought a Kings of Leon CD last week. Guess what? It sucked. But because of draconian return policies, I can't get my money back for it. I feel cheated. (Yeah, yeah, some places will let you listen before you buy, but I wasn't in one of those places and I usually need a day or two to adjust to a new record. Never mind that Europe has very reasonable return policies on music and movies, and so there's no need to wastefully shrink-wrap everything to prove it hasn't been opened like we do here.) Furthermore, before I listened to it, I tried to copy the music onto my computer so I could listen to the songs while I worked on other things. What that nasty little CD did was install a program without my consent that put skips into all the .mp3's I ripped. I consider that to be a malicious attack on my personal property (the computer, not the audio files, which are also technically my property, but that's beside the point). I then found a way to remove the stupid software, and I went ahead and did what I wanted to anyway, which was bypass the copy-protection and rip the CD onto my hard drive. On my terms - not theirs.
I will never buy another copy-protected disc. I'd rather go out of my way to obtain music in a flagrantly violent, fiery, and unbelievably illegal manner - including paying a black market dealer in Hong Kong three times the street value - than get burned like that again.
"What's needed is for everyone, the industry included, to work together to come up with new ways in which artists can be rewarded for their work."
I couldn't have said it better myself.
A reasonable guy, that one is. With a new band, too - I didn't even know. I wonder what they sound like. Hmm? What's that? All their music is available as FREE downloads?!?
I don't even care if they're any good. No record label support, not even any "official" releases to speak of - this band has embraced the future. They are willing to do what it takes to shake up the system. It's important that established acts do this kind of thing. I can go on and on about it and it doesn't mean anything, because I'm not a part of this business yet. But if Sting got on his website and pledged his support to Kazaa, things would start happening. And it wouldn't be the doomsday scenario that the record companies would have you believe. We don't listen to the guy on the corner telling us the world is about to end; why do we listen to record company executives that say the exact same thing, and furthermore tie in our own behavior?
"If you download illegally, you're stealing from the artists and record companies. File-sharing hurts our business."
Garbage. People who utilize P2P are forcing the issue; pushing the current paradigm until it breaks; beating the record companies at their own game. We do this because we have been given no other choice. We want the freedoms that current technology offers. Heck, most of us would be happy with the freedoms of 10-year-old technology that has been suppressed and unfairly criminalized. We want everyone to be paid their due. What we don't want is to be restricted - to be told we can't copy CD's onto our computers. To be told exactly when, where, and how we are permitted to enjoy music.
I bought a Kings of Leon CD last week. Guess what? It sucked. But because of draconian return policies, I can't get my money back for it. I feel cheated. (Yeah, yeah, some places will let you listen before you buy, but I wasn't in one of those places and I usually need a day or two to adjust to a new record. Never mind that Europe has very reasonable return policies on music and movies, and so there's no need to wastefully shrink-wrap everything to prove it hasn't been opened like we do here.) Furthermore, before I listened to it, I tried to copy the music onto my computer so I could listen to the songs while I worked on other things. What that nasty little CD did was install a program without my consent that put skips into all the .mp3's I ripped. I consider that to be a malicious attack on my personal property (the computer, not the audio files, which are also technically my property, but that's beside the point). I then found a way to remove the stupid software, and I went ahead and did what I wanted to anyway, which was bypass the copy-protection and rip the CD onto my hard drive. On my terms - not theirs.
I will never buy another copy-protected disc. I'd rather go out of my way to obtain music in a flagrantly violent, fiery, and unbelievably illegal manner - including paying a black market dealer in Hong Kong three times the street value - than get burned like that again.
"What's needed is for everyone, the industry included, to work together to come up with new ways in which artists can be rewarded for their work."
I couldn't have said it better myself.
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posted by Brandon at 3:33 AM
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