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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | "Ira Rosen" <irosen@ixtelecom.com> |
| Subject | letter to the riaa |
| Date | Fri, 3 Oct 2003 09:17:14 -0400 |
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Below is an open letter that was passed on to me regarding the current
anti-downloading lawsuits by the riaa. It has apparently been submitted to
editorial pages of some newspapers anonymously (for fear of reprisals), so I
don't expect to see the light of day in their pages. I pass it on for your
perusal.
Ira
Id like to confess something to you: Im a criminal.
Now I feel better.
Please let me explain, and while I trust your invocation of a reporters
shield law if need be, I cannot be sure that my identity will be kept secret
under judicial threat or subpoena. Therefore, I must resort to anonymity.
I am (dare I type the words?) a downloader of music.
I have, at this time, over 2000 mp3 files on my computer some of which I
ripped from purchased or even borrowed CDs, some which I copied from bands
happy to establish an online presence and eager to get their music heard and
many of which I downloaded over various peer to peer networks. The
selections range from sound effects to classical to rock to spoken word and
comedy. My hard drive is a veritable library of stolen sounds, a cultural
sourcebook with its black heart of theft worn on its sleeve. Ive never
sold this music to anyone, or presented it under a false light, but I have
made it available to others so that they may enjoy music.
I know. Im bad.
I also have a music collection of some 700 cassettes, 500 vinyl LPs and 600
CDs. Most I paid for, others were gifts. I figure that I have, over my
lifetime spent enough money on music to pay for a good chunk of someones
college education. I admit, though, that instead of converting cassettes to
digital, or rebuying the same album in digital format, I have found it
easier to download the song. I have discovered that instead of spending the
cash to buy an entire CD when all that suits my taste is one song, I can
find someone else who spent the money. And in return, he can take a single
song from me after Ive bought a thirty-dollar double CD set. Neither of us
gets liner notes, artwork or anything else other than the pleasure of
listening to a song we like.
And you know what the real rub is? I spend most of my time listening to the
radio!
I used to copy songs off the radio but Ive found that radio playlists aren
t as deep as they used to be, and their selection of music that suits my
taste isnt as comprehensive as I would like it. Songs on out of print or
rare (read expensive) albums, alternate takes, live versions and such don
t suit the mass market need and therefore dont get airplay. So instead of
taping from the radio I copy them from someone elses computer.
I know that there are myriad arguments splitting all the fair-use hairs and
applying copyright issues, royalties, fees, business issues and the like,
but the bottom line is that sometimes, I dont want to pay full price when I
dont want the full product. I go to the library and not the bookstore, and
I even photocopy articles from magazines at the library before replacing
them on the shelves! I borrow movies when friends have rented them and don
t have to return them till Thursday. Sometimes I eat food that a friend
bought and cooked and sometimes I have friends over and cook for them. Do
the food providers, the authors and the filmmakers have the right to
complain that we are enabling each other to avoid spending full-fare? Sure.
And I think that, often, those product creators suffer more monetary damage
when I dont chip in my fair share than the music artists and record
companies who lose my purchase price to online song providers. I
occasionally even wish that I could buy more albums so that they would be
happy. But time, money and interest preclude that; the harsh fact of life is
that I will continue to tape movies off of cable, copy my co-workers $600
software that I intend to use but once and make my music collection
available to others who want to know what is out there before or even
instead of plunking down their hard earned cash on the one CD that they can
afford, thus missing out on the four others that they would enjoy.
I am not going to take a sanctimonious route and claim it isnt a crime, or
that it is victimless, or that it pales when compares to the other wrongs in
society as yet left unmitigated. I wont make myself a victim of an unjust
system or a culture of greed, nor will I justify, rationalize or excuse my
actions, and attack the wastefulness of the RIAAs subpoena parade.
I will live my life quietly, as a criminal, unconcerned with the precedent I
set, the role model I become to my children or the lesson I present to
others. I will drive 70 in a 65 zone, make Xeroxes without mentioning the
TM, jaywalk with impunity, and download Princes version of When you were
mine instead of combing through the back of Goldmine and shelling out $40
for the vinyl 45.
Somehow, society will have to survive.
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