What piracy meant to me has obviously changed quite a bit over the last 20 or so years... But as it turns out, I am a pirate**. Without knowing it, without acknowledging what I was doing, without even understanding that there might be consequences for my actions, my little box of memories contained all the evidence needed to send me straight to gaol.
It contained.... A collection of... mix tapes (cue dramatic hamster).
I took one of the cassettes from the box and read the track list, and the moments of my childhood spent waiting beside the radio eagerly listening and waiting for that song to come on so I could record it and have the ultimate collection of songs to play on my walkman, or to give to that "special someone" at school. And then in a moment it dawned on me that I had pirated all of these songs from the radio. Never at that point in time, remembering back to my childhood did I consider myself a pirate. With the odd exception of playing make-believe around the pool with my friends. But that is exactly what I was... I was an 8 year old pirate, so innocently and unknowingly committing crime well into the late hours the night (or late for an 8 year old).
As I was thinking about my criminal past I started to ponder the state of piracy in today's world and I'm left in a state of confusion. Because the music industry is acting as though music piracy is a new invention, as though it had never been a problem in the past. I don't think that piracy began with the internet, but the internet just gave industry groups the ability to track how much their music was being pirated. Because back in the day, every person with a cassette deck was ripping songs off the radio and recording and swapping mix-tapes with their friends.
In recent months, a collection of film and music groups have actually tried to sue an internet service provider (ISP) for supplying a service that has the potential to be abused. (Click here for news related to iiNet Vs "the Man".) But as I said, piracy isn't new, and it probably (purely speculative) isn't any more wide spread than it ever was. So if an ISP is to be held accountable for it's users downloading copyrighted material, then should a radio station be held culpable for it's listeners recording tracks off the radio? It all seems a little bit ridiculous!
For over 30 years people have explored the wonders and benefits of piracy through the (then) new mediums of the cassette recorder (and even the VHS/Betamax from the TV), and through the invention of the mix-tape. It was undoubtedly, unequivocally an intrinsic part of early mass music culture. It was embraced by the masses and went unpunished. In fact, new artists used to hand out free demo tapes of their music at concerts in the hope of becoming popular. I actually first heard Ben Lee through a free demo tape handed out at a music festival in the 90s, which then led me to buy his albums. So with this ingrained culture of music sharing being an entrenched part of the modern music scene (late 70s till Metallica killed Napster, 2001) how can the film and music industry be shocked and taken aback by music sharing.
They have tarnished what was once a culture of happy sharing, and passionate concern for the listening habits of our fellow human and labelled it a PIRATE in order to strike fear and dread in the mass community.
It's fairly obvious by the calibre of music released now-a-days that the music industry isn't suffering. The fact that they can pump out so much corporate crap with hidden song writers and industry stylists creating their artists from the ground up, almost as though they were grown in special plantations, that they obviously have money to throw away into short term investments. Rather than supporting and encouraging the growth of young, innovative and original artists and investing in real talented peoples futures. So with this abundance of wealth that these corporations are obviously rolling in, how dare they complain that people are enjoying the music which they are obviously doing a shite job of promoting.
Yes, I can understand the huge implications of people SELLING stolen and downloaded material. But that isn't what I'm concerned with in this post. This is all about the sharing of media between individuals for no financial gain.
The fact of the matter is that the internet - without any corporate influence - is a far better tool for promotion and propagation of an artists work than a record label is at the moment... And they're hoping that no one else realises. So instead of changing the way they try to sell their product they instead label the end user as a PIRATE and a criminal in the hope that their "performers" don't realise (I say performer because half of them don't write their own songs anymore).
Get your shit together.
It's not new, it's not the internet, and it's not the people doing it. Sharing music is as old as time, the only thing that's changed is the technology... Shame that you didn't change with it.
**I am not an online pirate. But I am a firm believer in the freedom of the internet and that music and all media is created to be shared with all of society. I don't condone illegal conduct and am in no way encouraging people to take part in criminal activities, I am merely fed up with what constitutes criminal activity concerning the sharing of media.
