Culture Wars

It's been awhile since I've written one of these. Anyway will be going through a very interesting topic for the moment.

Basically I was thinking back when I was a kid, and napster first came out and was extremely popular. Then the music industry pretty much crushed it and started stating that downloading is illegal. Now technically it is, but the justification of sharing files online being made illegal was often made from a moral standpoint. "You're stealing" you are told, and "someone has to make a profit" you are told. Was the music industry's lack of ability to adapt to something completely new what caused their reaction? Basically yes.

In most of the world today; many people download. Movies, music, books, games. From a variety of torrent sites. Now file sharing is completely decentralized making the enforcement of copyright laws even more difficult. Though I would like to rewind the tape back to when napster was around. This is a crucial point that many people tend to forget. But copyright laws weren't meant to do what it does today. In fact many companies file false dmca violations simply as a form of censorship. Often these claims are over the top such as suing a mother for posting a homevideo of her daughter's birthday party. What was the problem? Britney Spears playing in the background. Where is the line exactly?

So of course the internet being a large place. Artist decided to start making music exclusively to distribute and share with other creative people. This is done currently in vlogging, flash animations, internet series, etc.

Recently I have noticed that the current generation of highschool students from suburban backgrounds. Have a tendency to say "downloading is illegal" Now if you are a young adult I have noticed we do not think in this manner. In fact we don't have a problem with sharing anything. I will refrain from stereotyping. You will find people who think downloading is wrong on a moral basis, and you will find those who don't think of it as a moral dilemma. I have noticed those that are from the older generation. They currently have this draconian view. While generally speaking the current youth downloads quite freely. I know its difficult to download in the US now, but in other places they don't crack down as hard, or gov'ts tend not to get involved. Companies in Japan for instance decided to find a way to benefit from file sharing. It is starting to happen in Europe, and slow happening in the US. Though before within the US there was this authoritarian mandate from companies that you must buy it from a store or you are breaking the law. Without ever stopping to ask themselves "why do they prefer to download instead of buying the CD" of course many will say " because its free" this is still the case, but now downloading has becoming time consuming. Its tough to tell if the file you are downloading is legitimate, or if its a virus about to destroy your hard drive. But still people do go through these lengths and take these risk in order to get what they want. So as a record company you must ask yourself "why isn't my stuff selling" and instead of going sue happy because you can't make money. Maybe find a different way to market your product, be more adaptable and competitive.

Either way file sharing has become one of the biggest culture wars for the current generation. Because I have found myself asking this very basic question. "If I can't download, how come I can give/get a CD from a friend." I guess they assume you can't keep a borrowed CD but you can hold on to mp3 files forever. But of course you can burn a CD into mp3 files and have the whole album. Point is I asked myself this, many young people have asked this question. It is worth asking, but of course easily dismissed, but why? Simply put by asking this question you are indeed initiating a questioning of the current value system. Is it really a company's God give right to make a profit? I notice Baby Boomers always talk about the free market and how it magically solves everything, but when it comes to the music industry(which yes is truly on a free market) the moment a variable enters into the market creating a situation where companies can go bankrupt, and the industry can forever change (downloading wasn't going to do this, but this was their defense of setting up the current draconian set of DMCA laws and their current defense used to try to have copyrights be in affect for longer than the current 15 year limit allows for). Now the industry did in fact change. It adapted. What happened? How did they adapt? At first they reacted in a way that is very dictatorial. Forcing consumers to buy something when they can get it for free. Was it really stealing?Ask a young person some will say yes it is, but of course we know they're the tools ;) At the very least that is my opinion of people like this. Because I have noticed one thing. Those that complain about illegal file sharing seem to be already very successful. Already have more money than most of humanity will probably never get to see or hold. So why should I feel bad? I didn't break into a store and instantly started to steal albums. Property wasn't damaged, people weren't hurt. It may cut into your revenues a bit, but record labels that make money tend to not make the mistake of having the sale of albums be their main source of revenue. Even independent music artist are smart enough to know albums aren't their sole source of revenue. Though I will say that we do indeed need copyright laws in order to ensure that those who created it gain the credit from it. So that someone else isn't profiting from another person's hard work. But overall if file sharing to other people on the internet stealing someone else's work as your own? I don't think so. There are many music artist that would agree with me on this. System of A Down released an album known as "Steal This Album" and they weren't kidding you could in fact download this, or burn copies of it without facing charges. Tonedeff made a song called "Napster Anthem". Ultimately this current culture war on the surface may seem like wealthy people wanting to ensure they continue to gain more wealth, but also on a societal level we are trying to figure out what constitutes as thievery. Right now I would say governments are very much out of touch, but I wouldn't say completely. Head ways made have been the Fair Use Act which has done a lot to stop companies from taking advantage from the situation. It could be said that the two creative industries of music and movies might be changing seeing that anyone with a digital camera can make a film/music video, and anyone with recording software and instruments can make and distribute their music worldwide. With the internet changing the world at such a rapid pace. With so many people connected. Even myself I can make the claim that I have a friend on every continent on this planet except for Antarctica. Wait nevermind even including Antarctica as I currently know someone who is down there for research. Nevertheless, I think things will begin to go even more into the gray area, and having a black and white worldview isn't going to help us. I'm sorry for those who went through highschool in the 50s, but there is indeed a cultural revolution going on. It may not be in the form of Mao's version(albeit very violent, counter-productive and served to destroy a lot of the culture instead of advancing it. Seeing that now in China people are working hard to reclaim what was lost.) but there is a revolution happening. And I say currently generation y is indeed leading the way, and are in fact one of the first to adapt to something new. You'll notice now that there are classes on how to use Twitter or Facebook, or to post videos on Youtube. If you're under the age of 40 and computer savvy. You don't even read the instructions or attend any of these classes. If you're over 40 and computer savvy then you too don't even have to go through the pain of learning. People learn by doing.
With the new social media people share instantly what they see, what they do, their videos, their music. Positive change is happening, but the negative will always be there, and there isn't a guarantee that the internet will always be around, but it is as Dr. Michio Kaku stated; the internet is indeed a product of a type I civilization. The 21st century will continue to be interesting, and dangerous.