Nov 09
5
P2P – Honesty With The Facts
Back in 2002 an opinion piece was published in the Christian Science Monitor debunking the concept of Al Qaida as the “top brand” in terrorism, and how, in doing creating this myth, western security forces were creating a rod for their own backs.
The article went on to talk about the phenomenon of “exaggerated enemies” and concluded by saying “we must
be honest with the facts in order to construct a viable long-term
strategy to combat terrorism.”
This concept of an exaggerated enemy is exactly what the content industries continue to do with their attacks on file sharers, on music venues, and a host of other users of music.
I totally understand and agree with the idea of people paying for music, so I am not condoning theft – but I don't believe that sharing files is any more theft than listening to the radio is theft, or even recording a radio show and then moving it to my iPod…
Connecting file sharers to piracy is so ludicrous – and dangerous – that comedians make fun of the idea of Somali pirates boarding boats to steal copies of the crew's CD's and DVD's to duplicate them. When you get the comedians chasing your tail and making fun of you, you have to realize that you are not on the right side of the equation. Comedy is what finally did in George Bush and comedy is what will finally do in the music business in particular.
I don't have it in for the music business. I just think that they really need to get a decent strategy.
And, as far as Australia goes, our government needs to realize (as I am sure they do) that when the recorded music industry in this country speaks, it doesn't speak for Australian record producers and artists, it speaks for American corporate interests.
Just as with the CIA setting the agenda in the US and globally for security by linking all terrorism to Al Qaida, so too with the music industry connecting all uses of music to piracy – this policy is showing that it is sadly off course.
We must
be honest with the facts in order to construct a viable long-term
strategy to support the sustainability of the recorded music industry. That means embracing P2P as a delivery system and developing a business model that works. This is not actually difficult, but it does require some out of the box thinking.