Our Path to the Second Gilded Age

Today, we face a second Gilded Age. An age where mega media companies dominate the news ordinary Americans recieve. An age in which multibillion dollar companies like Enron and WorldCom mislead and cause financial harm to their investors.

An age in which huge oil companies control the fluctuating price of gasoline from week to week. And finally, an age in which five massive record labels and a radio conglomerate (yes, you, not-so-Clear Channel) control almost all of the world record market.

What does this age hold in store for us? America has always been a free country. We are living through a crisis in the music biz right now ... a war, the RIAA vs consumers. Can we make it through the Second Gilded Age?

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America has come a long way since it first began back in 1776. Back then, only white male property owners were voting. The Bill of Rights was passed after the Constitution came into effect in the 1780s. Gradually, all white men were able to vote, then all men were able to vote. A century after American independence, labor unions began to appear in the Gilded Age (thank Sam Gompers) and assert the rights of the workers. A few decades later women got the right to vote- 1919-1920.

In the 1930s, labor was officially recognized by FDR as a legal entity. This meant that unions were now recognized as legal organizations. In addition, working Americans got more rights. Child labor was soon banned and the minimum wage came into being.

In the 1950s-1960s, the civil rights movement emerged. Despite the protests of segregationist whites in the south, African-Americans soon got a number of reforms passed that outlawed the poll tax and literacy tests, allowing them to vote without repression. School intregration and other reforms followed. President Lyndon Johnson signed dozens of reforms into law.

Not long after, the voting age was lowered to eighteen in recognition that if you could be drafted, you should be able to vote.

Americans have some of the most notable freedoms in the world. We have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly ... the RIAA tries to erode those freedoms, but they are going against all ordinary Americans. They cannot possibly succeed. We are stronger than them. We are the face of America!

Not our corporate giants that dominate the world's economy, nor our government that pre-emptively decides to strike against other nations it deems "a threat", or our military. No, it is ordinary Americans that make America great.

And we will prevail. Remember the Gilded Age? Remember Standard Oil, that monopoly? Remember all of the corrupted trusts? The giant evil moneymaking corporations? Ordinary Americans had almost zero rights, and yet those trusts were eventually destroyed! Thanks to muckrakers like Upton Sinclair, Teddy Roosevelt broke up the trusts. There are good politicians out there. We need to find them and support them wholeheartedly. We need to end the dominance of the RIAA.

We may be living in a new "Gilded Age". If so, history says we are on the tail end of it. During the time period of 1902-1908, T.R. made all his famous reforms. We are at that crossroads. Let us hope we can all work together to defeat the RIAA.

We can only do this by recognizing that copyright laws will never entirely go away, and that at some point, we and the RIAA (or what's left of it) will have to come to terms. Otherwise, the fight will drag on endlessly. Consumers want a good music product, high quality sound, high quality music, for a good price. In turn, artists expect to make money for their work. And labels expect to make money for promoting artists and distributing their work. Labels aren't necessarily a bad thing.

Right now, they are incredibly evil. But who says it has to be that way? I see a future where labels may be cooperatives. Where artists come together and pool revenue to create their own label that will not only allow them to control their futures, but to enjoy making music for themselves and their fans. Such a group of artists acting as their own labels would remain stable even if one or two artists left, because there would always be some new entries in the music biz and some that retire or break up. P2P also has an exciting future with such a system. Artist cooperatives would compete to put their artists' songs on P2P networks for download...for a low price. Then consumers can listen to the music and return to their P2P application and vote on the songs they download. This information would then go to artist cooperatives to let them know what's hot and what's not. It could be the new Billboard.

Whatever the future has in store, we can take a hand in creating it...by working together to ensure that the rights of the American consumer, first spelled out by JFK in the 1960s, are remembered by politicians and giant coporations alike.

We have a job on our hands. Explain why P2P should be legal, find a good way to compensate artists, and uphold the rights of consumers. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither can we expect to win overnight. But slowly, the tide will turn. The day when many were manipulated by the few is soon to come to an end. You can be a part of it.

DOWN with the RIAA....long live the true America!

Sounds like a stretch. It's what's best for artists and fans, and should be what happens. But it cuts out the middlemen who make a fortune from others' work. What are these weasels gonna do? Give up their gravy train? Not bloody likely, as long as they can afford to buy politicians who bend laws in their favor. I'm fighting right beside you toward this dreamlike goal, but it's going to be a tough road.

Election day is coming ...

Not sure who to vote for ?

When you get the sample ballot, simply do the research on each individual.

Campaign contributions usually tell the story. Who's buying who.

Here's a few examples

http://opengov.media.mit.edu/EX/0000/100/122/296/
http://opengov.media.mit.edu/EX/0000/100/122/551/
http://opengov.media.mit.edu/EX/0000/100/121/979/
http://opengov.media.mit.edu/EX/0000/100/127/542/
http://opengov.media.mit.edu/EX/0000/100/144/171/

You can figure out the rest.

The only way to win this fight is for everyone to band together and fight them thorugh the courts. This will require an organized effort.

ps
I am trying use the "contact us" feature and all I get is "Sorry you have come from the wrong place!" Any ideas on how to contact boycott-riaa.com?

Random Thoughts from a Poet

Has anyone else noticed that no (formerly Music City) Morpheus users have had their accounts subpoenaed? Couple of Gnutella, but no Morpheus.

Maybe there is a legitimate place for a "middleman" between the artist and consumer... but so far, NOBODY has stepped up to fill that position in a positive way. CERTAINLY not the RIAA and members, and NOT mp3.com (which at first, we had a LOT of hope for) and Napster (ditto, but just like Kazaa and similar p2p, they all just want to rape the artists and fans for the money!)

The only REAL solution, I am afraid, is to get Congress to step in with a blanket licence type deal along the lines of what exists between ASCAP/BMI/etc. and the radio stations/venues etc... but this time, the licence should belong to the end user (customer/fan) AND THE MUSICIAN/CREATOR IS COMPENSATED FAIRLY!
(This is of the utmost importance!!!)

But watch out, even if things lean in the blanket licence direction, you can bet the RIAA will step in and make sure only THEY benefit. Just like they did with the ASCAP/BMI/Soundscan end of things. Research a bit and you will find that DRM issues aside, Apple I-tunes and other "close but no cookie" solutions are only open to RIAA musicians, independents need not apply!

We MUST be careful not to let the RIAA win in a way that at first LOOKS like WE won just because we can download RIAA tunes in a cheaper/better way.

If we let the RIAA control what is available, we ultimately LOOSE!

Shmoo, of Electric Gypsy
Support Local and Independent Music!

(Glad to see they let Bill Evans speak! But damnit, 1 and 1/2 hrs was NOT long enough to even touch on the issues. Tech Tv did as good a job as I suppose could be done in such a short time tho... gotta hand it to them!)

Koodos to TechTV. They have stepped outside the box and done something for the people and the artists.

And yes it is going to be a tough road. But realistically thinking if we didn't need to do anything the results would most assuredly not be good for us.

the next step of the information revolution is at hand. with more and more people comming to the internet it is important to reach them somehow and direct them to sites that contain the truth not corporate lies.

"beware those who would seek to deny you information, for in his own mind he dreams himself your master"

Shmoo , I agree.
Compulsary liscenses are the way to go.
I wish Bill had been given more time to discuss this. I also noticed when the guy from the EFF (his name excapes me at the moment) tried to bring the subject up , the mental-midget from Maverick Records jumped right in with his MP3.com etc... speach he kept repeating all nite, thus cutting him off. That guy from Maverick, btw , had me so mad I felt like driving out to left-coast , just to kick him in the nuts!
Fortuanatly , for me , my wife quickly talked me out of it saying it would just be a waste of time, as he probably didn't have them anyway!

Have a safe and joyous weekend all.

WABBITMAN

I am writing from Canada and don't have access to TechTV, however I am very interested in what is going on in the US, regarding Copyright infringement file sharing etc.

We are mostly getting the RIAA, Corporate slant on the issue, my one access for the other side of the issue is this site.

Will the TechTV program be made available online, and if so where might I access it.

Keep up the Fight, don't Despair, you will Prevail. I fully believe the RIAA will be seriously hurt, if not destroyed by their actions in this fight. Your Boycott or should that be (Buycott) is spreading outside the US, and I believe will prove to be the most effective weapon in this fight. Combined with effective Political Action I think it will ultimately be successful.

Jeremey Welt, the guy from Maverick, was involved in a transparent attempt to do some free advertising for Rhapsody, and the online distribution networks which Cary-Sue has given his blessings to. Welt was the most annonying to be sure, and reminded me of a tiny dog that is all bark and no bite. What REALLY bugged me was that even with Bill Evans there, the fact that the public is boycotting these corkheads, did not even get on the air.
Which is kind of funny, since, if they had of flashed a chiron with Bill's name and affiliation, i.e. "BOYCOTT-RIAA" , would have been great, but they didn't. We have to get the official word of course from Bill, but it appeared to me, that someone told him he couldn't talk about the boycott.

It was especially frustrating in that, finally, one of us gets on a national show about this issue, and not one word about the boycott and its possible
cause for the drop in CD sales. I'm gonna drop them a line about this.

Anyway, that's my rant for now.
~code

I went ahead last night and captured the Music Wars special from TechTV.
I made the capture into a RM file being the novice I am and not knowing how to shrirnk a 4.2 GB file into something smaller.

Im sharing on Razorback release priority.
Click here for edonkey link

On second thought copy this to your client

ed2k://|file|TechTV_-_Music.Wars_-_9-12-2003..rm|364096025|44F4B72EBB8BA3F5740698149FD8AAF8|/

ok third times the charm....

ed2k://|file|TechTV_-_Music.Wars_-_9-12-2003..rm|364096025|44F4B72EBB8BA3F5740698149FD8AAF8|/

If you want to download music with little risk of lawsuit, simply move files out of your shared folder immediately after download. Files will always be available worldwide anyway, we don't have to get them from servers in the U.S.! There's no need for guilt over lack of sharing in this situation. The RIAA is targeting Americans, now we will target the RIAA. Downloading will continue forever, and cd sales will continue to plummet. RIAA, be careful what you ask for, because you just might get it.

Perhaps it is time for musicians, songwriters, singers et al to stop relying on music to 'get them rich and famous' in life and to concentrate on just making a living from it if they can through other ways and means.

Live concerts, merchandising and selling directly to the public rather than through greedy middlemen.

If you have talent it will surely shine through and the fans will give you support. Of course there will ALWAYS be those who want it for free. But those are usually not real fans anyhow.

The problem is that everyone wants to be a pop/rock star and I saee those days as limited now. Manufactured pop stars are the scum of the earth. They are purely there to make money for third parties.

Lets dump this crap and bring the REAL music back!

I have to tell you something about the RIAA and the smaller labels. True, the RIAA is big, and controls a lot of stuff. But the smaller labels can get into the smaller "holes" that the RIAA can't fit into. Think of it as seeing who has better quality sound - the smaller labels use a DVD, but the RIAA is so big it uses an LP record.

The RIAA has gone beyond decency. Beyond honesty. It has gone completely crazy! Suing your own customers is a very bad business idea. Doing that will get you a quick one-way trip to Chapter 7 bankruptcy. I would never sue my own customers. This is what the RIAA is: an idiot business that will soon find itself bankrupt. Vote with your wallet. Don't buy from the RIAA. Bankrupt them!

[chapter 7 bankrupcy court -->]
|
---------------------------------------
o(I'm broke)
-- -- -- --o -- -- -- -- -- --
o o o RIAA
---------------------------------------

[one way -->]
|

sorry about the junk ascii art

otech1, Thank you for those links. That's important information to know when voting.

~goingnova

Why hasn't anyone organized a " Steam Roll your shitty CD's day all over the country? I would think it would bring
the message clear to the record companies that we are fed up with bad overpriced cd's...they are our cd's to do with as we wish aren't they???
Anyone know how much it cost to get a steam roller????

EmrldEyzs - Thumbtack (aka Bill Evans) has already posted that he will donate over 2000 CDs to this if anyone can organize and get the steam roller.

sharefile, nice thoughts.

All this is about is not really middlemen, but people in high places who control commerce. For example, look at the Muslim traders. Goods came in from China and the Muslims sold them to Europe for high prices, cutting a nice profit. That was why the Europeans wanted to find a water route to China. They wanted to cut off the "middlemen". In reality, these "middlemen" are controlling both consumers and artists. We need to find that water route to Asia. We need to connect with the artists. Whether or not the labels stay is their decision. They have to embrace the new technology, not fight it.

:-:~ PhantomGhost ~:-:

People in the entertainment industry used to understand the minds of the audience, and have adapted to new technologies in the past. For instance, look how Hollywood reacted to TV...then they learned that they could profit from this, too.

These knuckleheads nowadays seem to lack the ability to do the same.