Rants & Raves

Rants & Raves

Rants & Raves

Date: Monday, January 13, 2003 6:05 PM

From: Jack Rooney (JackRooney@att.net)

Subject: Hitting P2P Users Where It Hurts

So what is to prevent these MP3 file spoofers from damaging the files of their competitors also (Hitting P2P Users Where It Hurts, Jan. 13, 2003)? Not every musician on the Internet is signed to a major record label.

The vast majority of musicians on the Internet today are not under contract to the studios or major labels. Some artists own their own record labels and control their own copyrights, and many former studio artists have broken away from the major studios and own their own independent studios now.

Many liberated, unsigned artists want their music streamed over P2P networks for the exposure it brings to their work. Pirates have been making high quality copies from FM radio broadcasts for decades. But the majors control what is played on the radio with advertising dollars spent with the radio stations. So pirated radio copies, and copies made by the public for their own private use, are just more public exposure. And all public exposure is good exposure in the advertising biz. But the majors cannot control the Internet as they presently control radio regarding what songs the public can hear. The public has meaningful choices now. That is a real problem for the majors; they can't shove the song of the week down the public's throat any longer.

If the major studio spoofers can damage their own files, they can also damage any MP3 file; even those released on the Internet intentionally by the copyright owner. What makes you think they won't do it if they can - because they are so ethical, so moral, so honest and upright - pleeeeease. If it can happen, it will happen.

This spoofing system designed by the major studio's henchmen that wrecks MP3 files on the Internet also gives the major players the ability to damage the files of their smaller competitors, so then the public will be required to buy music from the major studios approved outlets. That's the real plan.

They do not care about a few pirated copies of their signed artist's songs; they want to wreck the business of the unsigned artists who compete against them for market share. That's the real problem they are trying desperately to stop - rising competition from artists they no longer control.