more on The Music Piracy Myth

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Rich Kulawiec <rsk () gsp org>
Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2003 08:37:40 -0400
To: George Ziemann <wizard () azoz com>
Cc: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>, "Tim O'Reilly" <tim () oreilly com>
Subject: Re: [IP] MUST READ The Music Piracy Myth

On Sun, Apr 13, 2003 at 09:21:04PM -0400, George Zimann wrote:
> What can we do?

I'll tell you one thing we can do: we can organize a boycott and keep
it in place long enough to kill their business, thus opening the market
to more sensible approaches -- notably, ones that put the lion's share
of the profits from music into the pockets of musicians, not corporate
executives, and ones that take advantage of new technology rather than
using it as a scapegoat for idiotic corporate decisions.

(While I don't like paying $18 for a CD, I'll do it if I know that $15
goes to the folk musician who's driving all day to get to the next
night's show.  But when it goes to a third Mercedes and another swiming
pool for the already-filthy-rich -- forget it.  And doubly so when record
companies fall over themselves to market crap and largely ignore amazingly
talented musicians -- including the older/retired ones who enabled those
companies to make their early fortunes, many of whom now live in poverty.)

The RIAA has already declared war on music consumers; I think it's time
we return the favor.  And the best way to do that is to cut off their
revenue supply.  That's going to mean rough times for consumers and
for musicians -- so I think we need to forge [1] an alliance between the
two and realize that the RIAA is our common enemy.  (And, I might add,
TicketMaster, another blood-sucking parasite.)

This won't be easy: and I'm not even sure it's possible.  But I think
working through legislative/judicial channels is pointless, because
the RIAA and its henchmen will spend milions (oops, already have)
on lobbying and lawyers and thus get the best laws/justice money can buy.
We could spend lots of time and effort playing this game, but we'd
lose anyway -- so I think our efforts are better directed elsewhere.

For my part, I stopped buying new music at retail several years ago:
I either (a) buy it used, and believe me, there's no shortage of it
and at much better prices; or (b) buy it directly from musicians at
concerts after confirming that the profits are going directly to them.
(And a lot of artists are having their own CDs pressed -- good for them.)
Or mostly (c) I just do without, and listen to the radio -- there are some
very good, very musically aware stations out there like WXPN (Philadelphia)
and WRNR (Annapolis); we need them on our side too.

---Rsk


[1] Example: there are thousands of musicians with music to sell and no
effective way to to do that without an online presence.  An open-source
"music store" web site that could be customized and dropped onto any
BSD/Linux/etc. server would at least get them on the air.  And even
local/regional musicians, who currently have a relatively small audience,
probably have *someone* in that audience who would be thrilled to help
them out by setting up and running such a site.  Example: every major
metropolitan area has dozens of "little shows" each week in small venues.
But it's often difficult to find these.  A single place that folks could
go to and ask for "all blues shows within 50 miles of DC for the next
two weeks", where listings from an independent coalition of muscians and
consumers would comprise the results, would help fill the seats at such
places, hopefully keeping the independent musicians and venues solvent.
I'm sure there are other ideas (probably better ones) out there.


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