Anti-Piracy (Part Five)

      Songwriting is where it is at in the music industry, but if piracy continues there will be less and less songwriters in the business which means not as much fresh music.  These reasons alone are enough to pass the PROTECT-IP bill.  The writing on the wall is evident.  There is no gray area as to why the music industry is suffering.  If the record labels did not have to depend on their top 15 percent to support the business then there would be a wider variety of music.  The record labels cannot find new talent and develop the new talent when they are losing money to pirates.  Artist need to be developed and seasoned over time and this does require that the record label takes a loss on the investment into new talent.  It is just how it works.  If copyright infringement was brought under control then there would be more money to develop new talent.  This means that there would be job creation and retention in the music industry.  Recording engineers would be able to stay busy recording and songwriters would get more publishing deals which would lead to fresh music.  This would make the consumer happy and he or she would buy more legal downloads.

       The independent artist would also have a chance at profiting with their business.  As the independent artist looks at the music industry right now it does not look good to pursue anything.  The independent artist does not have a name for themselves so it would be next to impossible to tour and sell merchandise.  Putting songs up on MySpace or Facebook is not going to do much for aspiring artist.  Finding someone to financially back them is what all artist need.  Again, record labels cannot become that financial backer if the record labels themselves are broke because pirates sell the music illegally.

       Copyright infringement has stolen billions and billions of dollars from the film, music and software industries.  Why would anyone be opposed to the PROTECT-IP bill or anyone of the others that have been passed over the years?  Songwriters and musicians have sued each other for illegally using their song.  Vanilla Ice comes to mind, MC Hammer stealing “Super Freak”.  Why not just own up to it and pay the royalties.  That is the right thing to do.  Anyone can record any song if they pay the royalties.  You can use up to 8 seconds of someone else’s song and put it into your song.  George Clinton did this a lot.  He would sample other songs and record those samples into his and then sell those songs and make money.  There are laws that say you can record and use other people’s songs.  The artist needs to stay within the law.  When a download is sold everyone involved gets a cut of the money.  It is usually 50/50 split.  Pirates would be better off following the law and making the money rather than create huge losses for industries that depend on royalties and sales of merchandise.

       I believe if you do the crime you should do the time.  Film companies are suffering astronomical losses because of a society that wants to watch movies for free instead of paying for them.  People’s lives are at steak with all of this piracy going on.  Even if you are not a creative type of person and you just enjoy the music and movies you should support these bills help get them passed into law.  If everyone was to be held accountable in this arena then there would be probably a lot of people in jail and a healthier film and music industry.  Piracy is like a cancer that won’t go away.  The PROTECT-IP bill would help level the playing field and give these industries some breathing room and time to regroup.

        I take this personal because I am an aspiring artist who is trying to make a name for myself and create a livable income doing it.  Record labels are not as willing to invest into artist like me because I will be a lot of work in the beginning not making them a dime. The social media sites are ways for people to hear your music but they will normally stream your music and not buy it.  It seems you have to give everything away for free to get people to notice you.  For people like me maybe if I was to let pirates distribute my music I would reach a bigger fan base.  It is not worth the consequences of fines and jail time.  Besides the law is the law and no matter what you should follow the law.  Copyright infringement laws need to be set in place to protect intellectual property, period.  As a society we need creative people to create and give them all opportunities to succeed.  Musicians, film makers, inventors, software writers and so on.  If people start becoming disinterested in these professions then we will see a stagnant world with thieves winning and honest people losing out.  Why should we let thieves run rampant when there is a solution, or at least a way of combating this huge problem of pirates on the internet?