the wolves are in

[david turgeon <david.t@xxxxxxxx>]

the wolves are in
by david turgeon

were it not that these comparisons are usually too dodgy to be all that
telling, it would be tempting to see shawn fanning as the ultimate
screwed-up artist.  the author of an extremely popular, if fairly
limited piece of software, a gadget called napster allowing computers
around the world to setup a backdoor to their music collection for any
stranger to suck into ~ fanning pretends that his invention (really a
dumbed down version of an otherwise powerful technology, file sharing)
was for the good of humankind, & he may just mean it.

after all, the music he talks about _is_ free.  it is bombarded from
commercial radio & video stations alike all day; in a systematic,
throughly planned manner, focusing on material exploiting every aspect
of human gullibility: proven suites of chords, pathetic choruses,
cheese-coated (if not senselessly, unintelligently violent) lyrics which
comprise what we know as "muzak".  the marketing surrounding these is
inhabited with so much hype that anyone in their right mind can be
forgiven for thinking they are entitled to a copy of it.  honest
marketing would focus on getting the music to the people who care; what
we have currently is an operation of mass-addiction aimed at turning
anyone, willing or not, into a music buyer.  & as a matter of fact,
brute force as it is, it only succeeds moderately, but sufficiently for
the corporations operating under that principle to reward their
investors with considerable amounts of sheer loot (as in the famous
phrase "moral fibre of common looters", sarcasm intended).

but that would be the subject of another article altogether (& i have
written my share on the topic).  the point is that for all the
"generosity" behind fanning's perceived intents, he has managed to
shoot, if not himself, then something a lot more crucial, straight in
the foot.

napster inc. is not an ordinary company.  it has decided to play with
the toys of the corporations, & that makes it a pseudo-corporation
itself.  pseudo- because it doesn't generate nearly as much revenue or
employment, but -corporation because these are the rules it goes by; a
voracious demolition game.

if all goes as planned, napster inc. will be bought out by some
conglomerate or another.  they will be digested & used as fuel to
further a corporation's lifespan.  the same had happened to netscape, as
soon as the then-mosaic team decided to eschew a grassroots, highly
deontological approach to venture into the corporate playground; a few
years, & they are bought out by aol.  or winamp: high profile, but
otherwise competent piece of software, followed with obvious delusions
of grandeur: once again, to become but an artifact in steve case's war
chest.

if file-sharing is really the wake-up call for paleolithic record
companies still giving stock to notions such as artistic slavery,
intellectual property, music publishing & the likes, then that's not so
dramatic: there is a certain irony in seeing the music distribution
system turned on its head, like hearing of a junkie who finds the secret
entrance to the methadone factory.  but once past this amusing
observation, we are left to realize that a wake-up call is just that; &
napster inc. certainly has yet to wake up itself.  never have the issues
surrounding the mistreatment of recording artists been addressed
seriously by the company.  they have acquired a high profile from
grassroots hype & simple marketing (not to mention a simple premise that
smacked of easy sell) but have throughly refused to accept the
responsibility such popularity (i.e. power) entailed.

& i would just shrug it & say it's a shame & so what (never been too
much of a fan of napster to begin with, & yes, i do like my favorite
artists to get paid).  but the irresponsible actions of napster inc.,
coupled with the impertinent behaviour of the riaa & the corporations it
represents (those who still think the association represents _artists_
would do well to check their sources...), effectively produced a breach
in the cage: & not a small one.  napster, being a pseudo-corporation, is
in fact fodder for corporate breeding.  it made itself visible, popular,
& thus well-targeted for assimilation.

hence, the problem is not that napster got screwed up; it's that they're
helping screwing up the idea they were supposedly going for as well.  as
they constantly pull the mediatic cover for themselves, they are making
it all the more difficult for true grassroots projects (the only known
alternative to corporative greed) to take momentum & affirm their
principles to a broad audience.  we are now led to believe that napster
was the only way there, & with them out of the way, we watch with
increasing resignation as the wolves gaze at the breach.

file-sharing poster boy & head of the gnutella development team gene kan
may just be the next one to welcome the wolves in.  that the file system
they are working on is "decentralized" is an interesting technical
detail, but a detail nonetheless: just recently he was quoted talking of
watermarking sound files with all sorts of tools suitable for
corporative assimilation: targeted advertising, stealthlike data
collecting, or pay-by-play payment systems.  once again, his intents may
be thought to be genuine.  but whatever his ideals, he is doing nothing
but giving credentials to an obsolete, worthless, yet extremely powerful
system of mass-intoxication.  & we wonder why they get all this
attention...

~~

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~ david