Dragonslaying 101: a Modest Proposal Regarding Media Conglomerates

Unless you have your head plunged deep in the sand, you know by
now that the media industries are afraid of the information age.
In the form of the MPIAA and RIAA (sometimes known sarcastically
and collectively as the MAFIAA, though I prefer *IAA myself)
they have publicly and continuously stomped down very hard
indeed on customers. Often they manage to at least intimidate and
inconvenience if not outright attack innocents. They are now even
resorting to attempting to intimidate larger universities and other
hotbeds of content thievery into doing the work of identifying and
serving notice on people deemed worthy of suing. Even now, a
completely legit and legal consumer cannot watch a movie or
listen to a song without a propagandized message from the *IAA
that is intended to make them feel guilty while being completely
innocent. In return, activists and even regular folks are demanding
that the government "do something" to redefine the copyrights and
rein in the conglomerates. The debate is hashed and rehashed.
The response by individuals ranges from apathy ("I don't use file
sharing so it doesn't affect me" at falsehood BTW) to outright
rebellion. ("Screw them. I am copying and pirating because they
have pissed me off" which I feel just lends the *IAA more ammo
to feed into their campaigns)

On the Razors Edge
The whole issue is balanced precariously and could fall either way.
One law change from the federal government or a ruling by the high
courts could tip the landscape in either direction and have us living
in a world of close scrutiny and fear from content companies or in
one move, nearly erase an entire industry. Neither of which is a good
thing, in my opinion. But I do have to consider this -
The old saw about "Never engage in a war of words with an opponent
who buys ink by the barrel" applies here; The *IAAs buy lawyers by
the busload. This means that no individual and few organizations will
be able to wage any meaningful war with them. Likewise, they buy
politicians and lobbyists by the bushel as well.
Were I a betting man, I would wager that the legal landscape is
going to tip into the *IAA's favor. This means that the content world
will become more and more restrictive and more and more punitive
to violators whether consciously violating or just accidentally doing
so.

What Should the *IAA do?
If I were running those organizations, I would be actively seeking
ways to make the content easier for customers to access than it is
to steal it. I would be looking for ways to get many smaller payments
than one big one. I would look for ways to make it easy for unknown
content makers to become known; some of the most popular content
places on the internet are that popular because they let people
explore and spread gems by word of mouth. I would be examining
ways to revisit licensing in ways that gets income but still allows for
exposure and delighted customers. I mean really...do you actually
think that the latest Britney clone danceteria ho-fest song is going to
be all that valuable in 70 years? Okay maybe someone in a couple
generations is going to find some deeper meaning in "Oops I did it
again" and raise her muse to the heights of Beethoven...but I kind
of doubt it. One thing is very clear...the old business model will not
work no matter how big a hammer you use. But then in looking at
who runs the *IAA, it is obvious why they dont think like I do...they
average 20 years my senior and I am a comparable antique to most
of the biggest media consumers - the kids.

What Should Artists Do?
Stay the hell away from the *IAA. There is not one single excuse for
teaming up with any of their member companies. None. Not one. If
you do a tiny bit of research, you will see just how much of a reaming
an artist gets in a contract. If you devote just a little time, you can
deliver your content to millions more people than ever before. The
tools are all right there, use them. And the *IAA are just doing their
best to alienate an entire generation of your customers. Guilt by
association is a bitch.

What Should We do?
Create. Yup. Create content. Tons of it. The big media companies
are starving for it. They need it. Desperately. The internet and
other communication media have exploded their infrastructures
geometrically in just the last 10 years. Yeah..10 years. A decade
ago I was still poking along the web on a dial up modem.
Broadband was ludicrously expensive. Cell phone media? just
a dream. 500 channels of tv? not even. The capacity to deliver
content has far outstripped the content available to fill it. They
NEED our content. We can create anything we want. Any content
we want. And we can share it all we want.
So get doing. Write, Act, Play, Compose, Doodle and share it.
Who cares if it is junk? Maybe someone else will tweak it into
something awesome.

And Then?
License it. AFter creating your works, license it. It isnt generally
known that as soon as you create something, you have a copyright.
Now proving the copyright and successfully enforcing that
copyright in a court is a whole other ball of wax. And it is is easy
to trip over the rules and end up opening your stuff to being
snatched up by someone you dont want to. BUT you can license it
under one of the Creative Commons licenses and still retain the
kind of control you like. And licenses can be combined to suit
your needs. While I havent heard of a lot of legal activity based
on the CC license and I admit I need to do more research;
which I am doing as I am considering the CC for my own humble
writings. However, it does seem to be a good option. And one of
the licenses allows people to play with and use your stuff...while
denying anyone the ability to make money off your effort without
getting your permission.

This may well be the best way to harm the *IAA and other content
goliaths available. Imagine if everyone started creating, playing and
sharing but not letting the *IAA have any of it? Imagine how tasty it
would feel to serve a DMCA notice on Capitol records for using your
image, lyrics or music? Look everyone wants to make it big. Not one
single artist or artisan doesnt harbor a fantasy of being the next Elvis
or Da Vinci. But that doesnt mean you have to hide your stuff and
hope to suck up to enough suits to maybe get a contract that feeds
you while stealing your soul. Hell no. If you get a million people to
download a song at a half a buck a pop...you will have a better deal
than *they* will give you. If you find a song of yours sampled or used
in a big hit on the billboard top ten....you can still have shared it
with a billion people but *IAA will have to pony up.

In conclusion
DO: Create. Make new stuff. It doesnt matter if it is good. Just make
it and share it. Hell look at William Hung, famous 15 for awful
singing. If he can get away with it...you can too. Write it, sing it, play
it, act it, record it, share it. The industries want this stuff and if you
have created it, you get to choose whether or not they get to use it.

DO: Share it. You can share your stuff and still own it. Let others
play with your stuff. Play with others stuff. Do we really *need*
another Metallica CD? Nah. I'd rather listen to something new that
blows my socks off.

DO license it. Put your stamp on it. Let them all know you made it
and you own it. Anyone can play (or not) but no one gets to abuse
it without your say so.

DO NOT: sign away your ownership. Recently MSNBC put out a
call for motorcycle pictures. That sounds cool; until you read the
license agreement that is. In a nutshell, when you upload a pic,
they take complete exclusive control of it and can use it for as long
as they like for whatever purpose they like and even have the
rights to monetize it. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? The deal goes like
this: I give them a picture that I took (and I take lots of bike pics)
for free. They can use it on a billboard, t-shirts, tattoos and
charge a mint for those and I get squat. AND I have no control in
*how* the image is presented. Meaning they could use the image
as an illustration portraying motorcycles in a negative light and
I would have no ability to retract the image. Screw that. And there
are also calls for cat,dog, March Madness Fan, Spring Break,
Vintage Car, news, cluttered room pics too. No. Sorry. Maybe if
you had used a one-time use release with some approval
control I might have considered it. But no way should I or anyone
else be grist for your business. You already got ads in front of my
eyeballs and now you want me to build your content base for you?
hell no.

They want our content. We the Creators of Content have to
take control of our creations.