"Will Ronnie Van Zant's estate come after me
for playing 'Sweet Home Alabama' a few times off YouTube?" Well, most likely
not; but yes, it is most likely illegal to even play music videos from YouTube -- if the
song is played that the original artist made famous. It's protected
under copyright law and although clicking the video itself is not illegal, by
doing so, you technically become a "distributor" of this copyrighted material, which is an
illegal act. That's how the law and the Internet work.
But back to the real problem. Google, the parent company of YouTube, estimates that over 200 million people in the world are using MP3-converter companies to create pirated music. And Google was quoted in Torrent Freak that every one of these users is in violation of Google's terms of service and will be sued by Google. The Torrent Freak article appeared nearly two years ago, so these legal consequences seem to be on a real fast track, right? But 200 million users is an astronomical figure of lawbreakers. Public-relations campaigns have already been in the wheelhouse, with one generating more than 1 million signatures advocating keeping YouTube-to-MP3 conversion companies in existence (ibid: http://www.ibtimes.com/downloading-music-youtube-legal-best-youtube-mp3-converter-sites-are-often-shut-down-799693).
Here's where it gets really funky and sort of unfair, though. If you play a YouTube video of a garage band in Wisconsin who covered "Sweet Home Alabama" filmed at a sparsely attended, outside carnival, well, it's perfectly fine to click and play. The band members will most likely be overjoyed that you enjoy their rendition of what's now become an American anthem. And now the viewership count on their cover has skyrocketed up to 322 views!
"Van Halen, Aerosmith, and ZZ Top are already like corporations. Why in the hell should I buy their records! After all the years I spent my hard-earned cash on all those pricey CDs? And those chintzy cassettes they sold for as much as a full tank of gas back then? Why shouldn't I download?" - So although many know that computerized downloading of music may fall into some nebulous gray area of illegality, there's nothing really immoral or unethical about graying out with the nifty freedoms that the Internet has created. Hell, there might even be something chivalrous and noble about it all.
*******
If the music industry wants to put a stop to piracy, it needs to become a lot more aggressive than it's been in the past. Filing civil lawsuits against the latest YouTube-to-MP3-player downloading company just isn't going to do it. There will always be new upstarts and it will be an unending war, not a battle. A comprehensive advertising campaign that will overshadow Flo and the GEICO lizard must become a top priority for all members of the music industry -- with each musical genre richly represented. All sorts of rock & rollers, hip-hop artists, rappers, pop acts, country musicians, punk and Indie bands, R & B greats, along with all other voices and sounds behind the melodies we love -- from all ages; old, young, and in-between - must take a very proactive stance against piracy.
Listen: These kids oftentimes don't listen to their parents, teachers, coaches, bus drivers, or crossing guards but they'll normally listen to you folks. Did you ever think of that? If they'll spend hundreds of dollars of their allowance to see your concert when you come to town, don't you think you have some clout with these children and young people? Did you ever consider taking out a comprehensive advertising blitz aimed at piracy? Did you ever think of sitting down together, in groups of twos or threes, and explain in a series of televised ads why music theft is such a big deal? If you don't need the money, at least do it for your young fans. They need to realize downloading copyrighted material just isn't copacetic. It's illegal, immoral, unethical, all too easy, and very sleazy. And perhaps most importantly, it's just bad for their emotional growth. Music piracy has become the highway robbery of our cyberspace no-man's land.
And did you ever consider that you're being
outdone by some 12-year-old kid who's using his older cousin's hand-me-down
PC to cut and paste all the work you've spent years on perfecting? Then he's
putting it into an MP3 file and later burning off CDs for his school chums. Consider the source - you're not being outmatched by some Iceman computer genius but by a world of kids!
Can't the music industry, with all its power, money, clout, and genius, come up
with something that will make the MP3 look like great-grandma's Victrola? Can't
the music trade do some nifty R&D research and come up with something
better than the MP3? And can't your execs and music-label owners collude into
getting some heavy-duty patent on the thing? And don't forget, right away, you've
got to start working on developing something that will replace this thing once
the patent is obsolete. Remember this so we don't have another MP3 train wreck
revisited in your industry. And can't you market this product with all sorts of
other irresistible kid music candy like tee-shirts, hoodies, bobble heads,
caps, capes, sun visors, sun glasses, bumper stickers, pennants, and a zillion types of neat widgets
and wuzzles? You might even be able to make a profit, who knows! It's worth a try. This "free milk from a cow" scenario's got to go.
Instead of going after the MP3 companies that keep sprouting up, more aggressive measures must be taken against the sources providing this free music. If the legalities involved with outlawing sock-puppets from downloading video streams onto platforms like Google's YouTube are too daunting, then some kind of side attack must be taken, like making it essential for playing an entire three-minute commercial before the three-and-a-half minute main course starts strumming away. For the life of me, I don't know how some sock-puppet can download a video stream on such an Internet platform with such impunity and have these videos collect hundreds of thousands - if not millions - of hits over several years. If this isn't blatant copyright infringement, I don't know what is, and who's getting paid by those advertisements before these video streams begin? How does this Pay-to-Click work? Who gets paid? How do they get paid? Who pays who and how? And who's monitoring the viewership meters on these streams? Fellas and ladies, the days of the trusty old 45 record are gone and they're not coming back. Some collateral damage control should be in order! Cyberspace communism is upon us and if you don't want to lose your hides on these crazy Internet platforms, you've got to start planning something big to stop it! Take it from a writer who's spent far too long writing in the small-press market: Art for art's sake gets awfully old awfully quick. Writing for bylines and exposure is nowheresville but that's what's driving the literary market these days, with the death of print magazines. And if you care about the integrity of your industry -- the music industry -- and you don't want commercial music to go the way of the commercial magazine, some brainstorming on your part has to become a lot more rampant and rabid. The future prosperity for the music industry's rising stars is at stake , so a good hard look at the Internet and what it's doing to your budding new talents has to become much more of a high priority than what it's been in the past decade or so.
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