Piracy

The legal question of my generation is piracy. Reproductive rights and gay rights are important, but piracy is the overall most important legal question. The funny thing is that piracy has existed since long before I was born. Even my parents copied shows from TV onto VHS. My friends copied tapes for each other. So why is it a problem now?

The answer is that now the powers that be can track it. Back in the early 90s, when most people didn’t have the internet, and we traded tapes, if someone from RIAA found us with a tape, we could just say we “found” it. Now, they can watch the download and upload in real time. The most common argument against piracy is that it costs the band and label money. Why didn’t that happen in the 80s or 90s? One could argue that more people are downloading now than copying tapes back then. I disagree. ALL of my friends did this. I assume, my parents would also. Maybe they copied 8 tracks or something.

There are two albums that really solidified my status as a pirate. The first was The Fundamental Elements of Southtown, by POD. Fuck that album sucked. There were two good songs, “Southtown” and “Rock the Party (Off the Hook)”. Another song, “Checkin’ Levels” had an amazing beat but was only a minute long. The rest of the album was utter crap. Either they couldn’t write good songs or the label wouldn’t let them write good songs. In any case, I paid $15 for this pile of shit. So not only did I feel cheated because I got 2 1/2 good songs for $15, but I also was stuck. If I had returned the CD, it was opened, so I would have only gotten maybe $5 back. The store and label already got my money. What do they care if it was worth it to me. It was worth it to them.

The next album was Devil Without a Cause, by Kid Rock. This album is embarrassing. And that is the main problem. I bought it because I liked the Bullgod song. It was a hard rock song, and I was into that. The album, however, was white trash rap. Not a white rapper, like Eminem (who does have a small part in one song), but white trash rap. Rapping about trailers and stuff. But he tried to incorporate “HipHop” into it, by talking about bitches and money. The funny thing is that this was his 7th album or something. NO ONE knew who he was. He was talking about all this street cred he had and no one had heard of him. I was so embarrassed that I actually paid for this CD, that I gave up. Never again would I pay for music.

On the other end of the spectrum, are the albums that I love, and have actually paid for multiple times. Rage Against The Machine’s first album, for instance. I bought it on cassette. Then I bought it on CD. Then I bought it on vinyl. I did the same thing with their second album, Evil Empire, minus the cassette. Manson’s Mechanical Animals I had on CD and vinyl.

I’m all for the bands getting money. But here’s the problem. I remember one article that said that bands only get up to 30% of the album sales. See, here’s how it works. The label gives money to the band. The band uses that money for studio time, gear, producers, etc. Then the label promotes the album. When you buy the album, the label is getting repaid for the advance they gave the band. Then they pay a little of the royalties back to the band for their profit. A lot of bands lately, have switched to smaller labels or have made their albums on their own to cut out the middle man. Now they can get about 70% of the album sales (though that money still has to pay the studio  time, etc).

The sad reality is that most albums aren’t worth $10. You get two maybe three good songs, and the rest is shit. So the iTunes model, of paying for individual songs, makes a lot of sense. But wouldn’t that mean less money for the bands and labels? That’s why RIAA goes after pirates. It’s greed. It’s not that there is a moral problem here. It’s that the labels and bands are no longer worth the money. How many albums have their been that are great all the way through? Rumours by Fleetwood Mac was mostly good. I love every song on the aforementioned Mechanical Animals. Stabbing Westward’s Darkest Days only has maybe one or two songs that I don’t like. The vast majority of albums aren’t that good. The labels still pay the same amount of money in production costs etc, but the public is only paying for the quality products, and skipping the bad quality products. So the label isn’t getting the same money.

Plus I’m poor. I don’t have a lot of money for music. And to be honest, I haven’t really pirated anything in a long time. The bands still get money from concerts and merchandise, and if an album is worth the money, by all means, buy it, or better yet, pirate the album, and send the money directly to the band. Fuck the labels.

What about movies? I watched The Dark Knight Rises in IMAX three times. I have to pay for the DVD too? Seriously? I saw Date Movie in the theater. Shouldn’t I get my money back? Again, the problem is that the product we get ranges from good to bad, but the price is the same. The executives don’t care if you like the movie. They already have your money.

What about Software? I try to use as much open source software as I can. I use Libre Office instead of Microsoft Office. I use free software almost exclusively. But I’m not going to pay $1500 for programs I use as a hobby. If I then made profit from my design work, I would pay. But it’s a hobby. I do it for fun. It’s too fucking expensive. Plus, while at the Art Institute of Seattle, I found out that Adobe actually seeds pirated copies of their programs on The Pirate Bay so that people get used to their software. Then when they get hired, they are already fluent with the system. The companies will then pay for the systems. They get more money that way. Rather than you pay for one copy, the company buys like ten copies.

Then their are the cases of people being arrested for piracy and either being innocent, or being charged ridiculous fees. One lady, had a wireless network that she let her neighborhood use. She didn’t even own a computer. Someone used her connection to download something, and she was arrested. Quite a few other people are charged $10000 a song if convicted. Really? The song is worth that much? Fuck no. It’s greed. That’s it.

Piracy is a victimless crime. Go after pedophiles and murderers and leave us alone.