Thursday, August 22nd, 2002
We should all be very afraid of the looming crackdown on file sharers. Yep, that’s shar-ERS not shar-ING.
This heralds the New, Digital McCarthyism, in which we are all asked, “Have you now or have you ever downloaded a copyrighted MP3?” Get ready to hand over a list of friends who “shared” a new hit song with you a few weeks ago. Don’t worry if you can’t remember; your ISP keeps a list.
More likely, we’ll all just be herded into “retail-containment” facilities, where we’ll pay for our malappropriated files with hard labor, busting rocks to the tune of (licensed) Muzac. It could happen. Look how much money the big media companies donate to political causes.
What we need now is Art to combat this assault on liberty. Remember the fun Zappa had with the PMRC in the 80s? Remember Dee Snider testifying in front of Tipper Gore? Too bad the current crop of musical artists are political eunuchs. We need for Art to be free. At least, we need real Art to be free. I’d be happy if the record companies would just admit 90 percent of the crap they put out is fake, like wrestling. Go ahead and enforce copyright on that stuff; I’d not notice.
If there’s going to be an uprising, it’ll have to come from the least commerically viable music genre — the one with the least to lose when all real music becomes open source — the one cheapest to produce. Yes, Bluegrass is the answer! Radical, hardcore, anti-RIAA, high-lonesome hootenanny!
Coming soon:
“I File-shared Your Heart, Now Your Love’s All Over Town”