First, some background.

I have downloaded 5 maybe 6 songs from the Internet. That's a lifetime stat. No, I'm not totally lame, although there are some of my Geek friends that will feel that way about my behavior. And no, it's not that I don't like music.

It's just that I've never had much problem getting my music from conventional methods. Let's face it, I'm an old guy. Some of my fondest memories as a young adult are late night outings to the Odyssey Records on Main Street, SLC. Odyssey was open until Midnight, as I recall. I'd get in the mood for some new music and find myself drawn to Odyssey. That's where I found out about cut-out albums. In those days, the late 70s, a new album (that's what we called them) cost about $10. You could get an album in the cut-out bin (yes, there was actually a cut in the corner of the cardboard sleeve) for as little as $3.99. And these were recently released albums.

There were a few stores offering used records, too. Cosmic Aeroplane & Randy's Records became frequent stops. I still remember purchasing some of my most cherished albums at these stores. The Police "Ghost in the Machine" at Cosmic, Heart "Magazine" and Gerry Rafferty "City to City" at Odyssey and way too many at Randy's to get specific. So, what's the point?

Well, I suppose the point is that purchasing my music has never been a big deal. Call it the cost of doing business. And in this day and age I'm certainly willing to purchase my music and movie selections. What with the cost of late fees, I figure I'm way ahead to pick up DVDs on the first day of release. So I own several movies on DVD. And more often than not, I'm going back and getting many of these on VHS, it being a superior medium for long-term storage and all. I'm just not convinced that downloading movies or songs is all that big a deal.

BTW, my five music downloads were all off iTunes. That's right, I paid $.99 each and charged them all to my credit card.

Still, this article I ran across late last week bugged me. Please understand that my concern isn't because I'm spending any time at all downloading movies. It's not my style. Still, there is something about the MPAA joining Internet 2 that doesn't sit right.

MPAA motivation seems to be two-fold. The first reason is to help develop new technologies for high-speed downloads. Second, catch copyright violators and stop them. Excuse me, but I'm having a hard time believing the first. This is probably just another way for the MPAA to scare the hell out of all offenders. I'm not sympathetic to thieves and I'd really like it if everyone would stop downloading files illegally. But I'm also having a hard time believing that the MPAA really wants to help improve download technologies.

You'll just have to make up your own mind on this issue. It's clear that the MPAA would like to police all networks and stop illegal downloads. And it's clear that illegal downloads are filling up network traffic and causing some real problems. But following the cause and effect chain back to it's logical conclusion one is left to wonder, is interdiction ever effective? Judging by the success of the DEA the answer would have to be for the MPAA to find another way to cope...........
8:42:31 AM    comment []