[pp.int.general] Protest certain musicians?

[Brian McNeil]

On Mon, 2009-10-26 at 01:42 -0700, Chris Lockie wrote:
> Couldn't agree more - if an artist is bemoaning their music
> being downloaded for nothing there's nothing to say they wouldn't
> rethink that view were there a fairer system of distribution that were
> to provide them with income at the expense of record companies who do
> sod all to promote creativity. 
>  
> Education and conversion, not demonisation, is the way forward in this
> argument. Imagine the positive publicity if someone like Lily Allen
> was to come out and say "actually I've just read more on both sides of
> the argument and I now support the Pirates' political stance".

Yes, that would be an ideal outcome. It might help wash some of the
veneer off the chosen talking points and lobbying efforts of large media
companies. These aren't just record companies, they're news
organisations like Reuters and AP, or even the particularly repulsive
News International. In the case of the latter, it's owner's Wikipedia
page reads to me like a summary of charges that should be delivered to
the Hague. I have every expectation that the Dirty Digger's father is
spinning in his grave.

And, to bring net neutrality into the mix, many of these companies are,
for most people, their ISPs. A Sky employee in the UK told me that
automatic penalty notices were now being issued for allegations of
copyright infringement. I made inquiries with a number of other ISPs in
the UK, and they categorically denied that this was the case; Sky did
not see fit to respond, and the vast majority of these companies which
are in-effect serving in place of what I believe should be a public
utility, make it virtually impossible to actually get an email in front
of a real person. I was bombarded with demands for personally
identifying information in the web forms I eventually found to submit
queries through. Where there was no option but to provide a UK postcode
so they could file you away as a potential future customer, I gave them
the one for 10 Downing Street.

Anyway, after that rather tangential rant, musicians; specifically
high-profile musicians, and especially those who take an outspoken
stance against filesharing and in favour of perpetual copyright.

It would be ill-judged and potentially dangerous to target Metallica
concerts to spread the PP message where you have nothing in common with
those attending. Some of their fans will be receptive to the PP message,
but not prepared to pass up the opportunity to attend a concert as a
matter of principle. They could hand out leaflets, provided the message
is well-crafted. You need not negatively target any individual artist,
but bring up issues like contract conditions on tickets saying you're
not allowed to take pictures, the ridiculous length of existing
copyright terms (I'd use examples like music videos which I mentioned
elsewhere; the early ones were made for MTV to stimulate actual sales of
music - so essentially a freebie).

Related to music, and what music lovers should bear in mind, I have a
good friend that had a 'fortunate' incident with his substantial
collection of vinyl; his house was burgled and the whole lot stolen - 20
+ years worth of collecting records. He'd been thoughtful enough to
explicitly get it listed on his home contents insurance, and managed to
replace most of what he'd lost with CDs; he made the format-shift to
digital at his insurance company's expense, but the rightsholder did
still get paid twice for the same content. The ways media companies want
to serve up their 'product' online does not seem to give you much option
to get it covered on your insurance - I wouldn't fancy negotiating with
them to establish you've thousands of pounds invested in iTunes content,
and they pay to replace it when something goes wrong; but, that's
because I'd want a clear clause in there saying they'd pay out if Apple
revoked the keys needed to access *my* content. I'm sure someone
particularly creative could come up with ways to tie that into Amazon's
Kindle and their ability to remotely delete content. [A PP How-to on
insuring your music collection? Insurance providers would be an
interesting lot to have on your side because they're seeing a risk of
paying out a lot when something goes wrong.]



-- 
Brian McNeil <brian.mcneil at wikinewsie.org>
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Brian_McNeil
Content of this message in no way represents the opinions or official
position of the Wikimedia Foundation or any of its projects.
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