Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Posted at
02:36
by
Chris Faraone
Image of how the independent music industry should feel about the Bush administration courtesy of Immortal Technique's Revolutionary Vol. 2 album cover.
No doubt all you
independent musicians out there are investing titanic chunks of time to getting
Obama elected. You’re endorsing him at shows, putting bumper stickers on the
tour bus, and, maybe, just maybe, donating a fraction of your discretionary
booze and blow money to the effort. Usually I would mock you (since your hapless
artistic plight is utterly disconnected to the Washington establishment anyway), but it
turns out your reflexive hearts might be in the right place this time.
Unless you
peruse music industry and techie sites, or scour the NY Times “Bits” blog, then you
might not know that just yesterday President Bush signed the characteristically
surreptitiously titled Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual
Property Act. Why is this good news for Obama supporters? Simple – because this
ludicrous new legislation “Directs the President to appoint an Intellectual
Property Enforcement coordinator who shall…coordinate the development, and
assist in the implementation, of the Joint Strategic Plan against
counterfeiting and piracy by such advisory committee.”
Interpretation:
The President of the United
States from here on in shall appoint a
cabinet member who teams with despicable multimedia conglomerates to decide
which teenagers and their parents get sued for downloading Coldplay songs. I dare
someone (who doesn’t work for, record for, or own a major record label) to
argue that they’d rather have Flinstone McCain making that selection than
Barack Obama (even though they both voted in support of this).
The Recording
Industry Association of America (RIAA), which so far this year spent more than $3
million lobbying congress, did a spectacular job of escorting this tyrannical
legislation through both the House and Senate (it was passed unanimously in the
latter this past month). This means one or both of two things: either our
elected representatives give such a small shit about independent artists that
they didn’t notice this act’s negligence to protect them, or their lips are so
swollen around RIAA members that they’ll sign whatever dotted lines are put
before them.
In a statement
to CNET, Public Knowledge Communications Director Art Brodsky summarized the
situation precisely: "It would've been nice to have something to benefit
the public and artists instead of big media companies.” Expect more on this in
the near-future, or at least after the election when reporters (including myself) finally get to comb through the stacks of truly repugnant legislation that snuck by while we were
all watching McCain and Obama hurl mud pies at one another.
