Mar 16
An open letter to the “creative” industries about the internet and download culture.
AddHi there creative industry. You probably don’t know me by name but I work for you. I have written, recorded, produced and performed for you. I have educated myself (at my own expense) for you. I have jumped through many of your hoops. I have played many of your games. So I know you, even if you don’t know me as well as you should.
I feel the need to write to you about what you are attempting to do to the internet. I know you are scared right now, I understand. You are old, and tired, and you have no imagination. You invented a system that has made you very rich. Just like every industry that becomes gluttonously wealthy you thought it would last forever. It hasn’t. Now you are fighting change, desperately trying to put things back to the way they were. You will fail. You have already lost. It is over. Deal with it. The only thing you will successfully do is make martyrs of a few poor souls. I can see you shaking your craggy old head, you don’t understand. It’s OK, I’ll explain.
There are some things that you should know about people that you obviously don’t. I would find this amusing if it wasn’t so abhorrent, you are after all the “creative” industries. If you are not empathetic enough something is clearly wrong.
What follows is a deconstruction of the arguments being used by governments and the “creative” industries with regard to sharing over the internet and download culture.
1. “The internet and downloading is going to destroy creativity.”
Now take a step back…. And listen to what you are saying. You propose that sharing is going to destroy creativity. I’ll let you think about that for a second. You propose that the single most facilitative sharing tool ever created by man is going to destroy creativity. Do you know how ridiculous you sound saying that? You don’t? OK, well you sound like an idiot. I don’t feel the need to linger on this any more, a monkey could win this argument, lets move on.
2. “The artists suffer when people share on the internet.”
The sycophants are out in force complaining that the artist will suffer if downloading continues. “Scouting For Girls” I’m looking in your direction. Let’s examine this. First lets look at the word artist. Using the word “artist” in the same sentence as “Scouting For Girls” is a misnomer if ever there was one. That is the crux of the problem. Will real, true artists stop making art if they don’t think they will make any money out of it? No. They will continue to be compelled by something far greater. Will people who want to fabricate cheap copies of the creative process, homogenise it, neuter it, and then exploit it for maximum return suffer? Yes, absolutely. Good.
3. “The fans will suffer.”
You hide behind the fans. You say things like the fans will be the ones that suffer if downloading continues. This seems like something of a paradox. Aren’t the fans the ones doing the downloading? Is anyone making them do this? No. So they must be doing it because they want to. Barring a few masochists over there spanking each other people generally don’t inflict harm on themselves without a very good reason. At the moment, fans have all the power. They are the arbiters of who gets what. This has never happened before. You want to remove this power post haste. Riddle me this, when has removing power from a large (organically) democratic collective and placing it in the hands of an elite of entitled custodians ever benefitted the majority? I’m waiting.
4. “For God’s sake you wordy prick it’s illegal!!”
Now we’re getting somewhere. Here is where the chrome is exposed. Laws exist for a reason. But that reason seems to have temporarily eluded you. Let me give you a quick refresher. Laws exist to dictate what is commonly acceptable behaviour within a society. A consensus if possible, a majority if not. Elections (and the democratic process) use the same system. So laws reflect the people that they govern. This is why the Romans had different laws from the Greeks who had different laws from the Chinese who had, you get the idea. With this kernel of truth cosily stowed let us take a look at sharing on the internet. The law says it is illegal, but a vast majority of people do it. Just like they used to swap cassette tapes. It really is very simple: When a law dictates that almost all of the people that it governs are criminals, the law is wrong. The law no longer reflects and serves the people and should therefore be changed.
Yes I know that it will be a painful transition, great change always is. But change will continue like a Toyota Prius whether you are screaming and stamping on the brake or not. As Mr. Bruce Lee so succinctly put it: “Be like water and you’ll be fine our kid.” I’m paraphrasing obviously.
Now that I’ve cleared that up for you all you can all get back to looking for jobs in the banking sector.
Peace love hugs and kisses,
Ian
