Dun DAH dun nah na nah! Dun DAH dun nah na nah!
You wouldn't steal a car...
Dun DAH dun nah na nah!
You wouldn't steal a handbag...
Dun DAH dun nah na nah!
You wouldn't steal a movie...
Yes, you would. You probably have. You're a criminal. So am I.
An interesting coincidence: before writing this, my girlfriend and I hired a movie to watch. (It was Perfume, and it's pretty bloody good, in case you're wondering) Only, we couldn't watch it. Some quirk of DRM (digital rights management) embedded on the DVD clashed with our DVD-R player and meant that the only thing we could watch was that goddamn awful Dun DAH dun nah na nah! Dun DAH dun nah na nah! over and over. Four times we sat through it, before I violently hauled the DVD out of the player and, swearing under my breath, brought out my laptop to break the DRM and watch the movie on. It worked, but you know what would have saved me the trouble? Logging on to a torrent tracking site, finding the movie file, downloading it (maybe an hour max on my connection,) burning it to a DVD (ten mins) and watching it, free and easy, and without that maddening Dun DAH dun nah na nah! firing up every time. It's perhaps the most telling irony of the whole copyright snafu that the only way to avoid seeing an asinine anti-piracy message (because they're unskippable, cheers DRM) is to pirate your movies. It really is enough to make you want to switch. I watched a pirated movie the other day - which was given to me by a friend, not downloaded, in case anyone's interested. Lovely quality, no anti-piracy bullshit or DRM, just a movie I wanted to see, when and how I wanted to see it. It's the sort of thing I would pay for, except the inanity of the copyright industry denies me that option.
The oh-so-hip hard-rock music video featuring the girl with the world's fastest internet connection (who in their right mind would cancel a download going that fast? Come on!) has got it entirely wrong. Most of you wouldn't steal a car or a handbag or a movie. But I'd be prepared to put money on the fact that if somebody was to invent some marvellous copying machine, you would happily use it to clone off as many cars as you could. And give them to your friends. I would. And that machine does exist, at least for music and movies. It's called a computer.
There is a distinction here. Copying is not necessarily stealing. Stealing inherently involves taking something from someone and not giving it back. Copying means you get to have your cake and so does the person you took it from.
Here's something Derek Browne, the frontman of dDub, told Nexus once, as part of an interview.
Anything you'd like to say to the Hamilton fans out there?
New Zealand's full of such creative, talented people, and I would say, support NZ music. Go out and get involved. It's a real big time for NZ music right now. I think it goes in waves, in cycles, and now it's a really important time. Ten years ago, there were a quarter of the bands and gigs, and now it couldn't be more different.
How's that?
We've just become a lot more aware the quality of the bands has been a lot better, and the internet - downloading, iPods - has helped spread music around.
So you're cool with... how do I put this... piracy?
I reckon any way you can get the music out there for people to have a relationship with, it's great. Downloading is a great way to get it out, and fair enough you might be missing out on a few dollars, but if you've got your shit together and put on a good live show you've got nothing to worry about. You can't fight it, so why not work with it? The main aim is to get music into people's ears.
Copying becomes stealing when someone denies another person payment for something they created. That is where the entire notion of copyright comes from - that what you create is your property, it's up to you to decide what others can do with it. If others want to use something you made, they must pay you. Copyright, perhaps obviously, is the Right to Copy (so long as you pay up.)
I don't want to dwell too long on this - it's been dealt with by other and better informed people than me, and I'm providing links in the web version of this story to some who have done just that, at nexusmag.co.nz. But, basically, what has happened is that technology has outstripped the behemoth organisations that have staked their futures on copyright. It's been happening for a long time. Computers are copying machines. And the recording and other copyright industries have inexplicably opted to fight an incoming tide, and earn the hate of millions of people in the process. It's not people they're fighting. It's technology. They cannot win this war. In fact, by failing to see the danger they faced, by failing to embrace technology in favour of fighting, they've already lost. Things like the gratuitously flawed section 92 bit of the Copyright Amendment Act aren't even a battle. They're the beginning death spasms of a beast that grew too big, because it was too greedy. It's a correction in the marketplace of ideas.
There are signs that the artists will survive - and even thrive from - the advent of online distribution, but they will only do that by giving the internet a great big hug - wholeheartedly and trustingly, without DRM or other restrictions, like you would a friend. Because we really love the people who give us our music, our films, our books, who cultivate our culture. As reasonable people, we are only too happy to pay for the right to copy culture. It's the middlemen we despise, the ones who create nothing, who suck the creative lifeblood of others. When this beast dies, it won't be missed.
What is the solution? Well, it would be nice if it's a legal one that satisfies everyone. But with the copyright lobby still trying to undemocratically force DRM and laws like s 92 A upon us, I have to believe that they haven't learned a thing. I know what you will probably keep on doing anyway: keep pirating. It's sad, but I think that's the only thing that will show them just how badly they've gone wrong - and if they ever realise that, it'll probably be too late.
For our part, we're going to try for the middle road, the once of most justice and least resistance. Nexus is already free, but we're going to make it free-er. From now on, all content produced by Nexus will be licensed under a Creative Commons (some rights reserved) rather than a copyright licence. It might be a token gesture, but hopefully it's a step in the right direction. Keep it up. Support artists. Buy tickets to concerts. Pay for a big-screen theatre experience. Get involved in the culture and make stuff yourself. You can even help out at Nexus. Just don't ever let the lawyers and the lobbyists of the copyright industry stifle your creativity.
