Grateful Dead tunes taken offline
p2p news / p2pnet: "This is worse than the RIAA suing their customers."
That’s the bottom-line reaction of Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow to news that "Archive.org has been forced to take down over 1000 soundboard recordings of the Grateful Dead by Jerry’s wife and a few (perhaps one) remaining member of the band." Jerry is, of course, Jerry Garcia.
And Apple’s iTunes, supplied by the Big Four record label cartel, could be squarely in the middle of it.
"You have no idea how sad I am about this," Barlow, a co-founder of the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) is quoted as saying on Boing Boing. "I fought it hammer and tong, but the drummers had inoperable bricks in their head about it. What’s worse is that they now want to remove all Dead music from the Web. They might as easily put a teaspoon of food coloring in a swimming pool and then tell the pool owner to get it back to them.
"It’s like finding out that your brother is a child molester. And then, worse, having everyone then assume that you’re a child molester too. I’ve been called a hypocrite in three languages already.
"How magnificently counter-productive of them. It’s as if the goose who laid the golden egg had decided to commit suicide so that he could get more golden eggs.
"This is just the beginning of the backlash, I promise you."
But, "Grateful Dead fans, perhaps rock’s most dedicated bunch, are taking a stand against the band they love," writes Benjy Eisen in Rolling Stone.
"Deadheads have answered in protest. In an online petition, fans have pledged to boycott GDM – including CDs and concert tickets – until the decision is reversed. (The band itself broke up in the wake of leader Jerry Garcia’s 1995 death, but in recent years guitarist Bob Weir, bassist Phil Lesh and drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann have toured simply as "the Dead.")
GDM is short for Grateful Dead Merchandising, which GDM recently started selling live music downloads through its online store.
"The sudden lockdown could be a simple non-compete strike, or it could foreshadow a long-rumored deal with iTunes that will make the entire Grateful Dead live vault available for purchase."
Grateful Dead Merchandising Boycott
"To GDM," says the online petition which, when we saw it at 10:30AM Pacific, boasted 4,169 signatures. It goes on
Dear Grateful Dead Merchandising,
For years, we have supported the Grateful Dead unquestioned. We have purchased countless albums, releases, concert tickets, merchandise, and more. A large percentage of our income has gone straight from our bank accounts, into yours. I assure you, there are many more like us.
You have a core group of fans that are dedicated to the music, and to the band. We followed the band for years, jumped at every release, and anxiously awaited new releases. When Jerry passed a decade ago, we trusted you would continue to make the right decisions.
You laid your rules on the line, and as fans we followed them. As traders, we never copied a released GD album. When you said not to trade released soundboards, we understood.
It is our understanding that in November 2005, the internet archive(archive.org) was asked to remove all Grateful Dead soundboard concerts from their site. The internet archive has been a resource that is important to all of us. We use it to experience the Grateful Dead’s growth and transition throughout the years. Between the music, and interviews in the archive we are able to experience the Grateful Dead fully.
This technology has opened doors to introduce new fans to the real Grateful Dead. It has allowed us to experience different eras of the Grateful Dead, and made us more anxious to purchase releases as they came out.
Now it appears doing the right thing for the fans, has given way to greed.
So here is our resolution. You want to change the rules as you go along, so will we. We don’t care anymore; We’ve lost all respect for this organization. Between the utter disgust of your decisions with Jerry’s guitars, and now taking away our access to the music we care about most, we refuse to support any aspect of GDM until we see change. No more CD’s, no more tickets, no more merchandise. We ask all deadheads to join us in this protest.
GDM, you should be ashamed of yourselves.
Have you forgotten all you have taught us?
If you plant ice
Your gonna harvest wind
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
Safe for preservation purposes
The Internet Archive says it’s worked with tapers, tape traders, funders, admins, and over 1000 bands to build a great non-commercial music library that is freely accessible and, "Technically and policy-wise, it has been invigorating as you can probably appreciate.
We have made changes in the past and we will make changes again.
Following the policies of the Grateful Dead and the Dead communities we have provided non-commercial access to thousands of great concerts.
Based on discussions with many involved, the Internet Archive has been asked to change how the Grateful Dead concert recordings are being distributed on the Archive site for the time being. The full collection will remain safe in the Archive for preservation purposes.
Here is the plan:
Audience recordings are available in streaming format (m3u).
Soundboard recordings are not available.
Additionally, the Grateful Dead recordings will be separated from the Live Music Archive into its own collection. The metadata and reviews for all shows and recordings will remain available.
We appreciate that this change will be a surprise and upset many of you, but please channel reactions in ways that you genuinely think will be productive.
If we keep the bigger picture in mind that there are many experiments going on right now, and experiments working well, we can build on the momentum that tape trading started decades ago.
Working together we can keep non-commercial sharing part of our world.
Thank you for helping find balances that work for all involved.
-brewster
Digital Librarian and Founder-Matt Vernon
Volunteer GD Archivist
Stay tuned.
Also read:-
Boing Boing – China’s summer surfing crackdown, June 21, 2004
Rolling Stone – Deadheads Boycott Dead, November 29, 2005
November 30th, 2005 at 9:48 pm
Now that’s a bloody shame. This flies in the face of all that the original group stood for. I myself have been a Deadhead for many years, supporting exactly what they were trying to do. That they had the exception, early on to allow their fans to record those concerts they did live through their labels showed that art and music were the tops for the group. Wisely Jerry Garcia knew that hearing those recordings by others not there at the concert was advertisement that could not be brought at any price. It resulted in a faithful following that were fans throughout the bands performance years. Such fans are the key to a bands longevity. As long as fans are faithful, that band always has income and more fans as those who never saw them but heard the recordings came to see and hear with their own eyes and ears a truely great band.
Sadly those original members will never regroup to play again. Those that now hold the copyrights aren’t the original members for the most part and they want to cash in. Exactly what the group was against. I udderly respect the groups original tenents. I do not respect second hand owners of the copyrights that just want to cash in.
I too, join this boycott. Sell all you will, it won’t be to me. There is one further thing I would mention. In this action you have destroyed an idealistic image I had of this group as a smart way to do business. One that came from the age of this music. That sticking it to the man was part of what this band was about. Since the original band is no longer and they can’t speak for themselves, I will. I will continue to stick it to those that now want to cash in by not particapting. How’s that for sticking to the man?