Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
User Journal

Journal Surak's Journal: Cool beans! I'm gonna be famous! :) 18

Journal by Surak

I just got interviewed by Ted Bridis, staff writer for the Associated Press! He said he saw my post on /.. I think he was probably referring to this one (which was +5 Interesting, but got modded all the way down to 1, mostly due to overrated mods. Ahem.) Here's his e-mail:

RE: Saw ur post to /. re RIAA


From:
"Ted Bridis" (email deleted) (The Associated Press)

To:
"'Surak" (email deleted)

Date:
Today 18:15:01

Well, we could do this e-mail.

Is (deleted) your name or an alias? (Sorry, we have to ask).

Will the RIAA's announcement today affect your use, in any way, of any of
the p2p networks? Do you offer any copyright material for uploading? Will
you, b/c of this, disable uploading or uninstall your software?

Any other thoughts on the RIAA's strategy?

Ted Bridis, staff writer
The Associated Press
2021 K St., NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20006
(phone numbers deleted)
http://bridis.net/contact

I deleted his e-mail and mine so we don't get spammed. :)

Anyway, here's my response to his questions:

On Wednesday 25 June 2003 18:15, you wrote:
> Well, we could do this e-mail.
>
> Is (deleted) your name or an alias? (Sorry, we have to ask).

Real name. I would prefer if you not use my real name in the story as it
would be detrimental to my employment situation.

> Will the RIAA's announcement today affect your use, in any way, of any of
> the p2p networks? Do you offer any copyright material for uploading? Will
> you, b/c of this, disable uploading or uninstall your software?

> Any other thoughts on the RIAA's strategy?

No, it's not likely that I'll change my use of P2P networks. For me, it's an
act of civil disobedience. Let's face it. Large distributed networks like
the Internet have changed the face of intellectual property. Music and
movies will continue to be shared whether or not they sue a few people. It's
like speeding. You can't catch everyone. The media companies should focus
on changing their business model.

Look at Apple's new iTunes service. Despite being minimally DRM-enabled, it's
still possible to share the music on P2P services. I think Apple knew that.
Sell songs for $0.99 instead of making me buy the whole album, especially if
your'e going to market a bunch of one-hit wonders to me. You know that 80s
song, "Come on Eilieen" by Dexy's Midnight Runners. How many people even
KNOW who Dexy's Midnight Runners are? How many people know what other work
they've done? Virtually no one. But the tune was remade in 1997 and it's
success as a top hit proves that the song had popularity, but the band
didn't. That's one of the biggest reasons why P2P networks exist. People
want what they want. Give it to them instead force-feeding stuff down their
throats.

And that's another thing. The RIAA is monopoly. It's a trust. They know
that people will buy the music *they* want to promote from a profitability
standpoint (one-hit wonders and boy bands that naively gave away all their
rights). But peer-to-peer networks change the game. It puts the listener in
control. They can pick what they like and what they don't and they don't
have to have it shoved down their throats.

Most people I know who use P2P use it to try music out, and then they do, as
in my case, go out and buy it. What we don't buy is due to the RIAA's price
gouging and poor marketing tactics. I don't know anyone who has a Dexy's
Midnight Runners album. But I know lots of people who have "Come on Eileen"
in their MP3 collection. These people wouldn't have bought the album for
$10, $15, or $20, because the rest of their stuff sucks. No revenue lost
really.

Let's see if it makes it to a "real" news story. :)
Did I sound like a babbling idiot? Do you think he'll use it? Does it even matter? :) C'mon be honest!

UPDATE: I think that this is the story. It looks like I didn't make it in guys. I suppose the guy thought I was real whack job or something. Either that or he just ran out of space. :) I dunno. He never e-mailed me back or anything...

This discussion was created by Surak (18578) for Friends and Friends of Friends only, but now has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Cool beans! I'm gonna be famous! :) More

Cool beans! I'm gonna be famous! :)

Comments Filter:
  • You're certainly babbling (and had some grammatical errors too), but you raise a bunch of very good and important points. I hope very much that they quote you, because I think what you have to say is certainly worth sharing.

    And that's it from me.

    Well, maybe not. On a _completely_ different note, I've got some mod points to spare, so if you want some injustices fixed, just point me to some links (I will _only_ mod things up, never down [long story]).

    • Nah, don't worry about it. :) I'm not a karma whore or anything. :) If you think my post (linked in the JE) is WORTHY of the mod points, go ahead and mod it, but I don't want anyone to mod me just 'cause they're doing me a favor. :)

      • It's not doing you a favor. If you look at some of my journal entries, you'll see that I've always got more mod points than I know what to do with. So I actively go around and try to fix modding injustices.

        In other words, feel free to point things out to me (they can be shitty mods by anyone, not necessarily mods to your comments or even friends' comments) and I'll take action to correct it.

    • Oh, and thanks for the honesty. I was in too much of a hurry, and I was nervous even. And it was an e-mail interview! I don't get it. Why should I be nervous? It's the friggin' media. Who cares? They'd never let me on Good Morning America, that's for sure.

  • I was interviewed by a local television station several times during the Internet boom, and it can be quite fun. The difficult part is watching the media company thrash your words into something unrecognizable. It's quite likely your long-winded answer will be abridged to something like:

    Jimmy Surak, a member of the popular website Slashdot and self-professed fan of Dexy's Midnight Runners, believes that stealing music via P2P networks is an act of civil disobedience, and further explained that recordin

  • ...for this story, I too worry that your thought out (and a bit rambling :)response will be butchered, but as long as the true guts of the message get across and aren't construed...thats great, these **AA dopes need to hear this, and the "public" need to hear something other than their "piracy funds terrorists" type of bullshit.
    • Yup. I found it too right as you were posting that. Weird huh?

      I think this is the story he was going writing for. I didn't make it in. Oh, well. :)

  • I went and downloaded a bunch more music.

    Now if I could just figure out a way to offshore my server.

    What other industry holds its customers in such contempt?
    • The software industry? Ok, rephrase .... Microsoft? SCO? And do they count as industries? ;)
      • The software industry? Ok, rephrase .... Microsoft? SCO? And do they count as industries?

        Microsoft might count as an industry unto itself, but SCO barely registers as a member of the software industry.

        That said, while the software industry as a rule treats its customers poorly they don't show the utter contempt that the RIAA does. At least in software you have to more or less give the customer what he wants.

        What's the difference between Microsoft and the RIAA? Microsoft uses lube.
        • Yeah, we use Microsoft stuff at work for some of our stuff, Unix for other stuff. If Office and Windows weren't meeting our needs, we'd be the first to go elsewhere. Problem is Microsoft *dictates* what some of those needs are, like interoperability with our customers, and they end up being *more* important than the other needs. So yeah, Microsoft stiffs you like the RIAA, but Microsoft uses lube. That's a fair assessment. :)

  • ...that I saw this and wanted to let you know that people are reading. :)

Slashdot Top Deals

Writing software is more fun than working.

Close