Archive for August, 2009

Facebook Post about the Pirate Party

Friday, August 28th, 2009

so - facebook is a closed book and if a discussion happens there then no one can read it unless they are my “friend” which means this discussion can’t see a wider audience, so I thought I’d try reposting it here. if anyone is interested being my “friend” do please come by at http://facebook.com/johncscott where I spend just a little bit too much of my time, but I don’t think time spent in the company of friends is wasted.

John C Scott this short film from the BBC first alerted me to the pirate party, it’s about 10 minutes long and definitely worth a looksie

BBC NEWS | Programmes | Newsnight | Why the pirates are on the rise in Sweden

Newsnight’s Matt Prodger visits Sweden’s Peace and Love music festival in Borlange to investigate what it is about the Swedes that has put them at the heart of a raging debate about internet freedom.

Alfie Goodrich
Alfie Goodrich

Very interesting. So, John, what in your opinion is the future for people wanting to make aliving out of creating things like music, film, photographs, etc etc ?
Wed at 12:08 · Delete
John C Scott
John C Scott

people who create music and all works of art generally should and must be paid for it. however the current oppressive and beaureucratic system urgently needs reform. if something requires a protection racket level of oppressive reinforcement then to all intents and purposes it is a protection racket. if it barks like a dog it is a dog. i always predicted in the early 90s that live music would become the main value proposition again, and this has become true and this has got to be good news for the whole keeping it live agenda. creative commons licensing i think provides the best model yet to have a fair system of distribution. distribution networks like the original napster were very effective ways of allowing individuals to explore interesting music and so let the quality of the music itself dictate the taste of the end-user and not the hype and manipulation of market places. CC certainly allows you to make a revenue from commercial exploitation of your works.
Wed at 12:31 · Delete
John C Scott
John C Scott

free use becomes the “long tail” and so you are freely allowing sharing of material and this is your “overhead” instead of a large collection system existing purely for it’s own perpetuations sake - what i want to see is a fairer distribution of income among artists where far more could have a living wage and fewer have excessive incomes (£1M+) and i see this as entirely possible through a much greater set of diverse tastes in the “market-place” and a preparedness for people to pay for things of value when the value proposition is other than give us money or we’ll duff you up
Wed at 12:34 · Delete
Ben Evans
Ben Evans

Interesting film, the problem is they do have this right to roam policy which is crossing the boundaries into the internet. You have to ask yourself though, you wouldn’t walk into Waterstones and take a book for yourself without paying for it? Someone has had to write the book, publish it and print the book which all costs money. The same applies to Film, TV, music and photography does it not?
Wed at 12:39 · Delete
John C Scott
John C Scott

You wouldn’t steal a handbag? You wouldn’t steal a car?

Of course not but that’s a silly characterisation of the argument that hides the truth.

Of course you wouldn’t go into waterstones and take a book without paying unless you were a criminal.

But if I buy a tune for my DRM protected device ( i dont actually have one btw ) and I can’t play it on another device without paying again for it then they are effectively stealing from me! Can you imagine having to buy 3 copies of the same CD one for the kitchen, the bedroom and the car?

The important thing to understand is the long tail argument that says we can give things away for free and still make a handsome living. Works very nicely for google.

People do go into Waterstones read a chapter or two of several books and decide which one to buy, or buy none at all and just leave with the information in their heads. OMG THIEVES! No that’s the long tail sometimes you sell the book sometimes you don’t.

Wed at 12:52 · Delete
Alfie Goodrich
Alfie Goodrich

With self-publishing via the likes of Blurb, books have become easier to get out there without a publisher. Still, with Blurb or any other medium for music, photos, etc… there is still a maker and a distributor taking a cut. True, the artist probably gets more of a cut than with a royalty scheme from a traditional publisher. I think the real keyfor people to make a living from it is to get noticed… that was always the trick before and the thing that, generally, getting a ‘deal’ was the pathway to; having someone with clout, worldwide distribution deals, marketing and PR budgets to get the artist noticed. One could say that the internet has levelled the playing-field for getting noticed, with all the tools available to the main in the street to get noticed by himself. But, internet culture is about ‘free’ stuff… as the Swedish crowd show. So, even if you create a sensation on the web, get noticed via the web… you still need traditional ‘hard’ media to make the bucks?
Wed at 12:55 · Delete
Alfie Goodrich
Alfie Goodrich

Good points, John…..above.
Wed at 12:56 · Delete
John C Scott
John C Scott

You can make money out of web media too. People are right now. Thousands of them. The problem is trying to make the new media work the same as the old, it’s square peg into round hole stuff, and all that squeezing is futile and someone gets hurt by the squeeze, real lives of real people.

Back in the early 60s records couldn’t be played on the radio. The music establishment saying they’d be crazy to allow it when they get money from the jukebox from every play. It made a few people who cooperated such as Dylan, Branson, The Stones, and many others who cooperated with breaking these practices very successful indeed. It took pirate radio to really change things.

At the moment the system works to the favour of the large corporations not the small guy.

Wed at 13:02 · Delete
Alfie Goodrich
Alfie Goodrich

All true. And I know people are making good money out of the web. Like all good success-stories, it means having a very clear strategy and putting in a shit-load of work. Quite often that’s what the good people in the music and publishing business would do for you and what they would take their [at least] 20% for.
Wed at 13:05 · Delete

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