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Walruses and sock puppets

p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- The pic on the right came in an email yesterday.

No text, but the message is clear enough.

There were also other emails waiting for me this morning, most of them saying, politely and not so polititely, I’m making a Big Mistake by talking with Billy Bragg.

But before I go on, to address points raised in one email: p2pnet isn’t entrepreneurial and it isn’t a business. Corny as it may sound, it’s a commitment.

As regular contributor catflap has just said in an email, “You own and run p2pnet, but p2pnet has become more than you — commenters and readers and writers alike. Don’t you think so?”

I do indeed.

There’s no paid staff. In fact, there’s no staff at all. Just me. Everyone who contributes –  including people who post Reader’s Writes — does so because s/he wants to, or because I’ve asked if I can reproduce their work here. But no one receives a dime —- not that I wouldn’t love to be able to commission works and pay for articles.

p2pnet is a personal page which went online in August, 2002. As I say in About »»»

It was the first Internet web page to carry daily, frequently updated news, stories, features and commentaries on digital media, distributed computing and associated technologies and events which haven’t been spun, filtered and pre-digested by vested corporate interests.

It places special emphasis on freedom of speech, P2P and sharing.

It’s my sole source of income and believe me, it’s often a struggle, and always a worry. No fat cigars, even if I did smoke.

p2pnet survives, quite literally, month-to-month thanks to a supporter who wants to remain anonymous, but who’s been meeting the lion’s share of my expenses for approaching two years, and to flat rate payments from advertisers, all of whom I regard as friends.

Those @#$%^&* pirates!

In We are the walrus. Or, thank you Lily Allen, “I ran a post slugged Billy Bragg solves the file sharing problem,” I said, going on »»»

It was based on his September 30 editorial in The Guardian called A better way to sink internet pirates.

I followed it up yesterday with Billy Bragg to p2pnet and over the course of the two posts, something happened I don’t believe has happened before since the file sharing controversy was launched by the labels in 2003.

Then, working for Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music, Sony Music, their RIAA started the bizarre sue ‘em all marketing campaign under which the people who kept the labels in business are called criminals and thieves and are ‘persuaded’ to continue consuming ‘product’ under constant threat of being financially ruined in the law courts if they don’t.

My original post was less than complimentary to Billy Bragg. But  he responded in a series of  comments addressing individual points raised by p2pnet readers.

I added, “And I believe his explanations and observations not only clarified what’s going on in the minds of  some, at least, independent and contracted artists in a way never seen before,  but by virtue of the fact he bothered to post at all, he also gave us access to musicians who until this point have been locked off.”

I still see it that way.

The Big4 love fragmentation

For close to eight years there’s been a vicious fight started by the major corporate music labels, who want to control everything at any price. And that includes everyone who likes music. But to the best of my knowledge, there’s never, ever, been a way for fans to talk directly with musicians, and vice versa.

Which suits music industry just fine. They love fragmentation. They adore it. It suits them right down to the ground to see us constantly at odds with each other.

Because divided, we’re just a bunch of powerless fools running around like headless chickens. And that’s precisely the way Vivendi Universal (France), Sony (Japan), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music (US, but controlled by a Canadian) who are, to all intents and purposes, the corporate music industry, want things to stay.

The absolute last thing they want is to see us talking together without corporate interference.

There are lots of differences. And there are just as many misperceptions. On both sides. But the only way they’ll get sorted is if we talk to each other. And that means taking risks and being open to being wrong.

So fuck ‘em. It doesn’t matter a damn if we’re disagreeing. As long as we’re talking, sooner or later, we’ll reach common ground. Guaranteed.

As I said to someone in an email this morning, “On Billy Bragg, for me, it’s simple. This is a fairly well-known UK performer who’s plugged into the music industry. I can talk with him without agreeing with everything he says.  The way things are, everything is so polarised that intelligent, two-way communication is practically impossible.

“I’ve spoken with Bragg on the phone and he strikes me as someone who’s genuinely willing to talk and listen and who might be able to help.

“If I’m wrong, we’ll soon know and I’ll freely and plainly admit it in big black letters.”

Keep on talking …

A little while back I was attacked by a Big Music executive for standing up for two people chosen as Big Music poster victims.

Now, somewhat ironically,  I’m being attacked for wanting to see conversations start between fans and music-makers.

However, the only way any of us can move forward and, not at all incidentally, confound Big Music, is to start talking to each other and keep talking.

So if you have any ideas, share them.

For example, here’s what Henry Emrich suggests Bill should do »»»

1. Retract your ‘overwhelming’ support for Liy Allen and her corporate paymasters.  Do NOT support throttling (even for ‘incorrigible’ file-sharers) because doing so inevitably demonizes the entire p2p community, and in so doing, concedes the corporate labels’ entire argument.

2. Issue a statement advocating that copyright terms be reduced to something more reasonable/less overtly pernicious.  (Remember, Billy: for all your bravado about how p2pers are ’stealing your apples’, the fact is, those ‘apples’ were — and are — indended to eventually enter the Public Domain.  Monopoly privileges like copyright are just that — PRIVILEGES, and, as the p2p thing illustrates, you/your corporate handers ignore that at your peril.

3. Read Lawrence Lessig’s book “Free Culture”.  It’s available on the Net for free, and it’s not that long.  Hell, there’s even an “audiobook” version for free download, so you don’t even have THAT excuse. If you’re going to run an ‘advocacy’ lobby, it only makes sense that you understand at least something about the issues you’re lobbying about.

4. Please stop recycling corporate boilerplate about the ‘threat’ posed by p2p.  Despite their whimpering, the corporate entertainment industry is doing just fine.  P2p represents a potential threat  to them, alright: the threat that folks might be able to get noticed WITHOUT having a multi-billion dollar corporate propaganda machine behind them. (You, of ALL people, should understand the inherent appeal of DIY, REAL grassroots, etc.  After all, you did come out of the Punk scene, which was pretty much built on fanzines and GENUINELY independent labels, some of which were thrown together very literally on a shoestring budget.)

5. Please follow this link: http://questioncopyright.org/compensation

Meanwhile, one of the emails I saw this morning suggested I’m being paid for “ratting out to the labels”.

A long time ago a significant music industry figure suggested I might find it “interesting” to see the corporate music industry in a more “balanced” way.

But this, not that, is what’s interesting.

Stay tuned.

AND KEEP TALKING !!!!!

Cheers!

Jon Newton – p2pnet

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