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Texas Rep Wants To Jail File Traders
kUnGf00m45t3r writes "There is an article on Wired about how Texas Rep. John Carter wants to jail some college students to scare people away from illegal file sharing. He says, "What these kids don't realize is that every time they pull up music and movies and make a copy, they are committing a felony under the United States code," Carter said in an interview. "If you were to prosecute someone and give them three years, I think this would act as a deterrent." Right..."
Am I the only one who finds this to be condescending? "These kids" is no better than "you people" - I'm sure most Americans will remember the "you people" scandal from the mid-90s.
Does this bill also contain credit for all the CD's I've legally purchased? I mean, say I have 100 legally purchased songs on CD, and I've pirated 99 songs on mp3, this still represents a net sale of 1 song by the record industry.
Using RIAA screwy logic, does this mean that I haven't actually cost them anything?
The 'felony' he speaks of comes from a law that is of a special kind: the kind of laws that we need to have, but are also meant never to be enforced.
The world is going to hell in a handbasket.
DROS - Open-Source Robot Software
If you drive drunk and kill someone, you get 2 years, if you share 500 mp3s you get 3. Sounds fair to me.
Fleur de Sel
Great 3 years in prison is plenty of time for them to learn how to be a real criminal. And since the felony will create problems getting a job when they get out, they will have the inclination to do illegal things for money so they can eat and pay rent.
There just isn't enough violent crime in the US anymore. Let's all thank the Texan for finding a way to correct that problem.
His priorities are all fucked up.
His priority is corporate payrolls, not the people.
Revolition time, overthrow the gov. that the people Remember, the gov is SUPPOST to represent the PEOPLE, lately they just represent the CORPORATION.
Overthrow it.
Filesharing is, in my opinion, much like speeding. A whole hell of a lot of people do it, and only a small percentage ever get caught or have to face the music, so to speak. When more than half of drivers are doing 70 in a 55, and only 1 in 5,000 are pulled over and given a ticket, there is no deterrent! Similarly, if you've got hundreds of thousands of students sharing files illegally, and you only punish "a few" of them, that's not going to discourage the rest of them.
The idea that "they won't bust me" is always going to be prevalent. Either we put them all in jail for committing these horrible felonies, or we don't bother busting any of them.
"BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
The real threat right now is spammers, not file traders. Is something that affects and in some way or another harm or could harm us all. Why not put them all in jails? or in pits, or use them as human shields on iraq, etc.
From the article:
"What these kids don't realize is that every time they pull up music and movies and make a copy, they are committing a felony under the United States code," Carter said in an interview. "If you were to prosecute someone and give them three years, I think this would act as a deterrent."
I know the american judicial and political system can be pretty screwed up at time, but just how much support does this guy think he's going to get from his constituents (read votes), when he starts sending kids to jail for three years in punishment for what amounts to fiften dollars worth of copyright violation?
To compare, how long do you expect Jeffrey Skilling (former Enron CEO) to spend in jail for the $30 billion lost there . . .
I would have no problem with this proposed law, if they offered something similar to music execs guilty of price fixing. So congress should make sure that both sides of this issue are playing fairly.
later,
"Im drowning here, and you're describing the water!"
Ric Campaign for the national sig: "*Just kidding, Admiral Poindexter!"
... and unlicensed software. Let's see if his children or spouse should be jailed. (Hey, 3 or more counts -- maybe for life!).
Something about glass houses.
students, the intellectual future and security of a nation, all turning up on his doorstep turning themselves in for 3 years jailtime. A great way to point out the stupidity of his words, and secure free accomodation until the end of your education.
Can also be found here - why not drop him a line? :p
This demagogue ought to actually read the copyright Act before he starts making false accusations of criminal conduct against his fellow citizens. (He also better make sure his kids are clean.)
1) Even where infringement is present, it isn't necessarily criminal:
It isn't criminal unless willful, and it isn't willful merely because it was copied. Evidence of infringement doesn't suffice under the Copyright Act.
2) Even where willful infringement is present, it isn't necessarily criminal:
If not for commercial purposes or by taking a retail value exceeding $1,000 in a six-month period.
3) Even where willful infringement is criminal, it isn't necessarily a felony:
If not for commercial purposes, it is merely a midemeanor, in the sense that the maximum criminal sentence is limited to not more than a year. (Not sure if that is the relevant standard -- I'm not a criminal lawyer).
College students are easily swayed by this sort of thing, and imprisoning a few for longer than most rapists get will surely straighten them out. I mean, once they showed that they put you in jail for smoking marijuana, pretty much every college student in the U.S. stopped smoking pot. This will be just like that, right?
do not read this line twice.
The more you steal the less you are punished."
Yeah, but only if you're a CEO.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Wait lets not forget those middle schoolers. I know they download music too. But how to jail kids under 16. Disney Jails of course. With a special school in jail teaching all about the evils of downloaded music. I call it Disney Jail. Smaller cells for smaller minds. Jailers/teachers dressed in big eared mouse costumes. Special areas for kindergarden and preschool. Punish them while they're young. Better yet pre-crime... jail them before they do... cause you know they will.
I remember while rejecting the case for breaking up MS, Dubya said we don't want to send the wrong messages to American Corporations. They mustn't feel endangered to carry on innovating in their own country.
What message does jailing students send to American citizens? The one I can hear is "Innovative students who offend Corporations will be jailed. Even if the 'guilty act' does not merit such severe action ".
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
The right way to do it is to first make p2p music sharing unnecessary by providing a convenient way to download music legally, then enforce the laws that make it illegal.
The shareholder is always right.
But if we jail people with files, won't they just cut through the bars and escape?
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
In the grand scheme of things, cleaning out corrupt politicians is a whole lot more important than cracking down in file trading by people with no money. I'm sure jailing people like Carter for a few years would have a wonderfully deterrent effect on other politicians. What about it?
This Texas Rep seems to have forgotten WHO elected him, the parents of "these kids" and sending someone to jail for three years for swapping files (albeit copyrighted works) seems rather harsh, they'd probably have been better off to actually steal the CDs! (In terms of their sentence)
I don't think that a justice system should be used to "scare" someone - especially when a great number of people don't think that much of a crime has been committed. Basically people have taped each others' CDs and records for years, and music still gets made, Puffy Daddy still buys his plane, the sky doesn't fall in. The problem is we don't see "these kids" as criminals - okay they are, but not the kind of criminals who need to be jailed. We do see a lot of musicians as criminals though, they make vast fortunes from music that is likely to inflame racial tensions and advocate criminal acts - this Texas Rep should choose his friends more wisely if he hopes to be re-elected.
It also seems pretty hypocritical to add a levy on blank CD media and STILL go after individuals who are buying them. It seems that the music industry wants to be paid twice - once for original CDs and once for blank media.
Yeah, you're right. BThe only good thing about this is that once Bush's out of office he can be jailed when he enters a country that supports the international court. Only problem is, after this war there's probably no country that wants to risk being bombed for abiding international law. (Which the lawful Texan doesn't) So, throwing people in jail for minor copyright issues is okay, but for killing a couple hundred/thousand people it isn't. But who cares about children in jail, especially since the US never ratified the UN convention of children's rights.
I think file sharing has gone the same way as Drugs (well at least pot), most (young) people do not see anything wrong with it and many quite happily do it. Yet is illegal. I am much of a philosopher but I would say if nobody supports a law then the law should be changed not the people?
Then everyone who has ever copied a record or taped something off the telly, should give themselves up, and insist on the same treatment. This is called passive resistence path to law reform. If enough people do it all at once (ie organised), it will completely overwhelm the system.
...
In the mean time wouldn't it be nice if the "no felony" rule applied to more than the military. And is it true that some people get a choice of the army or jail in the USA?
(Doing the rounds on email - no idea if it is true or not):
Can you imagine working for a company that has a
little more than 500 employees and has the following statistics:
* 29 have been accused of spousal abuse
* 7 have been arrested for fraud
* 19 have been accused of writing bad cheques
* 117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
* 3 have done time for assault
* 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
* 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
* 8 have been arrested for shoplifting
* 21 are currently defendants in lawsuits
* 84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year
Can you guess which organization this is?
Give up yet?
It's the 535 members of the United States Congress. The same group of idiots that crank out hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest of USA proletariat in line !!
to mod or to post? posting wins. me, me, mod me, me
-- it must be true, it's on the internet.
So they want to jail people for file trading/stealing a few hundred bucks worth of crap, but the corrupt CEO's of Enron (file trading/stealing peoples life's savings) and otherwise will likely do less time than the kiddies they make examples of.
Nice to see our perspective of domestic and international law are on par with each other in the insane asylum.
Didnt Texas just notice that their tried to give someone a needle in a case where the accused was found guilty with evidence from police paid witnesses and evidence was withheld? Yahoo Story
Like they need to find more ways of fucking people with their backwards justice. Perhaps they could figure out how to administer what they have first.
members are seeing something, your seeing an ad
It would deter me from ever voting for him again!
"Sometimes it takes the shock value of someone actually being punished," Carter said. "In this particular instance it might also send a message to these kids that are operating on these networks that, 'Hey, I better stop.'"
Boycotts are a good idea but imagine the shock value of millions of students registering to vote in order to "send a message" back to Congressman Carter. Fighting corruption while simultaneously keeping your butt out of jail would be cool too.
It was. Until the "No Electronic Theft Act" appeared, which altered the definition of "commercial" to cover file trading as well. So, if you're running Kazaa, WinMX or whatever except with an empty or disabled share at all times, that's (2) and (3) from the parent post covered. As for (1), are you going to claim you accidentally installed that file trading software? If not, NETA would seem to put you into the "felony" bracket as soon as you've traded a couple of dozen albums - or one copy of Win XP, it seems!
Run a P2P app deliberately, trade $1k worth (at retail prices) of material, and it's a misdemeanour (1 year, $100k fine). 10 or more copies, retailing for $2.5k, and it's a felony (3 years, $250k fine). Ouch!
It really bothers me that the RIAA et al compares digital media piracy to be the very same as walking into a store and shoplifting a CD. Conceptually--alright, I see their point that theft is theft. But, let's compare apples to apples here.
Swapping a song is more akin to going to your library and copying an article out of an encyclopedia. I mean, the library paid for that encyclopedia, but Britannica certainly isn't getting any type of royalty or extra revenue for your actions. And, this behavior is actually accepted (otherwise, why did my college library have eight copy machines on each floor?).
The fact is, and this has been stated over and over again, that the recording industry is using a business model that is quickly becoming antiquated because it has not adapted to changes in digital media capabilities (i.e., instant gratification: easier and cheaper to download a single track from the Internet than to drive to the music store).
Furthermore, what is the motivation or desireable quality of owning a physical CD at the cost of $15? For the eight garbage tracks that you get in addition to the 1 or 2 good songs? For the really cool cover artwork? For the satisfaction that your $15 contributed to the squandering lifestyle of the artist, or even worse, the recording label?
Perhaps my views are seeded in jealousy. There, I said it. Because I have no marketable talent, I'm forced to work 40+ hours a week and live entirely on that paycheck. Recording stars might put in long hours at the studio (boo hoo--we all put in long hours to meet our deadlines probably more frequently than they record an album), but in my eyes, they aren't truly working unless they're touring. And, just because they can sing or otherwise attract public appeal, they have the opportunity to afford all kinds of luxuries PLUS have big companies give them all kinds of products for free in hopes of some sort of endorsement. I wonder what that would be like....
Call it theft or whatever, but I think that the everyday 40+ hour a week employee has voiced its opposition to the practices of the recording industry that takes money away from the working class to support the lifestyle of the artists.
Ok, Got your attention on that one :-)
Now exactly is this moron Rep from texas expecting this to work? the tactics they use against obviousally and morally sick crime called child porn doesn't do a damned thing. And now this blathering Idiot from texas wants to focus on something that is a percieved problem and waste resources on that instead of the real problems?
This man just gave his competition some really good ammunition for the next campain..
Rep. John Carter doesn't care about your children, in fact he wants them in Jail. Rep. John Carter cares more about big business than children, as he would rather waste resources on chasing college students and kids than stopping child porongraphy or other truely illegal activities.
Rep. John Carter, who is he working for?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I can't wait for this to become reality! Soon they'll jail everyone who pirates music, and lump them in with all those software traders too. Good thing we taught poor students a lesson about trying to get free versions of $500 pieces of software. Those cassette recording punks are rotting in there somewhere too! Good thing that evil Satanic practice was stopped before everyone starting doing it!
Even if they start randomly jailing 0.1% of all offenders you have to make room for tens of thousands of "criminals" in your already overcrowded jails, and the net result is that 99.9% of people will get away with it, scot-free.
I think they SHOULD enforce it, and make the record companies pay for the prosecution and the new jails that will be needed to house millions of young adults. Sure, schools will be pretty empty for a while and they might cause long-term economic damage, but at least kids will no longer be sharing files and can get back to smoking weed and drinking & driving!
Go Texas! Can't trade files but you can pistol-whip that black piece of shit who offered to wash the windows of your truck.
The US has a higher proportion of its citizens in jail than any other country - in all of history.
This isn't just in comparison with other "democracies", this is of anywhere, including dictatorships.
It now looks like it's trying hard to keep anyone else from approaching this record.
This is something for the "land of the free" to be ashamed of, not proud of.
However, I don't think this goes far enough. I have a more Texan solution for the rep. to adopt.
Kill them all.
Yes, it's well known that most crimes are committed by young men aged 16-30. Kill the lot of them. It'll stop most of the hacking, most of the file sharing, get rid of most of the drug addicts. It will get rid of most of the cheap foreign labor so senior US programmers will have jobs again. It will reduce US carbon dioxide output significantly so Bush can take credit for reducing global warming. It will reduce underage pregnancies. It will remove most of the opposition to the religious Right. It will greatly reduce drunk driving.
OK, the downside is that CD sales will fall catastrophically. But in these difficult times, we must all make sacrifices. Even the RIAA. And we could have a stonking great memorial in DC, to all the young men who gave their lives in the war against (file-sharing) terror.
Next off: Why they should bring in the death penalty for double parking.
Stupid? Not as stupid as "let's give a few people a major criminal record for a minor offence to discourage the others." Texas and Saudi: the similarities run deep.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
According to his web site, http://www.house.gov/carter/ , he has offices in Round Rock and College Station. Anyone know when he's up for election? I think a few posters on Campus with some quotes about his "idea" will get him swiftly kicked out... provided the college populous goes and votes.
Hell, anyone want to recall him? I'm sure there are a few TU students in Round Rock who'd be happy to help...
"Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples
While I agree that the congressman's comments seem to reflect poor judgement in terms of how to phase in punishment, is it not appropriate to begin enforcing the law against those who break it? When ideas like the DMCA or SSSCA (CBDTPA) are proposed I am offended because they punish me for things that I do not do. Isn't enforcing the existing law exactly the right approach?
As a counter-proposal how about this:
Step 1:
For six months, send letters to violators stating that the executive branch will begin enforcing the law.
Step 2:
For six months, enforce the law lightly. Give a few kids a week a summons and (if found guilty of willful infringement) probation.
Step 3:
Gradually increase the punishment to the natural level for the law in question. Start adding public service and small fines, and gradually ramp up.
This is much the way that traffic law enforcement devices with cameras are phased in, and as a person living in a city with red-light enforcement traffic cameras, I have seen it work.
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
Seriously, this guy apparently forgot two of the kost fundamental rules of justice: the penalty must be in proportion to the fault and justice must be equal for all. While in theory jailing someone "to make an exemple" might work for some time, it is making justice by exception AND abusive penalty.
For the above reason, my thought is that this guy is only after the publicity as such a proposal wouldn't go through a real court.
I love this idea. In fact, I think that we should start raiding the Bush daughters' rooms and throw them in jail for 3 years. You can't tell me that those two aren't illegally downloading music.
If not them, then certainly the children of representatives and senators. If this guy wants to show how truly just he is, then I'm sure he'd be more than happy to make his children examples of what happens when you don't follow the law.
Oh, and when in doubt, blame college students!
"Copyright violation was always, for more than two hundred years of American history, a CIVIL violation, not a CRIMINAL one."
Only for downloaders is it a criminal offence. Ripping off copyrighted songs and incorporating them into your own, IF YOU ARE A RECORD PRODUCER, is still a civil matter.
Nice? If the music is sent via MTV and recorded its fair use and perfectly legal. If its send via DSL and recorded its a felony with a long sentence. Even though the record companies give the product free (with promotional video) to MTV to promote the artists.
the verb "jail" means "temporarily detain until we execute them" or "hold them dang sonsabitches til we's can kills 'em. Yee haw!"
---------------------
Congressman Sessions:
As a voter in your district, I'm writing in response to an article (http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,58081,0 0.html) in which your fellow Texas Representative from the 34th District, John Carter, explictly expresses support for prosecuting as felons people who participate in illegal file sharing online. While I recognize that such action is in violation of copyright law, I also recognize that representative Carter's statements are a direct reflection of the common agenda of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and of the sizable campaign contributions that these organizations are using to influence legislation in thier direction.
Let me be clear that this letter is not in advocacy of illegal file sharing, but rather in response to the misguided stance of felony prosecution that your fellow representative has publicly taken. This is a problem that is endemic of the internet age, and is a result of there being an inadequate system of permanent distribution of these media from their respective industries (e.g. CDs & DVDs that scratch/crack/break, and audio and VHS tapes that degrade with time) and the availability of technological measures to ensure the indefinite lifespan of the media with digital archiving on computers.
Thus, it is apparent that, rather than fight the swell of illegal file sharing with threats of felony prosecution, thereby placing the onus of responsibility on the end user, the onus is instead squarely upon the RIAA and MPAA to discover a means to utilize the advancement of technology to discover a better means of distribution for their media.
This issue has arisen purely from the sphere of economics. Simply, why would I pay $18 for a CD/$30 for a DVD whose lifespan I cannot guarantee and whose replacement I will have sole financial responsibility for in the event of loss when an alternative, regardless of its legality, exists and is readily available (e.g. internet file sharing). However, if these industries were to offer their product in electronic format for a reduced cost (effected by saving themselves the cost of physical media and its physical distribution), or in some other way ensure that I have indefinite access to the media I purchased, then the argument for legitimate purchase would be much more compelling, and I'd be much less likely to engage in illegal file sharing in lieu of commercial obtainment.
These industries try to stand on both sides of the intellectual property argument, which hurls the legitimacy of their entire stance into a dubious light. On the one hand, by claiming violation of copyright law by unlicensed distribution of the content electronically, they clearly state that the value of the CD or DVD is in its artistic content and not in the physical media. On the other hand, by denying the availability of indefinite access to the content in case of a damaged CD or DVD, they state clearly that the user is purchasing not the content with their dollars but rather the physical medium itself.
Obviously, these ideas are contradictory, and quite obviously, the internet file sharing phenomenon of RIAA and MPAA content is a clear REACTION to the failure of these industries to act responsibly and consistently in their obligation to participate in fair commerce with the public sector.
And so, returning to the genesis of this letter, I ask, as a voter, that you take all measures to oppose any movement within the legislature that would seek to prosecute as criminals users who participate in illegal file sharing, and instead support legislature which would direct the RIAA and MPAA towards all efforts at finding an appropriate mechanism for media content distribution that would insure indefinite access for the consumers who purchase their products.
Thank you for your time. Regards,
--<name>
Locking up a few of "these kids" worked so well with our War on Drugs!
If he succeeds, pretty soon there won't be any file trading, just like now there are no more illegal drugs in this country!
Actually - boycotting CD's is going to (already I think) have the opposite effect intended.
The record industry can then point to the drop in sales and say "SEE! We told you so! Our sales are hurting because of file sharing!" and the law will crack down even harder until enough people cough over the dough.
I'm not saying you should support the record industry - I don't - but just cold hard facts.
-- If it ain't broke - overclock it more.
Seriously. I don't understand why, but why don't we just get rid of most of these notions of copyright. A large portion of the American population thinks its fine to copy files/dvds/vhs all sorts of things.
.
Copyright is a grant by the government of a monopoly right to produce a product.
So lets get rid of it. It's an outdated notion, and it's not like anyone has God-given right to anything sort of grant by the government. It is not 'immoral' or 'unethical' to replicate intellectual property, except for the legal aspect.. Most of our economic laws are in place to encourage a certain economic structure. Laws against activities that hurt people=Moral questions. Laws to promote economic model=matter of preference.
It is already a very common practice, and I would guess that a majority of Americans think file sharing to fantastic, not criminal.
Why hasn't anyone seriously proposed this? Sure, it would hurt contributions from the entertainment industry, but it would probably increase contributions from electronics manufactures (Sony/Intel/etc), and be a great campaign issue: "You want your Napster? Fine. Vote for the Democrats(or Republican, or Green, or whoever is willing to do it) and you'll get it. We'll even throw in some funding to get Internet2 online faster, and make person-2-person even faster!"
Before you snicker at that idea, realize that then there could be reasonable regulations to protect certain industries. Music=freely tradable. Movies=freely tradable. Software=2 years before its freely tradable. Books=4 years before they are freely tradable. Etc. .
Sure, Books and Software would still be illegaly traded, but keeping it illegal for a little while would prevent wholesale production of knockoffs.
But as far as I, and most of the American public is probably concerned, unlikes books and software, music is performed! . And that's good enough to encourage individuals to go into the music industry. Remember: Copyright exists to promote the arts and sciences. Musicians have a viable revenue stream without the recording industry.
And the recording industry? I don't care if record execs end up in the gutter. They plan on sending college 'kids' to jail? Bah. The Government no longer needs to issue a monopoly to these people. They don't provide any useful function anymore. The internet can do what they did at a fraction of the cost, with far greater accesibility. So what if there is dilution---->If the government was willing to endorse wholesale filesharing, it might even start the golden age internet advocates have been talking about for ages.
WhiteWolf666 an exBush supporter. All you new-school,compassionate,save the children Republicans can rot in hell
This guy apparently has never heard of the phrase selective enforcement.
For those that do not know, it is illegal to practice selective enforcement.
The reason it isn't legal, and shouldn't be is that by only presecuting select individuals, you create an inequity in the justice system (ok.. don't get on me about all the inequities there are now).
The point is that selective enforcement allows people (not laws) to determine who gets punished. Be the wrong skin color, wrong age, not buy-off enough people, and those prosecutors may come after you for simple crimes.
So, in order to send ANY number of people to jail, the prosecutors must show that they are actively persuing all crimes of this nature. In fact, if I was one of these kids I would probably use that as a defense. I would put to burden on the prosecutor to prove to a jury that they are not targeting (profiling) my racial/ethnical/age profile. Show me the hundreds of other cases out there you are investigating, etc..etc..
I've never posted on a subject more than once before, and now I have posted three times on this one...
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) has been warning that it is approaching peak capacity. They're looking at the possibility of having to parole people early to create room for newly-sentenced convicts.
I really hope that those who have been convicted of rape, assault, drug-dealing, etc. are not being released to make room for file traders!
As I said before, this proposal is not proportional - if stealing a CD in a store is a misdemeanor, while downloading the songs that comprise the CD is a federal felony, something is wrong. Of course, when compared with proposals to hack systems or run DDoS attacks, imprisonment seems to fit right in...
I propose we use one of *his* children as one of those "examples" and see how long he sticks to his tune....
The world won't end in darkness, it'll end in family fun, with Coca-cola clouds behind a Big Mac sun.
Anyway, those in the Austin, Round Rock area, call him: 512-246-1600 and politely express your opinion.
... is that prosecuting every single one of them, or even more than just a handful of them, would end up costing more money than what the record companies are "losing" to piracy. Even if we had ten times the number of prisons we do now, there still wouldn't be enough space to hold even half of the infringers. Ultimately, in a digital age, you can't even make a dent in illegal copying without trying to stop *all* copying, legal or otherwise. It is, btw, impossible to refute the existence of legal copying -- for example, a company doing regular backups of its own data. And since media is, ultimately, just data -- it's only the end user (and arguably the application that the media format is intended for) that sees such media for what it is. Until computers can think like people, they will not be able to differentiate between copyrighted data and uncopyrighted data, so any legislation in this matter at this point is meaningless without halting progression of the arts until computer technology can "safely" accomodate it.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
When I moved out to go to university last year and got my (off-campus, non-university) broadband internet connection up, I signed up for a little service called Audiogalaxy. Anyone remember Audiogalaxy? It was a community-oriented p2p music-trading service. The community-oriented bit, I found fantastic. Yes, you could just use it to download songs. You could also, however, join groups of people with similar musical tastes, who would forward you songs from artists you may never have heard before. Had it not been for Audiogalaxy, I might never have been introduced to artists like Pedro the Lion, Onelinedrawing, and The Weakerthans.
In the last year, I bought two CDs by The Weakerthans, one by Onelinedrawing, I have an order form filled out for a pair of Pedro the Lion CDs, some Pedro the Lion and Onelinedrawing merchandise, and I have tickets to see The Weakerthans in Calgary this weekend.
Is this a bad thing for the artists and labels? Do they just not want my money? I wouldn't have spent that money on Eminem and Britney Spears, sorry. If I hadn't been introduced to these other bands I wouldn't have spent that money on music at all. Peer-to-peer could be an absolute goldmine for the recording industry. It's free advertising. Do you know how much the recording industry spend on advertising last year? I don't even want to look it up. I'm afraid the incredible size of the number would cause this library computer to crash. It's probably written with scientific notation.
The funny thing is, the people who have the most lobbying power within the RIAA aren't the small record labels like Jade Tree or G7 or Vagrant or Deep Elm, the little guys who are attempting to run an honest business, support good artists, and bring good art out so that the public can enjoy it. They're the giant conglomerates, the ones who are responsible for Toni Braxton going broke despite selling $188 million dollars worth of CDs. These people don't care if I want to listen to good music. These people hate that I spend my money on bands I like, rather than no-talent pop-sensations. These people do not represent legitimate artists and recording companies - these people represent parasites, who take advantage of artists in able to fill their own pockets.
I can't use Audiogalaxy now. It got turned into a pay-service, and copyright restrictions wrecked the entire service. I buy far fewer records now, because I have less exposure to new artists. My friends still recommend bands to me; I'll read about a show someone went to in their livejournal, and I'll download an mp3, and if I like the band, I may end up buying a CD or some concert tickets. I'm a pirate, a felon, and a thief for that. This is insane.
Yes, there will be people out there who will never buy music, ever. They'll steal mp3s and burn hundreds of CDs. Whatever. There are people out there that pirate dvds, too. Yes, it does hurt the industry. What will hurt the industry more, though, is clinging to outdated business models and preying upon the artists that provide the foundation for the entire industry. These mega-corps could be capitalising upon free advertising, diversifying their portfolios. They could have a Spears for every genre going platinum, and without having to spend millions on full-page ads in Vanity Fair and putting giant billboards up in Times Square.
It won't happen. The big-wigs will continue to bleed their artists dry and fight all calls for change. And I'll continue to steal mp3s, listen to who I like, and buy CDs from talented artists who can't whore themselves out on Coca-Cola commercials, people whose success is based on actual artistic merit. So it goes.
People who trade files, rip MP3s, or make "mix" tapes are terrorists out to destroy the American way of life pure and simple. These crimes should be enough to classify one as a terrorist under the USA PATRIOT act. Hell the police should just shoot you if they suspect you of file trading.
Happy Fun Ball is for external use only.
We can use this in a bunch of situations. For example:
We know that not all people who sit in Congress are stealing from their constituents and taking money in exchange for political influence, but we're very sure that many are.
So lets take, say, one Congressman and make a real example of him by putting him in jail. That should be a real wake-up call to the rest of them.
Any nominees?
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Believe me, I'm as surprised by my comment as you are.