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Thursday, October 23, 2008 Live from New York ..... In the midst of the silly-season in Washington on Wednesday, I traveled back to my home-city, New York, to rap with some folks up at CMJ 2008. Before I get to the substance, though, let me tell you how wonderful it was to walk through Washington Square in the Fall. Not a lot better than that, and the NYU campus streets were filled with music lovers, so maybe there really isn't anything better than that.Anyway, I was privileged to sit on this panel with some very thoughtful folks who genuinely care about music, first and foremost, and it was refreshing to try to wrangle though these tough issues rather than shoot at each other. And that's what I want to tell you about here, if you'll indulge me. I won't lie - we disagreed on some things about the Digital Age, probably a lot of things. But we didn't kill each other either. So it seems to me that at the end of the day what we are faced with - artists, songwriters, labels, technology companies, listeners, creators, all of us - is a hard choice. We've danced around it forever, but now it's started to stalk us. Take away all of the drama of lawsuits and legislation and what we're left with is the decision between an open, decentralized Internet that empowers everyone on the network or a closed Internet, much like the centralized system of the physical world today, where all the control rests with the few at the center. We can argue all day about the benefits of either choice, but we can't really avoid the choice itself anymore because our indecision is really starting to affect the bottom line. No side can run away from this: the major labels are seeing their business models die, artists are trying to understand how to make money in a global marketplace when most everything is downloadable, college kids are getting sued, innovators and new technologies are getting shut down and shut out, and markets don't want to fund anyone who can't assure them that they won't end up in court and out of money. As one of my panelists so eloquently put it, it's an f'in mess. It's surely above my pay grade to figure out how to solve this, but I know that we need to. Soon. If we don't come together - all sides - and leave our weapons at the door, we'll all go down with the ship. And none of us wants that. Music is far too important. And it's not just music that's having the trouble. All creativity, be it songs or books or technologies or a piece of software, is at risk if we don't figure out how to protect the robustness of public domain with protection for those who create. Art and innovation are the foundations for our society. Even Albert Einstein said that he never had an original idea - he just built on what was already there. Surely we can start doing some building of our own before we tear everything down. Labels: CMJ, net neutrality, open internet, RIAA posted by Digital Freedom Campaign # 2:57 PM 0 Comments 
Friday, May 9, 2008 RIAA AND MPAA NOW APPEARING AT DIGITAL HOLLYWOOD AS MONTY PYTHON’S THE BLACK KNIGHT Yet again, we are left scratching our heads at the big content companies. Much like the Black Knight’s protestations to King Arthur that “none shall pass!” in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the RIAA seems to believe that despite having no arms and no legs, digital rights management (DRM) is supposedly poised for a comeback. Equally disturbing were comments by the Motion Picture Association of America’s (MPAA) Fritz Attaway that the MPAA intends to wield DRM as a weapon to threaten consumers about their lack of rights.In a panel discussion at the Digital Hollywood conference, the content world established that it still lives in a completely different world than its customers. While the rest of the marketplace continues to successfully move towards business models for the digital age, David Hughes, who according to CNET heads up RIAA’s technology unit, effectively ridiculed the progress that international music labels – and RIAA member companies – EMI, Sony BMG and the Universal Music Group, and major retailers Amazon.com and Wal-Mart have made by readily making DRM-free music available to consumers. The MPAA seemed more concerned with limiting its customers’ rights than actually doing business with them. Meanwhile, back on earth, the rest of us have already figured out that digital freedoms equal digital profitability. Giving consumers what they want – digital music – the way they want it – without burdensome DRM (digital rights management) software that locks them up – pays dividends to all stakeholders in the digital world – including the content industry. The Digital Freedom Campaign is compelled to remind these big content companies that consumers have also rights in the digital age, and those rights include the ability to enjoy the content they legally purchase. Content and consumer rights are not a zero sum game. DRM has suffered far more than a flesh wound, and we’ve all crossed the bridge into the digital age. Hey content companies – wake up! Labels: digital freedom, DRM, RIAA posted by Digital Freedom Campaign # 6:57 AM 0 Comments
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Digital technologies allow everyone the freedom to be artists, innovators, producers and creators, and to listen, watch, and participate wherever, whenever and however they choose. That freedom must be protected and nurtured. |
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