Unfair to the artists or greedy: would you stop downloading?

Intellectual Property rights is something that is becoming more of an issue everyday because of the internet and the wide range of information, songs, videos and images that are available to us as users. There have been many very public instances of copyright infringement in the media and the most obvious topic of discussion is the realm of P2P(Peer to Peer) file sharing. Thousands of songs, TV shows and movies are illegally downloaded everyday across the world without a second thought or any guilt from most downloader’s. I know personally that I never really think about the fact that what I’m doing is illegal and I think this is partially because it has become so common without punishment. It is as if there’s an unspoken law among the masses and consumers that we can download songs without paying for them and that we shouldn’t feel bad about it even though there are institutionalized laws saying that we shouldn’t.

There was an instance back in 2000 when downloading music first became popular where well known artists Metallica lashed out against Napster(the first big P2P downloading host) and sued them for illegally distributing their music. Below is a link to Metallica's attack against the downloading of their music. They took part in a skit that was directed at university students comparing students stealing their music to someone coming into the student’s room and stealing their stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miIIgxXiyU8

This was seen as a slap in the face to Metallica’s fans that are primarily young people and university students as the band alienated them in the media. If you think about how much money the band actually makes from each CD that is sold in retrospect it’s probably not that much for such a well-known and popular band as Metallica. It makes them appear money hungry and although it is somewhat understandable as their whole album was pre released for free on the internet, I think they went about it the wrong way by personally attacking students/ their fans on live television.

There are certain bands whose albums I always go into a store to buy because they are smaller, less well known bands and I think they need the money more then a big band like Metallica or Britney Spears who are already extremely wealthy and have a huge fan base while raking in millions of dollars from world wide tours every year. It’s important to keep in mind that auxiliary markets like concerts, branding and merchandise are the main sources of income for popular artists. Less well know bands need the exposure so they are very happy to post there music on their websites with samples and links to where people can purchase their songs if fans want to. The internet is a great tool for getting yourself heard and I think it was a poor decision on the part of Metallica to alienate their young fans. Metallica saw the error of their ways a few years later and embraced the internet as a tool that can create a larger fan base for them by posting a Metallica you tube channel for fans to post covers of them singing Metallica songs. Even this band that was initially so against the downloading of music is coming to terms with the fact that it is here to stay and that the internet is a great way to interact with their fans. Here is the video from Lars front man of Metallica where he thanks fans for covering there music and making it there own: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWpPozcFSGc

The way I see it is P2P downloading is something that is pretty much unstoppable. There are an endless number of downloading sites and bit torrent sites that post and stream TV shows and movies hours after they are first aired and albums posted the day after they are released in store. There are so many accessible and easy to use technologies and software for people to use to put songs, images and materials that are not there’s and that they have no copyright ownership to be distributing it on the internet. It would be almost impossible to control all the content and distribution of materials without charging a large portion of North America with copyright infringement.

Would YOU stop downloading?

We're Gonna Run This Campaign on Positive Constructive Ideas"

“We’re gonna run this campaign on positive constructive ideas”

These words were uttered in Senator George Allen’s speech he gave on August 11^th, 2006 at a conference in Virginia. Below I’ve posted two videos: one that was taken from a handheld camera of a student at the conference who had been travelling with the Senator and the second is an interview aired on CNN questioning the senators behaviour.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r90z0PMnKwI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRfP3vj8Gl8&feature=related

It was quite surprising to hear what followed in Allen’s speech after he started with “we’re gonna run this campaign on positive constructive ideas” because numerous times throughout the video Senator Allen refers to a young boy of Indian decent as a “Macaca” or “Macaque.” The dictionary definition of the word is “any monkey of the genus Macaca chiefly of Asia” and is often used as a racial slur against people of Asian and African decent. He in the video also say’s “Welcome to America and the real Virginia “ which is also an extremely questionable choice of words as in the past Allen has been criticized for being racist and making racist comments. He claims to have meant nothing by either statement and that he made up the word Macaca and had never heard it before. But that is very hard to believe given his track record as in the interview with Allen after the conference made headlines it is mentioned that Allen “has a confederate flag in his living room, noose in his law office and a picture of confederate troops in his governor’s office.”

This video recorded on a hand held camera was very quickly put on you tube and because you tube is such a popular form of citizen media and self expression the video was given national exposure and led to a great deal of political discussion about senator Allen’s character. I like you tube as a form of citizen media because it is a many to many form of communication in which everyone can post on it and where people are allowed to actually comment and share there opinions and discuss the media they are seeing versus one to many communication like television and mainstream broadcasting. There are a wide range of comments on both video’s some people having very strong opinions like this man “He said it himself, "Welcome to the real Virginia." I'm from Louisiana and I know racism and this state is dripping with racism. Black Virginians are crazy for staying in that state.” Not all were this angry some were questionable of Allen’s intentions and thought that maybe it was being blown out of proportion and was unintentional and made up. However if you view the second video it is quite clear by the above quote from the interview with CNN that this was no accident.

Newspapers and reporters are no longer the primary source of information about news. There are various other outlets for people to post up to date information and videos about important events. I think you tube is a very important form of citizen media for society at this point in time. A big television studio or news crew did not record this video; it was recorded and distributed by a University student. We have so much power as individuals now and the ability to be active not passive consumers of media. We can actually affect politics and political discussion and it’s becoming much more common for people to record political events and everyday events with their cell phones, digital cameras and personal camcorders. Due to the widespread use of the Internet and all the easy to use technology available to us it is no longer necessary to have a lot of high tech knowledge and products in order to get yourself heard and to get your video’s and thoughts noticed.