I have been doing some thinking about this, and trying to explore strategies to act against the notion of piracy being seen as a populist expression- in some exploration today, I ran across this piece which is pro-pirate, and related the asymetrical warfare conducted by the Arab tribes against the Ottoman Empire in WW1- it was Lawrence of Arabia's story-

you can look at it here- /Giap/digest#21 - On The Fight Against Copyright - 26 July 2003

What struck me, is that basically, with the SOPA act, we are turning that arrangement upside down- the group here is not "The Industry" in the sense of being big money, corporations- we are now the independent artist fighting against in essence, a bit of a crime syndicate- the perception they have is that those interested in IP protection are brick and mortar industry is not at all accurate, and may very well be an exploitable weak point- If we as individuals build localized awareness of who is protected by SOPA, we may be able to mobilize many who might have no interest in downloading, or copy protection, but do have an interest in protecting the rule of law and its correct application to defend the infrastructure of the society. What we can do is work the mission in a manner the pirates cant- we can talk and spread the word openly, where they cannot- they must crouch the conversation in the realm of Constitutional protection- which is patently false and somewhat handily rebuked- we have a message of fairness. They cant touch that.
I actually had an oppertunity to do this at my church today and I think might have influenced someone who was pretty well set against it.

I know this is not music industry centric, but SOPA has a scope beyond the music industry- and we should use every bit of influence that those who are protected by it can bring to the party. The magic bullet those against SOPA are going to use is the civil rights issue- when the actually language is presented to them, They have (at least in my experience) a difficult time not supporting what the act brings to the table....

I read most of it, although not every single word.
I must say the analogy is bizarre.
I think the more the issue of piracy has to be stretched into virtually incoherent subtext, the more it seems desperate to me.

All this stuff about stifling expression and freedom is utter BS. The opposite is actually true. people who pirate and contribute nothing to the artistic community, are stifling the expression and freedom of the artistic community.
I mean I could half believe this war against the establishment and corporations controlling information, if anyone in the piracy movement was creating something themselves.
I keep coming back to punk and new wave.
In the late 70's the same establishment existed. High record prices, mainstream stadium rock dominating, the last days of disco and the excess of studio 54. Did 16 to 25 year olds illegally copy Boney M and Fleeetwood Mac albums in protest, or did they frikkin get off their butts, form their own bands, wrote their own music, created their own record labels and put on their own gigs???
There is nothing stopping 'generation next' from doing the above, but no, apparently the war on the content industry has to be waged by stealing what's not yours.

Chris- thats entirely the point- essentially the lie that has been sold, and is being bought is the exact opposite of what is really happening- The thread I have encounterd on my little Facebook misadventure has had the strongest criticism come from Journalists (one of whom actually publishes a newspaper)- film industry professionals and serious folks in media production- they keep steering back to the same mis-information. I have been quite patiently explaining, and posting snippets of the act in rebuttal to show that indeed- there is no threat in the act that extends to what might be used against a domestic site guilty of infringement today. - This is really why I keep saying the problem has nothing to do with the law- but the perception of the law-

We as an industry cannot afford to win small battles and lose the war- the perceptions of who are the real victims of piracy need to be brought to the greater public attention-

I just posted a letter requesting support from my union membership (IATSE local 700) for the letters I sent to the LA County and Burbank city council seeking formal declarations of support for anti-piracy efforts.

I always find it interesting that those who speak the loudest about the benefits of free content as a model don't actually make any investments into content that they themselves are willing to give away.

Where are all of the great works of art being financed by The Pirate Bay, Google, Limewire, Megaupload, Kazaa, Grokster, Torrent Freak, Grooveshark, Spotify, Etc, Etc....

If all these are the voices of wisdom, where is the list of artists, bands, albums, music, films, literature, production software, etc that those companies have financed and developed?

The truth is, it's just easier and much more profitable to build a business on someone else's labor than it is actually make that high risk investment for your self.

Part of the problem, Charles, as i see it;

Is that the some of the ones profiting from piracy (beyond the pirates and MegaUpload crimelords) are Masters in the realm of advertisment.
Not to mention they have more info on the public than the NSA probably does..
Though, we do have the film industry as a counterpoint, messages coming from them are learned to be discarded as "the enemy". (ie, they fit the 'Big Content' description the pirates rally around)

they [Google et al] have been data-mining every facet of peoples' lives for over a decade. They know what buttons to push to get people on their side.

Not to take away from your premise, i agree with it wholeheartedly. Just that we need to be prepared to fight a dragon, not the tabby-cat in the alley.

(i dunno if i made my point adequately.. i'm in a hurry atm, i'll bbl)

well- we are in a David and Goliath battle- the general public thinks we are part of the "Goliath"- they are very much mistaken about that.

We need to try to help them find reality in the matter.

If it means anything, I am actually trying to apply counter-insurgancy tactics to the problem- ones that actually have been proven to be successful- the problem is that they take time to actually work.

Its not a strategy which replaces anything- think of it as an attempt at a multi-dimensional response....

No doubt.
I agree with ya. I believe it's a good idea and we should all rally behind it.
If we don't stick up for ourselves, no one will.
If we don't counter the mis-information out there, no one will.


now then.... where did i leave my stone-sling thing..?

I think the tide is slowly turning. You can't fool all of the people all of the time. I'm really encouraged by the user posts that are popping up over at digitalmusicnews.com, hypebot.com and other blog sites.

Two years ago anyone who said anything about anti-piracy as an "out of touch dinosaur who didn't learn how to adapt and evolve". Anyone who was against Spotify "just doesn't understand the landscape for music has changed".

Now I read with interest an almost equal amount of post from young musicians who have become aware of the web 2.0 lie, that piracy is NOT promotion, and spotify is as bad a land grab as any has ever seen.

Musicians if anything have an audience by definition. As more musicians and professionals use the their platform to counter the disinformation talking points with our own, the better off we are.

One of the most impactful things we can do is a top 10 list of talking points to counter all of the disinformation...

see here:

Music piracy - ten inconvenient truths

and here:

those are both useful, but we really need something much more to the point for the non-downloader. Basically something that clearly enuncuates that SOPA doesn't impact civil rights and information censorship beyond what is already considered illegal. The biggest fight is not going to be from actual Copyright abusers it will be from Teachers, and people who think they are basically denying Corporate abuse of the awesome proletarian Internet-

its all message and its all propaganda. If their lies are directly and succinctly challenged and shown to be baseless, the listeners will get it....However that crowd so desperately believes that Apple and Google are the Corporate version of Ghandi and MLK that they have no idea of the reality of what either is doing.

true dat - points well made.

Google Behind the Numbers Explains the KAFKA Amendment to PROTECT IP

^interesting graphic.

that graphic is a total win......

man- now thats what I'm talkin' about.

I've posted this before:
The Beast File: Google ('HUNGRY BEAST', ABC TV) - YouTube

It was made by a popular youth oriented tv show in 2010.
Tech changes fast, so it's probably well out of date now, but when I saw it I was pretty alarmed, and I think that was the aim of the video makers.

great stuff- I just added that to my Facebook wall.... thanks for bring that up again Chris.

A company that talks about free information owns hundreds of patents, and is investing in DNA research, presumably to own a piece of that too.
Frightening.