QotW3: Is a balance possible between content creators and public good?

Introduction

Decades ago when you heard the news about your favourite artists making new releases, what you would have done was to save up and wait patiently. Today, people look for advance promos through bit torrents, and sample the entire album months before the actual release. Those who still possess a tinge of integrity in them choose to buy upon the official release of the record while the rest stick to what they already have, despite knowing the possible consequences that they might have to bear should they be prosecuted by the authority.

Metallica, in their early days, used to encourage their fans to make bootlegs and spread it everywhere to everyone in the underground. Then, after commercializing and selling out, they complained about piracy and sued Napster. Thus began the war against piracy, which suddenly created a worldwide awareness among the public about issues regarding copyright and ownership of intellectual property. On the other hand, Killswitch Engage did nothing when their signature riff in their hit song “End of Heartache” was ripped off in its exact, identical format by As I Lay Dying for their own hit song “94 Hours” (although both songs are ultimately very different from each other). With such polarized reactions among artists, one would wonder just how much do copyright really matter to artists. Is it still a form of protection or just a barrier against possible expansion of creativity?

Copyright vs. Filesharing: Problems and Issues

It is indeed true that copyright has helped artists in various ways. It “encourages the creation and mass dissemination of a wide variety of works” [Litman, 2003], and that it “allows creators to benefit financially from their creations which should provide them an incentive to continue creating” [Ovalle, 2005]. However, the table has since been turned now that copyright is actually limiting what it is supposed to magnify. From my own personal experience as a musician, this particular issue has been quite a hassle. Whenever a new song is written, I will have to make sure that they are totally original and none of the riffs in the songs sound like something other bands have played. It is especially irritating when you know that you came up with those tunes first, but because someone else beat you to submitting their work for official release, the rights are given to them and as a result, you have to modify your work, hence, affecting the original quality of it. There are only so many notes, scales and patterns in music and the fact that we belong to a new generation of musicians, it simply does not help. A lot of what musicians do today is in fact a recycle of what had been done by the pioneers in the past. Creativity no longer guarantees originality like it used to.

Besides that, doing cover songs has also become yet another problem. The reason behind doing cover songs is to pay homage and tribute to that band who is an inspiration to the artist involved, and in doing so, the artist who is doing the cover is actually helping to promote the band that is being covered. By right, the artist should be the one being paid. Not only that this does not happen, but instead, the covering artist will have to pay royalties to the band being covered.


As of 2004, the number of lawsuits pertaining to illegal downloading has actually reached up to 4,208 cases [Lohmann, 2004]. “The campaign appears to have hit its stride, with the Recording Industry Association of America announcing roughly 500 new suits each month” [Lohmann, 2004]. Are consumers really to blame for breaching of law concerning intellectual property? I am afraid not. A lot of record labels have the tendency to release promo versions of albums that have yet to be released for distributors so that their customers could sample them. They should have known better that once promo versions are released, there are bound to be people ripping them into their computers and then uploading them for filesharing. It is a risk that record labels should have taken into account instead of complaining about it after they discover that people are downloading the promos online, be it via P2P or bit torrents. Besides, the use of filesharing may not necessarily be damaging to the music industry. For the very least, it can actually be of help to artists, especially underground ones who are less known by the public. “Filesharing allows users to learn about music they would not otherwise be exposed to. In the filesharing community, it is a common practice to browse the files of other users and discuss music in file server chat rooms. This learning may actually promote new sales.” [Strumpf & Oberholzer-Gee, 2005] This is in fact very true. As an underground musician myself, I know exactly how powerful the filesharing community is. A lot of the people in these communities are not only listeners but fellow musicians themselves. Through this particular channel, we can actually form networks with other bands all over the world and market our music more efficiently. There has also been cases whereby unsigned artists land themselves a record deal from labels who happen to find their music on filesharing communities; a deal that they would not have gotten otherwise. Hence, as we can see, filesharing could prove to be beneficial to a certain extent.

Possible Solutions

As the saying goes, if you cannot beat them, join them. Instead of letting filesharing be a nemesis to the recording industry, why not make it work for us? Since musicians and labels hold the rights to these intellectual properties, they can make the initiative and be the rightful host of the files. Make use of filesharing as a cost-free opportunity for marketing bands and their records, and instead of releasing the entire album and providing listeners with an excuse not to buy, they can release one-minute long samples of each song available in the albums. This way listeners can get a rough idea of what to expect from the release, and it works very well as a bait or temptation for consumers to buy if they really like what they have heard.

In a survey that I have conducted for a previous module, the result has shown that more than 75% of the 50 participants resort to downloading and filesharing because they find prices of records too costly. What labels can do to eliminate this problem is to go digital. Cut down on pressing of CDs and other outputs and instead bank on online sales. The average price of a song available for download on iTunes is not more than 99 cents – a very affordable price for most people. If labels were more willing to capitalize on online marketing, it would have saved them a lot of trouble. There are technologies available that can tag mp3 files so that they cannot be distributed illegally through filesharing. This way, downloading can be made legal and the convenience it gives to consumers is a bonus.

Education is such a powerful tool, and yet not many are making use of it. A lot of people out there are in fact unaware of a lot of things to do with copyright and the applicable laws. What we need to do is to make sure that the mass gets the necessary information needed to be made known. An increased awareness of how intellectual property functions will be able to decrease the tendency to breach the applicable laws since people can no longer make use of their ignorance or negligence as an excuse.

Conclusion

In this competitive age where everyone is copying and technological advancement has brought disadvantages to content creators, one would have to be flexible and think of solutions as according to situations. With the above-mentioned measures, it is highly possible for us to accommodate both the interests of content creators and public good.





References

Litman, Jessica, "Sharing and Stealing" (November 23, 2003). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=472141 or DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.472141. Retrieved on February 3, 2007 from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=472141#PaperDownload


von Lohmann, F. (2004, Sept 9). Is Suing Your Customers a Good Idea?. Retrieved February 3, 2007, from Law.com Web site: http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1095434496352


Ovalle, C (2005). Why Copyright?. Retrieved February 3, 2007, from An Introduction to Copyright Web site: http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/~i312co/2.php


Strumpf.K and Felix Oberholzer-Gee. (2005). The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales: An Empirical Analysis [Electronic Version], 2-5, 35-37. Retrieved on February 3, 2007 from http://www.unc.edu/%7Ecigar/papers/FileSharing_June2005_final.pdf.