Stupid Laws

repost

There is a law still on the books in Flordia that states that the penalty for horse theft is death by hanging. A little harsh, don't you think?

There's a law in Alabama, still on the books, that states that it is legal to drive the wrong way down a one-way street if you have a lantern attached to the front of your automobile. Aside from being a little confusing, this law is, no doubt, entirely obosolete.

I think of such absurdities when groups like RIAA and MPA go after music fans. In their crazed attempts to control how, when and where we can listen to music, they are proving how entirely backward and growingly irrelevant the big music industry is.

We've known all along about RIAA attempting to control music fans, but now this MPA organization is at it. The other day I went to one of my favorite web sites, Harmony-Central, hoping to find some guitar tab for a song that was in my head. What I found was that the best resource for guitar tab on the web had been forced offline by a bunch of lawyers who could give two craps about music or music fans.

Following the links, I found this chunk of absurd text:

The MPA is taking action to protect the rights of the creators and owners of music against people who would take the value of their music for their own commercial purposes without compensation.

Yep. I wanted to play a song in my basement on my guitar, and somehow this would have harmed a musician? I don't get it.

The takedown explaination also says:

It is very difficult for a music publisher to make the investment needed to produce and sell an accurate, high-quality tablature version of a song when an unauthorized competing tablature version can be downloaded for free on numerous illegal web sites, even if the illegal tablature often is not accurate.

Ok. So it might be inaccurate. Who cares? This should be good for the MPA, shouldn't it? I mean, if we can't get accurate music for free online, won't we be forced to go to the music store to purchase overpriced sheet music? Obviously the above statement is just mindless rambling.

The silly notice also says:

We have also heard that it would be too expensive to purchase legitimate tablature or sheet music for all of the songs that a player may want to learn. We are sure that these same individuals would not feel entitled to steal a sheet music book or a guitar from a music store simply because they want it but cannot afford it. *Yet, anyone who patronizes these illegal web sites is stealing just as if he or she walked out of the music store with sheet music or a guitar. And by doing so, those people are taking money from the creators of the music they say they love.

*emphasis added

That's right... They accuse you, if you have ever viewed guitar tablature on the Internet, of theft. Way to throw around some serious charges there, you legal bullies.

The simple fact is that organizations like these are becoming obsolete so fast that they won't know what hit 'em when it's over. Anyone with the talent can produce music, podcasts, blogs or any content they wish, and the arists don't need the so-called "protection" of fiscally-motivated lawyers and record labels.

These days, it's better to simply buy music directly from the arists. Without big record labels getting in the way (and giving us only the formulaic pop sounds that we are force fed on radio, which is also a dying medium), the arist stands to get more of what he or she deserves.

As Derek Webb, a musician who gets it, states:

one of the things that excites me most about the future of our business is how easy it is becoming to deliver music to people who want to hear it. i heard a story once about keith green caring so much that people were able to hear and engage with his music that he gave it away for free, which was a very difficult and expensive thing to do at that time. it's actually never been as simple as it is today to connect music with music fans. and i want people to have a chance to listen to mockingbird and engage in the conversation.

I wonder if Bono is upset that some kid wanted to play Sunday Bloody Sunday on his guitar. I seriously doubt it. This legal nonsense is little more than money messing up art.

Groups like RIAA and MPA can try to stop it all they want, but times have changed, and they are obsolete. In the end, the new media is a speeding locomotive, and they're just pile of excrement on the tracks. This isn't a negative post... I'm excited about what's to come!

[BNL Blog: Steven Page of BNL on SpiralFrog/P2p]
[Harmony-Central]
[Olga Guitar Tab Archive]
[Free Derek Webb]
[Boing Boing: Report: HD-DVD copy protection defeated]