This Blog was inspired by the source that allows it to exist: The Internet. Since the creation of the world wide web, I have been fascinated by the demise of Intellectual Property rights. Why is it that everyone is under the impression that because it's on the Internet...it's free?
This mindset began with cutting and pasting people's words and/or photographs into reports and papers and has since snowballed into downloading music, movies, and Ebooks without even thinking of paying for them. Please tell me why the same newspaper that costs $2.00 at the news stand finds it increasingly more difficult to get paying customers on its web site? Where did this mindset come from?
Perhaps the biggest perpetuator of this mindset was the onslaught of free music software, starting with Napster. I find this incredibly ironic being that the creator of Napster, Shawn Fanning, made an incredible amount of money (in the reported millions) by knowingly and willingly creating an application that allowed people to obtain music without paying for it. Fanning chose to use the word "share" music instead of "steal", and this clever use of semantics allowed him to come across as some innocent digi-hippy who was just in it for the love of music...man. He essentially screwed musical artists out of money for their own creations while making damn sure he got paid for his. The worst part in all of this has been the artistic community's response: none. Many artists have remained silent while others have gone as far as to endorse the stealing of music. I don't understand that.
I make my living as music teacher and worked as a professional musician for years before that, so yes, this is a subject near and dear to my heart. It's amazing to me that no one in the creative community has come out guns blazing against what is going on. Yes, people use iTunes and other legal means to get their music now more so than before, but make no mistake that there are still hundreds of millions of people out there stealing music and laughing while doing so.
I had to rant this post because I recently read about the wedding of Sean Parker - the co-founder of Napster. This guy is reportedly worth over a billion dollars which is hilarious. Again, this guy helped screw music as well as other artists out of the money they deserve for their legally protected work but made sure he got royally paid for his. To make matters worse he married a musician! Their wedding was an over the top gross display of wealth costing millions of dollars. The most horrific part is that far too many musicians willingly chose to attend this ostentatious affair. I saw pictures of this ridiculous event, and there smiling for the cameras were Sting, Sean Lennon, Lars Ulrich and many others. This douche bag helped take millions out of your pocket, and you're willingly going to go wish him well...and be photographed!!???!!?? That's like the bank manager posing with Bonnie and Clyde! I would have walked up to Parker and asked "Can you help me pay for my wedding? You see because of the software and subsequent mindset you helped create, I don't have the money to pay for it myself...douche."
It's symbolic of what's become of our world. Creativity has been taken for granted for decades and now it's worse than ever with no sign of improvement. That's what I will write about here.
No comments:
Post a Comment