This is definitely last minute - but hey, I'm rocking my blog.
Information is a commodity. Which means that there is supply and demand and what better place to find information? The internet.
Computerization has done a lot for our society. We now have instantaneous access to anyone in the entire world. As Baudrillard puts it best, information technology undermines reality - so we end up managing our INTERNET self which is all but a reflection of our REAL self. They are perceived as one and the same - but maybe they aren't, like anyone needs to know (lol).
Music moves over the internet the same way information does. Digital has allowed for music to be transported from an analog medium, the CD, to computers and from there - you can do whatever you want with it. That is, provided there is no DRM to stop you from doing so.
Even with the advent of DRM people have found ways to get around the "system" of ownership. The music industry wants you to buy, they want you to own. What they don't want you to do is have full control. They can tell you what you can or cannot put your music onto. They can tell you how many times you can play something back. Sounds pretty limiting, huh?
The counterculture of the internet is to push for freedom, in all things. Information should be free for everyone to distribute and consume in the same sense that music should be free so that people can listen to it and share in its joys and sorrows.
What do you think? Should music be free for everyone? I'm sure not many people feel sad about getting music off the internet for free. I mean after all, you're just robbing the music industry of its profits.
But hey, it's like Robin Hood - give to the poor and steal from the rich, right?
Thursday, October 16, 2008
So what do we do about it?
We get it - music isn't free, or is it?
It really becomes a question of ownership. The internet is a very picky place.
To understand ownership, we have to look a bit into what the internet is all about.
The internet, as our friend Lauwrence Lessig would put it, is a public sphere. We have free and open access for research and communications without the need for a license or permission. So while governments and corporations breathe down our necks about the control of information, they totally forgot a little problem:
You built it that way.
Yup, that's right - the internet was built for users and by users and is maintained and run for and by users. Which means that when information becames an object of monetary value, like our guy Castells talked about in his 9 hypotheses, the cookie jar that was open for everyone to take from all of a sudden got sealed shut and a dollar tag attached to it.
How does this relate to music? Well, music went digital. Computers got more advanced. Consumers figured out that music could be put on computers - something the recording industry completely failed to see in advance. Now music wasn't just on computers, it was on the internet and shared with everyone. Corporations flipped out - killed Napster, sued everyone but it didn't really solve their problem.
So we move to DRM. Can't control the system? Control the problem instead. DRM is a corrective measure which allows the music industry to keep money going into their pockets and their products from being spread like flower seeds in the wind across the internet for nothing.
So do we own the music we buy? Of course we do. Is it 100% ours to do what we please with it? Not really, maybe a long time ago but definitely not now. So does that mean we truly own it? Hard to say.
Think about that one for awhile.
It really becomes a question of ownership. The internet is a very picky place.
To understand ownership, we have to look a bit into what the internet is all about.
The internet, as our friend Lauwrence Lessig would put it, is a public sphere. We have free and open access for research and communications without the need for a license or permission. So while governments and corporations breathe down our necks about the control of information, they totally forgot a little problem:
You built it that way.
Yup, that's right - the internet was built for users and by users and is maintained and run for and by users. Which means that when information becames an object of monetary value, like our guy Castells talked about in his 9 hypotheses, the cookie jar that was open for everyone to take from all of a sudden got sealed shut and a dollar tag attached to it.
How does this relate to music? Well, music went digital. Computers got more advanced. Consumers figured out that music could be put on computers - something the recording industry completely failed to see in advance. Now music wasn't just on computers, it was on the internet and shared with everyone. Corporations flipped out - killed Napster, sued everyone but it didn't really solve their problem.
So we move to DRM. Can't control the system? Control the problem instead. DRM is a corrective measure which allows the music industry to keep money going into their pockets and their products from being spread like flower seeds in the wind across the internet for nothing.
So do we own the music we buy? Of course we do. Is it 100% ours to do what we please with it? Not really, maybe a long time ago but definitely not now. So does that mean we truly own it? Hard to say.
Think about that one for awhile.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Let's talk about iPods
iPods are today's next generation of portable CD players, you can carry your music around with you everywhere you go.
With computerization taking over society, CD players now seem like relics in an age of digital media. Digital formats, like MP3s, have taken their place and storage mediums have changed completely. No more moving parts!
When you buy a CD, the money definitely goes back to those who are involved in making and producing the album. However, with the proliferation of digital - a lot of that money doesn't end up going anywhere. A computer counterculture of "music should be free in the same way information is free" has been established. DRM is the obvious counter to this counterculture, it simply works to put the money back in the pockets of corporate actors.
Made me come across this little gem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mywgsXBGD68
More to come!
With computerization taking over society, CD players now seem like relics in an age of digital media. Digital formats, like MP3s, have taken their place and storage mediums have changed completely. No more moving parts!
When you buy a CD, the money definitely goes back to those who are involved in making and producing the album. However, with the proliferation of digital - a lot of that money doesn't end up going anywhere. A computer counterculture of "music should be free in the same way information is free" has been established. DRM is the obvious counter to this counterculture, it simply works to put the money back in the pockets of corporate actors.
Made me come across this little gem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mywgsXBGD68
More to come!
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