More about Music

There’s still some mulling around online about the RIAA, Digital Music, fair use, and the like. Last month, I wrote about a way to take care of the Record Label Problem. This afternoon another novel concept hit me. A way to save “fair use.”

“Fair Use” is, basically, being able to make copies of media that you LEGALLY OWN, so long as you only use one copy at a time, and you don’t loan them out, give them away, or sell them. I’m not sure what the Digital Millennium Copyright Act did to fair use, but guess what — it doesn’t matter all that much. If you’re not transferring the stuff from yourself to another person, nobody is going to know or care.

Fair use, however, is being impeded and threatened because the recording industry sees it as a threat. What’s that Kid going to do with those MP3’s once he has them on his computer? Probably trade them with other people. And you know what? That happens. Lots. The RIAA didn’t kill Napster because there were hardcore music pirates that KNEW what they were doing was wrong, and didn’t care. No. They killed it because of all of the casual copying. People who probably wouldn’t go to great lengths to find the stuff, they just took it because it was there.

So the easiest, and most PR-sound, solution is to kill the medium. What really has to happen, however, is that we as a society have to realize that downloading music that you don’t own is wrong and illegal. We need to support record labels when they sue CONSUMERS for stealing music. Those of us who download music need to realize that it’s illegal, and it’s a risk.

You see… I think we’re all basically living in denial. I’ll grant that the RIAA (et al) are theives… but are we really any better?

Here’s something to think about: If there was a worldwide brick-and-mortar business that, as a service to the community basically acted as a Napster for books, would it be OK? These folks would take books from people, scan the books and give ‘em back. When you wanted to read a book, you’d call them, they’d print off a copy and mail it to you. All you pay is the shipping. Would we be ok with that? Would people be outraged if this place was shut down? Would we be pissed off if the book “sellers” or book “buyers” were arrested? I don’t think so. So why do we get pissy when the record labels want to sue some kid for downloading 50 CDs?

Note: Yes. I pinged my own site. Is that wrong?