One year ago today: December 24, 2018, only they didn’t know it.
Five years ago today: December 24, 2014, 1 song, 17 chords.
Nine years ago today: December 24, 2010, the song of his people.
Random years ago today: December 24, 2017, and the band breaks up.
Xmas Eve and another sad day for music, but not for the music industry. The American style copyright people have finally contributed enough money to get the laws they’ve wanted since Elvis started selling records. They have dreamed of the fight to sue the medium that the real infringers are using. That’s like being able to sue you for a law that is broken on the sidewalk outside your house. But this America, where they put merely accused people in the same jail cells with hardened criminals. Where we arrest people who take bribes, but not those who make them. The picture is an exposed stump at the dam, where the water level is lowest in memory. Can you see it?
They are a group of twenty members, none of whom are musicians or even composers. They claim to represent artists but that much is valid only insofar as the artists sells them the rights to the music—including the right to perform their own compositions live. There are countless examples of musicians, including Johnny Cash, who were unaware they were giving up that right and would likely not have sold if they had been made aware of it. There is a revealing section in Wikipedia if you scroll down to the section on efforts against infringement.
This creates an atmosphere where anybody can commit a crime where someone else is held responsible. I would not mind if all the people who hate Google got together and shut that outfit down before the legal system wakes up to the mistake they’ve made. I suspect it was a law that finally slipped through because everybody in DC was distracted by the Trump situation.
[Author’s note: I’m aware the newspaper award was handed down in France, but their law code is Napoleonic. To say the least. My opinion is these infringement people know they can never win in the long run, but they can milk the system by suing anybody they can meanwhile. These people are creepy beyond description.]
Where this is leading is the “pay per listen” fantasy the RIAA has always wanted. That’s where they can charge you a fee for listening to any music they own by the listen. In the phone company, this is called metered service and they’ve been trying to push that through for 135 years. The RIAA, who don’t appear to be all that computer literate, trace ISPs and sue anyone at the far end, including school studends and dead grandmothers. The RIAA has withdrawn such suits, but has never admitted any mistakes.
This is why many, including myself, draw a distinction between the music industry and the recording industry. The recording industry is the one having all the trouble. They’ve tried bending copyright law before, with their “work made for hire” wording which as a condition of recording, shifted all copyright from the artist to the recording label. It was so vaguely worded most musticians did not realize what they were selling.. When this sleazy practice was stopped and the even sleazier politician who pulled it off was kicked out, he was hired as a Vice President of something or other over at RIAA. What’s that smell?
Kadampa.
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This brings back to me the time I hatched this plan to license certain music. Around fiveyears ago, there was a rumor. The RIAA was sending agents into Florida bars and snagging musicians who were performing cover tunes. This got me thinking, why don’t I check out the price of licensing the music and maybe I could hold some of it for ransom. So, I did the usual anonymous call to RIAA and asked the rates for licensing. Rarely have I dealt with such shady operators. It’s in this blog somewhere. They would not quote me a thing.
Nope, only their musicians work, and only after they have signed away all interest or rights. They are now suing the Internet platforms, which is akin to suing the Post Office if they deliver copyrighted mail. True, the ISP is in the best position to know who is infringing, but is it the ISP’s job to be policing it? I say not. Nobody should be responsible for anything unless they are given the power to punish the offenders. These type of court cases will ruin the Internet as we know it. Again, I believe that the people who download copyrighted material are the ones who would never purchase it, so the true loss to the industry is much smaller than their claims.
The picture above is the Xmas fireplace in Tennessee. Hope you like it. And may I say to the Trump haters, you missed the point. It's about consumer choice. People should be free to buy what they want, not have some climate-changer ramming it down their throats. Plus, the bulbs don't cost ten dollars each. It requires nasty chemicals to make LEDs, a topic the left won't touch. Put both types of bulb on the market and the LEDs will ultimately win. There was no need to force LEDs on people. I use LEDs exclusively, by the way.
(When you see it.)
