From vsyevolod@yahoo.com Wed May 13 14:01:50 2009
Subject:Re: OT Piracy


Well you asked...

I don't support piracy.

I don't decry piracy.

It's a thing we all have to come to terms with whether we participate in it or take up arms against it.

Personally, I am of the opinion that property is theft. And intellectual property is also theft. While these two statements are already seen as cliches, there is much resonance in them, for me at least.

At the same time, we have food to put on the table, and obtain roofs to cover our heads. I want to be able to do what I love AND be able to provide for myself and my loved ones.

One of the biggest issues that the 'piracy' debate continually fails to cover, is the fact that it's not a black and white thing. It's not wholly good to purchase CD's, and wholly evil to download them from file sharing sites. We live in a world where it's against the law to steal certain things from other people. Some of those laws make a lot of sense to me and some of them seem ridiculous. Right now, people are being evicted from their homes because some high level bankers got greedy. We've yet to uncover the law that says that something wasn't quite right there.

We got to where we are through a very convoluted route. I do not resonate with this route. The land I currently live on was stolen from the Native Americans that lived here just a scant 150 years before me. There is no amount of "but it's okay now" that's going to erase that.

"How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?" Chief Sealth 1855.

I don't believe that "I" make music, rather it comes through me. If I hold onto it very tightly, it may just slip away. Our current laws seem to ignore this possibility.

We are in a transitional period with all of this. There is much at stake. The Internet and computer technology has brought the almighty record companies to their knees. We do not yet have a very workable system in its place. This puts us in a suspended state. It is a very powerful place to be, as most anything could come out of it. If we hold on too tightly to the past, we never move forward.

I don't have any solutions to add to the debate. I am truly sorry that your music was put up on a file-sharing site and I'm glad that you found a way (at least temporarily) to take it down. There are other file sharing sites in place today where you really don't have that option.

At the end of the day, all I'm trying to say here is that we are in unique times. Let's move forward and greet them with open arms. Letting go of the past can be painful if we resist, and painful as we move forward. It takes a willingness and a spirit of hope...

...and now back to our usual Clone sputterings...

Stephen