It surprises me that authorities bother suing or arresting
people downloading copyrighted music, like there are no real criminals or even drunk drivers to worry about. Add to that the girl´s statement about not wanting to ´
hurt the artists I love´. Puke.
I´m all for protecting intellectual property rights, so don´t get me wrong. But only when it´s fair. Is it fair that Beyonce gets paid more for a song and booty-wiggle than a doctor gets for performing a surgery or a nurse gets for a hard, draining all-nighters ? Like, not a bit more but many many times more ? Or
Rihanna being paid six-figure sums to show her face fashion show ? Wait, how come they have $100,000 to pay her ? (Ah yes, from us, the customers. No wonder we can´t afford to donate for Haiti). Woody Allen seems to have understood how sick this system us, and in his films he pays the big stars the same as he pays other cast and crew members.
And what about when you buy, say, a David Bowie CD ? The money doesn´t go to the artist you love, just to some guy in a white collar who has smugly copyrighted somebody else´s talent.
Ideally, such music should be free, and artists not dead yet can make enough to live on by concerts, promotions and such.
The industry won´t come crashing down.
On the other hand I´d be appalled if anyone I knew downloaded, without paying,
Ronald Jenkees´ music or
Hoopnotica. These people are making stuff without the backing of gigantic corporations, and they really need the money to do what they are doing.
Non-commercial is non-free ! Unfortunately, copyright laws don´t do much to protect them, since rarely do small-scale musicians or artists have the money (or the time, or the energy) to fight a copyright lawsuit.
Instead of financing gas for Madonna´s private jet or Tom Cruise´s
fleet of private jets by buying their CDs,
I prefer to finance someone´s daily meal or their child´s education by buying Fairtrade when I can. And I can, when I haven´t spend $26000 to legally fill my 160GB MP3 player (um, how much does getting through college cost in comparison ?). Lots of people have the will but not always the means to go for ethical and green goods. When our cash is sucked by white-collared guys earning off the Beatles´ music, and by having to buy
new lightbulbs all the time thanks to
planned obsolescence,
there is not much money or heart left for philanthropy. So if someone tells me about not wanting to hurt Beyonce (how do I hurt her by downloading her music ? By denying her the next hundred-$$ worth cream that she allegedly applies from head to toe ?) I say
*beeeeep* Interestingly, a study found that
music piracy may actually boost sales. Also, read about the
Copyright Term Reform/Download Disobedience movement.
Also, read this (click to enlarge):
You might want to read:
Post a Comment