*Arrrrgggghhhh.*

Howdy Ho,

So let's hear it for Apple for fixing my computer free of charge because honestly the guy said that I dropped it (and there was indisputable physical evidence) but he would still fix it for me... for $free.99, which was awesome. Now I'm back and blogging and lovin' it. So let's get to some much needed social commentary, eh?

Today I want to talk about the issues of music piracy and exactly what's going on. Well let me preface this by saying that piracy will continue to be an controversial issue for a while beacuse technology advances faster than the legal system can make corresponding laws that address the issues of piracy. And thinking about the issues of piracy made me think of one image... the Hydra from Hercules. You know, the multi-headed dragon monster that once you cut one head off two more sprang out of that recently decapitated neck area, that's exactly how piracy should be envisioned.

Where to start... well first off we can back track a little bit and look back to when piracy all started. And for me that was Napster, the first P2P network that hosted loads of illegally uploaded mp3s that could be downloaded by you, at home, in a matter of minutes... that was like in 3rd grade. Needless to say technology has advanced a lot from those times, and because of these advances, it's hard to really pinpoint who to go after concerning pirating music. The RIAA's crusade to crucify individual downloaders and sue them for every penny their worth failed completely. Instead of trying to discover and prosecute the individuals who were inventing and creating these P2P networks that enable the every day Joe Smoe to download literally hundreds of songs a day. For a while P2P networks were the it thing, out came Kazaa, Bearshare, and Limewire, all trying to build off the success of Napster. What I want to know is how come they completely eff Napster in the A but they allow Limewire to exist and continually provide illegal mp3s to the internet? So P2P networks are enemy #1.

Now let's look at torrents and full album leaks... this is what really cost artists when their full length feature album that they have sweat and toiled over for months, maybe even years, get's leaked out before it's official release and it up for free download all over the internet. This is really an internal issue because in order for these exclusive songs and albums to be uploaded to the internet, somebody must have a physical copy of the songs themselves and have to upload them. So people close to artist, people involved with the record label, radio stations that get advances, promoters that get advances -- all these people are given the album before the release and it only takes one person to upload it to the internet and cost the artist and their record label tons of money. That's enemy #2.

Besides physically uploading them I want to know how torrents still exist -- enemy #3. Everyone knows about them, it's not secret, why hasn't the legal system done anything about that if they already destroyed Napster. But like the Hydra analogy, with the death of Napster came the birth of other P2P networks such as Kazaa, Bearshare and Limewire that still exist today. Maybe it's simply because the legal system is a whole lot slower at making laws than the technology is advancing, that must be the only logical answer... or is it?

But to really analyze the entire situation of piracy, one has to look at it realistically. Nerds will write new programs and invent new downloading clients and strip DRMs off mp3s and eventually design computers smart enough to rule the world... but seriously, the legal process is just too darn slow to deal with constant influx of new technologies. That's why I personally believe it is in the best interest of these artists and their record labels to embrace the music sharing community online and try and capitalize off it. They should release artists single for free for download and allow only previews to be shown on blog sites, and other music related sites, and give the people what they want (good music) and if they really like they can go buy the albums themselves. I don't think piracy will ever stop and you can't truly stop it, so if you can't kill your enemy, join your enemy. All those involved in the music industry should really check their perspective about piracy and really try to think of innovating ways to use piracy to their advantage. That's what I think... but I'd love to know what you think, so hit me up what you think about piracy, what can be done, or who do you thinks to blame?

Dropping knowledge like clumsy scientists,
20thetruth