computerlady's Journal: Have a Sneaker-Napster Christmas

The music industry is hoping that some big hits in the last quarter will help them salvage what has been a disastrous year for sales. They are counting on the Christmas season to take them home for the holidays, back to the good old days when they had the customer, who only wanted one favorite song, by the short hairs.

I would never, of course, advocate, encourage, or commit piracy. I have been a long-time defender of the concept of intellectual property rights and respect for copyright laws, speaking and writing about it in local media. To this day I've never downloaded music illegally, nor participated in sharing ripped music.

But I couldn't sleep last night and my mind just wouldn't stop chewing on the RIAA lawsuits. Will the outrage about the bullying RIAA actions last? Can people resist buying the latest release by their favorite groups? In the name of principle must we suffer through a silent Christmas? Is it time for even law-abiding citizens like me to engage in a few symbolic acts of civil disobedience? Could that be fun?

The following is just insomnia-induced musical musing. Purely fictional, and I'm not (cough...) suggesting that people should do this.

For years, we granny-types have been having cookie-exchange parties at Christmas time. What if a new trend sprang up and swept the nation this holiday season? Sneaker-Napster Parties. Each person pledges to buy one and only one CD from now through January. Groups of friends have a Halloween party to decide amongst themselves which CDs the group as a whole is interested in, so as to have no wasted duplication. They even make it a costume party and invite each person to dress as his favorite RIAA ghoul.

During November, each person buys his assigned CD and burns one copy for each of the friends, plus one for the RIAA. He labels each CD "Burned in a deliberate act of civil disobedience. Merry Christmas 2003."

The big event is the first week of December - the first (and hopefully last) annual Sneaker-Napster's Merry Music Christmas Party. Dress is, of course, casual - with sneakers being the preferred footwear.

Each friend brings his copied CDs, one Christmas card, and one dollar per friend. Santa distributes one of each CD to each of the civilly disobedient party-goers. One complete set of the ripped CDs goes into a bag or box and is mailed to the RIAA. (Whoever does that is careful to wear gloves and wipe all fingerprints off each CD first, and to drive at least 100 miles away to drop it into a public mailbox. And he makes sure no one see him. Sounds like another job for Santa.)

The merry-makers address one Christmas card to each artist, and enclose $1 per copy burned. They write in the card, "Merry Christmas from the Sneaker-Napsters! We burned some copies of your CD in order to burn the RIAA. But we love you and hope you'll accept the enclosed payment for your valuable work. According to Courtney's math, it should be almost 3 times what you normally pocket per CD."

Sigh. Just a fantasy...

Hmmmmm.

[Stargoat]

Hmmmmm. Not a bad idea. I hope everyone I know likes Woody Guthrie. [wikipedia.org]

Re:Hmmmmm.

[computerlady]

Well, I like Woody and Arlo too!

Steve, not Courtney

[[e-mail]]

Courtney's math is stolen from a much better article by Steve Albini: The Trouble With Music [petdance.com].

Re:Steve, not Courtney

[computerlady]

Good article - thanks for the link. So, are you going to have a Sneaker-Napster Christmas Party?