2003 Soap Box Archives

Downloading From My Point Of View 11/03/03

The music industry associations are gearing up to sue people for
downloading music from the internet which in my view is downright
silly. Not that I’m for downloading music for free, I just think that
it’s an impossible approach to the problem, and it is a problem.

I think rather that lining the already gilded pockets of trial lawyers,
the money would be best spent and the cause would be better served by
trying to educate the public on the ramifications of
this pandemic internet crisis which is rapidly developing worldwide.

Let me try to apply the reality to the life of someone who does not
make their living in the music business. Let’s just suppose that you
owned a small convenience store and every week a group of people would
come in and grab a pickup truck load of your merchandise and walk out
the door without paying for it and there was absolutely nothing you
could do about it.

Suppose you went to a bank every payday to cash your check and as you
stood there counting your money a stranger would rush by and grab a
couple of twenties out of your hand and disappear into thin air. What
if he showed up like clockwork every first and fifteenth?

The same analogy would apply to the downloading of music for free. The
music belongs to the people who created it. The only difference is that
music is not a tangible thing, you can’t hold a song in your hand and
protect it. And to tell you the truth neither can it be protected from
downloading off the internet. Somebody will always be able to come up
with a program to defeat the safe guards which are put in place.

For that the industry is going to have to rely mainly on the decency of
the public, and I feel that, after being properly informed about what
is going on, a lot of the public will respond favorably.

You see, when you download music for free you are taking the profit out
of making records, and believe me when the record companies stop making
money they will stop making new records. Can you imagine walking into
a record store and being able to buy nothing but old titles?

And I know that a lot of you think that downloading songs for free is
just taking a few cents out of some rich rock star’s pocket. And even
if that were right, which it isn’t, it’s not just that rich rock star
you’re cheating.

Because while music is not a tangible thing, a cd is and has to be
manufactured along with the packaging and all the things which goes
into bringing a cd to the market, which has to be done by a truck and a
truck driver. How about these people? Are they not being hurt by free
downloading?

I blame the music industry for a lot of the misunderstanding which
exists between the business and the public. The massive downloading of
music from the internet has been inevitable for a long time and instead
of getting on the bandwagon and making affordable downloads available
to the public their response has been to practically ignore the
situation until Pandora’s box was already open, and suing 13 year olds
is never going to close it again.

While I know that there will always be some people who will take
advantage of free downloading, I feel that most of the American public
are decent folks and will recognize something which could threaten the
availability of the music that we all love.

Pray for our Troops

What do you think?

God Bless America,

Charlie Daniels