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.