the daily snivel

 

Rob vs. The Hippies

I get a bee in my bonnet about a lot of things I consider relevant. Recently, of course, you remember that I set up a page to provide information to my fellow Canadians as to how they can write their MPs and express their support for the critical human rights issue of expanding our legal definition of marriage to include same-sex couples.

This past week I got bitten by a different kind of bug. I am passionate about many things, including music and (yes) the whole Apple thing. I'm a convert -- mea culpa. Accordingly, I'm looking forward to the Canadian expansion of the iTunes Music Store, which will allow me to legally download my favourite ditties. This is important to me, since as a law student I feel strongly about being fair to artists and respecting their copyrights (though I am equally vehement in my belief that the large record labels have bungled their relationships with both artists and consumers many, many times).

Anyway, recently a website called downhillbattle.org was launched that is very critical of both the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the smashing popularity of iTunes. Their essential thesis is that the double whammies of CD burning and filesharing software like Kazaa were finally bringing the large record labels to their knees, but for the fact that Apple's revolutionary and highly successful model is now propping up the "regime" of the big labels. Accordingly, paid downloads in general and Apple in particular are the bad guys. The real model, according to Downhill Battle, ought to be a system where everyone can freely download music over peer-to-peer networks and, if they feel like it, can send fifty cents, or maybe a buck, to the original artists. Sounds good, but it's basically unworkable. A voluntary system like that would ensure that filesharing would continue to run rampant, and hard working artists would not be paid. Even if people were willing to follow through on donations after downloading files for free, how many of us know where to send that buck? And let's face it -- labels can be evil, but sometimes that evil is a necessary one. Without the production, promotion, and distribution that labels can manage with their vast resources, most big artists these days would probably be unknowns. It's simply not realistic to expect that a large conglomerate of corporations, with buckets of cash and a phalanx of lawyers, will roll over and play dead because people are downloading free music. It's the artists and consumers who would ultimately pay.

Anyway, I also take personal exceptions to parodies that aren't funny or at least droll. The Downhill Battle website is a self-styled parody of apple.com, but it's just sanctimonious, inaccurate, and circular in reasoning.

Being a bit of a smartass, I spent my weekend parodying the parody.