June 2003 - "Do You Want To Go Faster?!"

Someone (who shall remain anonymous) recently posted the following to one of the newgsroups I haunt. He was attempting to start a debate on the current MP3 file sharing issue. Check it out:

"Well, the Recording Industry Association of America has finally snapped. They have threatened to sue individuals who share MP3 files over the Internet. I knew it would come to this. Okay, file sharing is a hot button issue. Some of us think nothing of it, some of us see it as piracy or even theft. All of us have used it for our own reasons. I used it to replace lost CD's, broken tapes and worn-out records. I also used it to get a song or two without having to buy the whole CD, to check out an artist before wasting my money on a CD that might not be what I was looking for, or to get hard to find music."


The poster went on to present what he saw as the two sides of the File Sharing debate, but I was still stuck back on this paragraph. It struck me as incredibly silly that this person would consider file sharing as a legitimate and acceptable way to replace "lost CD's, broken tapes and worn-out records", instead of buying replacements, and here was my reply:

"Sheesh, the world needs to stop wasting time and energy thinking of new ways to make wrong things seem right, and get back to fixing the stuff that's wrong so it is right."

Some one else then responded with this:

"Isn't everyone thinking they know the answers to "something that's wrong"?"

This person had a valid point, to which I responded:

"I'd rather see everyone "waste" a little time discussing an issue and the potential problems before going ahead with whatever someone wants to do.

Consider for a moment, what would have happened if tape decks available to consumers never came with a record head in them. The day the tape "recorder" was made available to the public was the day this whole debate got started. Suddenly we could record music and make copies of it! We could make our own custom "mix tapes", or give a copy of a tape to a friend. It also let amateur bands record themselves using a slightly more sophisticated but relatively inexpensive multi-track tape recording device. Sounds all good right?

But if that freedom had not been provided, and a "rule" had been created by electronics manufacturers that no electronic device should be made available to consumers with a record function, then this whole MP3 issue would not be an issue at all. We'd all be buying CDs from the store and enjoying music the way previous generations had, and it didn't seem to bother them much. If their LP wore out they'd just go buy a new one without thinking about it. The record company got paid and the artist got paid, twice if your original LP "wore out, got broken or lost". And you might be thinking, "Hey, if my LP wears out shouldn't the record company provide a new one?" It's not the record company's fault you can't take care of your music collection properly. I know plenty of people (including myself... Ged I'm old now) who have vinyl collections that still look and sound like new. They just took better care of their records than other people.

But OTOH, if we have this wonderful ability to record and make custom mixes, shouldn't we use it? Not at the expense of the artists who create the music. A lot of people think everybody in the music business makes a ton of money. A few do, but most don't. It's a long expensive struggle to the top, and these days it's even worse with "Pay To Play" bars and a lot more competition brought on by the false lure of easy big money.

Either way, there's no perfect solution. Yet.

If only we'd stopped to think for a moment before making recording technology available, and asked ourselves what the long-term problems might be, maybe we wouldn't be in this mess now.

"Progress" is a good thing, as long as we are willing to take the time to come up with solutions to problems *before* we decide to go ahead with them. Why do we feel so compelled to do things *yesterday*? Because we have set a pace for ourselves that we are not keeping up with and everyday we are falling further behind, so screw discussing potential problems, we'd better put the pedal to the metal and catch up! No wonder we think we need robots and androids to help us. But a few people seem to think something bad will happen if we do create androids to help us. If we keep going faster and faster, and we don't take the time to stop and think about what we are doing before we do it, one day our lack of foresight will catch up with us."


What do you think about this issue? Email me and I'll post your responses.

Andy Skuse - June 2003

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