To: Sarah McLachlan:
p2pnet.net News:- “Dear Sarah McLachlan,” writes Canada’s Russell McOrmond.
“I would like to congratulate you on the amazing message that you convey with the video for ‘World on Fire’. You were able to getting people to donate their time to bring the costs of the video down to $15, and then to donate the $150,000 that it is estimated it would normally have cost to sustainable-development charities in Africa.
“I am wondering if you have considered taking this message the next step. The Recording Industry is part of a very powerful lobby group internationally that has been asking for radical changes to laws such as copyright. They are doing so for obvious reasons: modern technology such as the hand-held camera and other technologies you used in your video are becoming cheap enough that individual citizens are able to purchase and control these technologies. When you add in the low cost of mass-distributing this creativity on the Internet, you have set up an environment that is in direct competition with the way creativity was created, distributed and funded in the past.
“In the mid 1990’s these industries and their allies in the United States government went to the World Intellectual Property Organization and was able to get two treaties signed in 1996 which would protect their old way of doing things. To try to turn this agenda around to one that wouldn’t oppose other policies of the United Nations, Brazil and Argentina launched a WIPO Development Agenda to try to not only reverse the bad policies of 1996, but to also modernize WIPO to support these new methods which would help to support creativity and innovation throughout the entire of the the developing and developed world.
“Canada is currently drafting legislation to implement the 1996 WIPO treaties. As a Canadian musician who appears to be thinking about these issues I hope you will consider learning more and speaking out against the anti-development agenda being imposed by the old recording industry. We have a group of musicians that are trying to come together with one of the important messages to parliament being that the Canadian Recording Industry Association does not represent all Canadian musicians.
“Our Digital-Copyright.ca group also has a Petition for Users’ Rights which we have collected over a thousand signatures for that we are presenting to the Canadian parliament.
“Thank you.
Russell McOrmond
“Independent software creator and music fan.
“Host for http://digital-copyright.ca
“Contact information at http://www.flora.ca/”
Links:
The official web site of Canadian singer/songwriter Sarah McLachlan.
http://www.sarahmclachlan.com/
World on Fire video (Includes links to charities)
http://www.worldonfire.ca/
WIPO Development Agenda
http://www.cptech.org/ip/wipo/da.html
http://www.eff.org/IP/WIPO/
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April 3rd, 2005 at 5:06 am
When I first watched âWorld on Fireâ, I it brought tears to my eyes. Rather than blaming this politician or that politician for the conditions that the $150,000 helped to alleviate, (or at least improve to a great extent), Sarah put her money where her conscience told her to. She didnât go off on a rant, asking someone else to take care of the problem, she did something about it. She didnât take the attitude, now that Iâve pointed it out, now someone do something about it.
Iâve got an idea, lets take it, even a another step. Lets challenge all other musicial acts to do the same thing with their next video, Rather than spending a couple of million on a video, lets see what you can do to the positive with that money.
Hey MTv how about a whole day of these videos? Hell there could even be a DVD, CD, nothing but acts sitting on chairs, stools, in the park whatever. Done with one camera, forget the special effects, the limos, have Subway for lunch rather having it catered. ( I evn bet Jared would show up)
Come on, you all can be heroes, put away the bling-bling in the next video and feed some starving kids, provide some water pumps for villages, help finance a clinic, finance some malaria medicine, clean up some swamps that breed the mosquitoes that carry it. Finance a drug rehab center, whatever.
As the old saying goes, âIf youâre not part of the solution, youâre part of the problem.â You have a unique opportunity to actually make an impact directly on someones life, possibly many. Who is up for it?
April 14th, 2005 at 6:31 pm
Yay! I have just become a Sarah McLachlan fan!!! =)
~cam.