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Sir Mix-A-Lot Using Weed To Distribute Music
An anonymous reader writes "Hip-hop musician Sir Mix-A-Lot has made his new CD Daddy's Home available for download using Weed technology. Weed is a relatively new file sharing system based principles of shareware and referrals. You download the DRM WMA weed file and can listen to it 3 times on any computer before deciding to purchase it or not. If you do purchase it (at a price set by the artist), you will receive referral fees (20%, 10%, 5%) for the next 3 generations of people that purchase your copy. The artist always receives 50% of the price. Certainly an interesting approach to distributing music in a world of p2p and iTunes."
How about making copyright reform a central issue in the upcoming election?
Very likely most politicians don't know if the DMCA is fit to eat, feel Disney and the RIAA are important campaign contributors whose requests should be given priority, and music downloaders are simple thieves who deserve every bit of punishment they get.
You can change that. But it's going to take some work. But there are enough people sharing music in America - more people than voted for George Bush - that if you get off your collective asses and get active politically, you can get laws passed to get the RIAA off your back.
In Change the Law, I explain that copyright is not a Constitutional right, like free speech. Instead copyright is allowed (but not required) to serve a useful purpose, a purpose which I feel has long since outlived its usefulness.
I suggest steps you can take to bring about copyright reform, ranging from speaking out to practicing civil disobedience.
One thing I'd like you all to do today is to write your elected representatives to ask their opinion of the current state of copyright law given its widespread abuse by organizations like the RIAA and MPAA, and to urge them to work towards copyright reform. Let them know your vote will depend on a positive response.
When you're done writing that letter, write to the other candidates for each office in the upcoming elections, to ask them the same thing.
Sixty million american peer-to-peer file traders have the potential to raise a lot of Hell with the politicians. I want every candidate to be peppered with questions about copyright reform at every campaign stop and in every press interview. I want the repeal of the DMCA to be discussed in the Presidential debates.
People marched in protest when Dmitry Sklyarov was arrested. Dmitry Sklarov is free now - but the law under which he was jailed is still on the books.
If you agree with me that something needs to be done about copyright, I need your help.
Thank you for your attention.
Request your free CD of my piano music.
You seem to know very little about both...
Both are grown easily in the home, and can be distributed at almost no cost.
Yes, music can easily be written and played by anyone, with no prior experience, no money and no talent. It won't be good (and most likely it will be the most horrible crap you've ever heard) but hey who cares, it's just like going out and buying music, right?
Weed is just as easy to grow and distribute, you don't need any kind of special equiptment, you can grow weed out of any plastic pot with regular dirt. You don't need any special care for it, and you don't need to worry about the smell going into your neighbors house since growing weed is perfectly legal! Wait... no it's not... Oh well at least you can grow great weed in your house! Even though if you don't really put any money into it, the weed will probably die, or be really crappy. Unless you happen to live in a place where the environment is nice enough for growing it, then you can grow it outside as long as you have no neighbors or if you live somewhere where it's legal. Distribution is just as easy and cheap as growing. You just walk around randomly and ask people if they wanna buy some weed, who cares if more than half of those people will probably want to call the cops and you might even ask an undercover cop.
Neither, on it's own, is are more dangerous than other products that are traded with fewer regulations.
What are you talking about? What regulations are there on selling music? There are regulations on copying music online and stuff like that but there are regulations on any copyrighted material that can be distributed online. There's regulations on selling and buying marijuana but there are regulations on most drugs.
Both products become expensive because of government regulations.
Marijuana is expensive because it's illegal, music is expensive because the RIAA forces stores to sell music at fixed prices. Government regulations would actually lower music prices by forcing the RIAA to let music stores sell the music at their own prices.
To protect the profitability of both products, distributors employ tactics typical of criminal organizations.
You say that like it's not illegal to sell marijuana.
And finally, the real danger appears not because of the product itself, but because of the additives that must be used in the mass market to maximize and protect profit margins. The additives create unknown levels of toxicity to your body and your mind.
What are you talking about?!?! Additives in music? I think you smoke too much weed, but even that doesn't have any "additives" I know of. Unless it's laced with something, and you would normally know if it is. "create unknown levels of toxicity to your body and mind" yeah listening to music I bought in the store creates unknown levels of toxicity to my body and mind.
Of course, manufactured weed and manufactured music are both bad for you, and I would suggest that squirrels and humans avoid their consumption.
Manufactured weed, well government manufactured weed is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than anything you can find on the streets. And manufactured music? What's manufactured music, if you start off with nothing and end up with music, wouldn't that be manufactured? So any music would technically be manufactured. I'm not even going to comment on the squirrels and humans bit but dude LAY OFF THE WEED!