Copyright continues...

Sigh. Media and music evolution once again held to ransom by a royalty company, waving yet another bullshit trickel-down payment scheme which, of course, the artist will see maybe a few cents of.

I tire of this.

Copyright vs. Music

I just read how the American Justice Department is backing a verdict awarding the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) $1.92 million dollars over a house mother who is accused of downloading twenty-four songs from Kazaa.

I know not enough about Law to pick a bone with the US justice system, but what I can have a go at is the overarching, archaic and backward actions of the Recording Industry that are harming more and more music lovers every day.

Copyright laws were originally intended to encourage artists to create. The Berne Convention (1886) proclaimed that copyrights for creative works did not have to be claimed, they were automatically enforced, thus guaranteeing the artist financial return.

This is all well and good for, but technology and society have evolved over the last 120, and the copyright structures of 1886 no longer fit within the digital age.

Copyright laws today are simply security blankets for industry hacks to maintain control over their market, their consumer, and even their clients. But, with concern to illegal music downloading, their actions are somewhat like closing the barn doors after the horses have bolted. The recording industry was caught napping during the rise of the internet, and after they and Lars Urlich sunk their teeth into Napster, it was too late. Control has been gifted back into the hands of the consumer.

Branding downloaders as Pirates, Criminals, holding them alongside so-called 'music loyalists' who buy records, isn't going to work. Because downloaders know they're not pirates. They're sharers. Downloaders look at those advertisements at the start of a DVD, they hear 'would you steal a handbag?', and they think, no I wouldn't steal a handbag from a human being, but I would help to take back control that should be rightfully ours from a billion dollar corporation.

I agree that the artist should be entitled to a return for their work. But that is the Record Industries problem. For I, among many others, believe that the industry are not preparing the guillotine on house-mums to set an example of what happens when you fuck with dem labels bitches (Metallica, or Fall Out Boy, or any artists). The message is 'if you don't bow to the power of the industry, then you will be executed'.

And it seems they have the Government's blessing.

People are going to continue sharing music. Studies have found that those who download the most music, also buy the most albums. It isn't hard to piece this together. It seems, for once, it is the corporations fighting a losing battle against their consumers. Our musicians have woken up to this reality, now our politicians should too.