p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- “Captain Copyright,” or, “How I learned to stop worrying and love p2p”

(Okay, bad title.)

As many of you will have noticed, the issues surrounding p2p, copyright, and “Intellectual Property” in general can become quite contentious.  Rather than being a mere technical curiousity for “Cyber-slackers”, p2p and related topics cut to the heart of our views on creativity, innovation, and ultimately  the sort of culture in which we want to live.

Strong words?

Undoubtedly the above looks like mere hyperbole to some.  Others see it as self-serving rationalization — an ideological veneer over the naked, greedy wish for “Free music” at any cost.

At least, that’s how I saw it at one time.

I’m not famous.  I’m certainly not wealthy.

Basically, I’m just “some guy”.  Then again (as Jon Newton put it in a recent conversation) EVERYBODY is “just some guy”.  In today’s culture especially, we tend to let fame, wealth, prestige or political power blind us to that fact.

I’ve always been an avid reader.  I tested out at “Adult level” in reading and general comprehension in 2nd grade.  However, my family was — and is — strictly “working class”: my Mother worked in the same factory as my Grandmother, and my parents were divorced when I’d just turned 16.

So, when I was younger, my family and I were seldom in a position to go to the bookstore at our local shopping mall and spend 20 bucks for a hardcover — seldom even 6 for a paperback.

Instead, I developed what remains an enduring obsession: pawing endlessly through the stacks at “used bookstores”, swap meets, and yard sales to buy sometimes dozens of pre-owned volumes for as little as ten cents a piece.

It was only much later that I learned the only reason I was permitted to do that was because of an “exception” to existing copyright law: the “First Sale” Doctrine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine

Had this limitation NOT been imposed, everything from swap meets to secondhand bookstores would be “illegal”, and my gleeful romping among the dusty stacks regarded as a crime.

Oh, I didn’t know that at the time, of course.  Like pretty much everybody else, I didn’t concern myself with the intricacies of copyright law (or any other type, for that matter).  That stuff was for lawyers.  I just blithely assumed that used bookstores and swap-meets was self-evidently “right”, had  always been allowed, and always WOULD be permitted.  After all, people SHOULD be able to sell “their” books they’d purchased, right?

(Of course, this was before I’d ever heard of Garth Brooks.)

To be honest, you can’t fault me for such wilful disregard for the “fundamental right” of creative people to near-infinite monopoly control over every use to which “their” creations were put.  To be honest, I PROBABLY WOULDN’T HAVE CARED IF I HAD KNOW ABOUT IT.  I just wanted stuff “cheaper”.  I didn’t pay full price; ergo, I was evil.

But, in my defense, I couldn’t really HELP but take advantage of such “loopholes”: everybody around me did it.

The equivalent of the Boston Strangler

In school, whenever anybody’s birthday rolled around, they would wantonly and brazenly lead us all is a “public performance” of the “rightful property” of Warner-Chappel (who have owned the “rights” to “Happy Birthday to you” since 1990).  I sincerely doubt that royalties were ever paid.

In short, my home and school were both dens of iniquitous scofflawry.

So how COULD I help but become an “apologist” for p2p? (smirk)

On a more serious — if not downright dire — note, my family bought a VCR in the mid 1980s.  My mom used it to record her soap-operas while she was at work, and my dad was known to tape sporting events.

Woe to us — nobody had thought to warn us that it was — in Jack Valenti’s immortal words — “the equivalent of the Boston Strangler.”  Sorry, Big Media.

I bought a guitar at a yard-sale when I was 13.  Immediately, a relative began teaching me, and introduced me to the wonders of Bluegrass and “Old-time” music.  Fiddle tunes, reels, jigs, hornpipes, the classic-era Bluegrass stylings of Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs — the 1960s “Folkies” like Peter paul & Mary, Pete Seeger, Cat Stevens — none of my friends were “into” this type of thing.

The Kids at school didn’t go to “jam sessions” at firehalls or Bluegrass festivals.  Thus, my “relationship to music” from that time onward has been somewhat different from the outlook of my peers: oh sure, some of them had bands, but Rock has never really developed anything analogous to a “folk tradition” — a repetoire of “standards” from which to draw freely.

The Bluegrass and Folk scene has it.

Jazz has a vast set of “Standards” which end up in damn near everybody’s repetoire sooner or later.  Rock has tended to stigmatize “cover” versions to the point that only NOW is it becoming common for artists to unabashedly do their own version of a previously-recorded song.  (Too bad most such versions are “campy” and done for “irony”, but I digress.)

Like I said, being exposed to the Bluegrass scene gave me a whole different outlook on music (and creativity in general.)  It was not only expected, but ENCOURAGED that you help others expand their own knowledge-base by bringing in something new — either your own compositions, or something older that they hadn’t heard before. Doing your own version of a classic was uncontroversial.  The whole “scene” ws different.

So it came as something of a shock to be confronted with the idea that something YOU had recorded should serve as “passive cash-flow” for a “rights-holder” (who probably wasn’t even the original composer) on threat of huge monetary damages.

How could I pass it up?

My first “wake-up call” on that score came when the guy who was teaching me how to play banjo decided it would be cool to include a version of the song “Help” on an album he was doing.  So, being the dilligent, “law-abiding” sort of person he was (and is), he dutifully sent away to the Harry Fox agency for the requisite clearances and royalty payments.
Lo and behold, he was refused.

The thing that seemed really odd to me at the time was the fact that MICHAEL JACKSON had been the one to refuse his request:  see, I had hitherto (mistakenly) believed that copyright was about the CREATORS of works exerting control.  The fact that Michael Jackson had “bought the rights” to the Beatles catalog was worrisome, and — for a time — made me have some slight qualms about copyright (at least as it was then structured.)

I’m not just into Bluegrass, however.   During my early 20s, I became absolutely obsessed with record-collecting: I mean, here was a vast amount of “vinyl” just being dumped willy-nilly for pennies (because people had bought into the hype that vinyl was “obsolete”, so they should go buy that Kiss album AGAIN!).  How could I pass it up?

One of the intersting things I noticed was the sheer volume of “unknown” stuff: stuff that had never seen “air-play” because the payola wasn’t sufficient, weird “concept albums” that weren’t “catchy enough” for the Clear-channel crap machine.  It was a dream come true.

Add to this the fact that (due to that infamous “first sale doctrine” again) a lot of it was DIRT CHEAP — and you end up with some of my fondest memories of that time.

So when Napster came out, I’ll confess: I used it, unashamedly.  The sheer volume of obscuro wonderfulness couldn’t be beat: it was like the Library of Alexandria, but SO MUCH BIGGER.

But then Napster was destroyed.

Kill one, twenty more sprout

Suit-and-tie Vandals sacked the cathedral and turned it into a DRM’ed “Rent-a-song” hell.  But by that time, I was “okay” with it: they’d been able to feed me their line about how copyright was all about helping “artists”.  (Disregarding the fact that Michael Jackson — NOT the surviving Beatles — holds the “rights” to their catalog.  Disregarding the fact that John Fogerty couldn’t “legally” perform HIS OWN COMPOSITIONS for years due to a contractual dispute.  Disregarding, always disregarding.)

Oh sure, newer and more robust p2p technologies were developed, and the now-familiar “kill one, twenty more sprout” pattern emerged.  But I was STILL hoodwinked.  The TV “news” portrayed p2pers as scruffy, stoned-looking teens, and I was a “struggling indie musician”.  How could I POSSIBLY have any common ground with THEM?

True, I didn’t have a hope in hell of getting “signed” to a major label, and even if I did it was common knowledge by this time that the majors classed every album you made as a “work for hire” owned by THEM.

The fact that Ray Charles had to fight to own HIS OWN MASTERS was somewhat suspicious, but of COURSE the RIAA had our best interests at heart, right?

Then I started reading this site, p2pnet, run by this Canadian dude named Newton.  At first, it was a given — I just HAD to take “pot-shots” at the guy, defending tech-savvy “thieves”.  How could I not?  I mean, if this went on, maybe MY music was NEXT!!!!!!

But gradually — and ever so grudgingly — I kept reading.  I read about the nonstop lawsuits.  I read up on the “public domain”.  I read about how Garth Brooks wanted to destroy those used record and bookstores I loved so much just because he wanted to squeeze every nickel out of EVERY sale of “his” albums.  (Goodbye to my supplemental income from Amazon.com.)

Then along came Sam

Then I finally spoke up.  Some guy calling himself “Sam I Am” was bloviating about how the RIAA lawsuits were “fair” and trying to demonize p2pers (as usual.)  All I did was  point out that “copyright” was  a fairly recent notion, and point him to some relevant info.  I didn’t think it’d turn into a pissing-contest.

All of a sudden, I was a “commie anarchist” who should “grow a pair and learn to compete”.  No real responses, just insults and mindless bromides about how “industry is people”.  (Like I thought corporations were run by flying squirrels from space or something!)

Then it hit me: I AM “Sam I am.”

I read back over my earlier posts: same distortions, same character assasination, same mindless “call ‘em commies” mentality.  Sometimes you really wanna break all the mirrors, y’know?

I can’t let it pass, and I can’t go back: I’ve learned too much about  these issues to EVER be able to think of them in the simplistic RIAA-approved  manner again.  The “Sonny Bono” act was pretty much the last piece of the puzzle:

1. Copyright was created by publishers, NOT authors
2. Copyright was used to keep Fogerty from legally performing his own songs.
3. Copyrights can be bought and sold: Michael Jacksonl (NOT Paul McCartney) gets to decide who is “legally” permitted to perform the Beatles’ material.
4. The only thing permitting used bookstores or record stores or selling via Amazon.com is a 1909 court decision that could easily be overturned at any moment (Much to Garth Brooks’ delight, I’d wager.)

Like I said, I can’t go back, can’t take the “Blue Pill” and keep thinking everything’s all right.

Sam I WAS.

[If you’re a regular p2pnet reader, you’ll  recognized Henry as one of p2pnet’s most determined critics. He’s been letting me and p2pnet have it at close range  for a loooong time. And with both barrels. He was far from being alone, but he was unique in one respect: he never tried to hide, signing his name on every post.  A thinking man, he’s left the dark side. So welcome to the world as it really is, Henry - Jon]

Henry Emrich - p2pnet
[Emrich says he’s, “just some guy,” sometime musician, wannabe writer, sporadic blotter, and (hopefully) good-natured person.  He and his wife live in Pennsylvania with two cats, and, “entirely too many record albums”.]

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This entry was posted on Friday, September 12th, 2008 at 2:49 pm and is filed under Freedom, P2P. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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