Revolting.

Apparently my blog isn’t working, I cannot write anything. If I were a conspiricist I’d probably think the government is monitoring my activity with such excitement that they’ve caused my blog to crash. Tough luck for them as my activity lately has been relatively low. We have arrived at that time of the year when we walk out of the library every day with four new books, balancing them on the jacket it’s too hot to wear and limping with our laptop bag that makes us walk lopsided. It is both cold and warm, the rising mists in the morning though should be a warning to not bring a jacket, it’s just too cold though. I wake up shaking and a shower in the nude just doesn’t sound appealing, it doesn’t help that the water practically scalds me as it falls onto my chest- I’m probably only asking for the cold to come back, cling on and want some warmth too. Years ago, a teacher in Lleida told us that it is more rational to take cold showers in winter, because then the temperature difference isn’t as great. Well, easier said then done. I’d much rather boil! My activist-tivity has been low too, I have a radio program though! Me and a socialist comrade are running a show about politics, radio1 on Fridays-10 to 12am. Having done my advertising for the day, Oh! Tune in! 91fm, I’ll jump on to more important issues.
The world is being forced to accept the ACTA bill, its name may be different in your country but do not be fooled, it is no cute and fuzzy four-letter acronym! The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is an excuse to shut down our freedom of speech and shut us off from a growing culture. Its excuse? Those poor artists: singers, writers, etc. Now don’t get me wrong, I love music and books and photography and painting, I really do! I have not been to an art gallery in a wee while but I hardly have less than a few hours and what’s the point? I would want to appreciate it. I wish I were an artist. This bill though is not actually in their benefit, it is in the benefit of corporations. If it was actually in the benefit of artists the CEOs of Sony et all may choose to cut their salaries a bit, who are we kidding though, these corporates have worked their arses off to get where they are haven’t they? They themselves are probably musicians and have gone through it all already. Meeeek, no wrong. These corporates have simply done a couple of courses in marketing at the local branch of a little known university, their degrees unfinished.
Artists earn shit all from their record sales, it takes them more effort than anything else. Starting off unknown, the first thing you want is to get your name out there, you want to hear your music is being played in Timbuktoo. For every sold song on iTunes, artists get 9 cents, only 10% of the profit, and believe me, that is a lot to music standards. They earn much less off record sales. Many artists are against this law coming in, they have been using alternative ways of spreading their music for free, or for donations and a much higher profit. This law has been put in place to keep the industry on stilts even when it’s being sawed down with every technological change. There have been bands that have ripped fresh music from the concert onto blank cds and giving them to the spectators as they walk out the door. Other bands give free poor quality downloads or payable high quality ones, giving a chance for all incomes and a taster of what the album tastes like. Writers have published their works online, photographers theirs on Creative Commons. Creating an audience is the first step to stardom is it not? And if you are small in this everexpanding world, isn’t it first just a pleasure to know you are wanted, to know people believe you are talented too? After an audience is created one can ask for donations. Artists sell their own locally made merchandise now, the corporations are the only ones missing out.
I don’t feel sorry for them. As an article on Critic says, artists now have to continuously tour, not for the audience but for themselves, to make money from door entries. The profits from cd sales get siphoned away into all sorts of hidden holes.
This bill will restrict us from sharing music or videos, it will not only detain the uploader, it will fine and impinge the downloader’s privacy-potentially cutting him/her off from the internet altogether. It has been said the internet is becoming a fundamental right, on the one hand we applaude when we hear small third-world countries can finally surf the web, on the other we get fined for sharing what we enjoy most? This seems incompatible. With books there are no restrictions to sharing, I can give my book to anyone, I can found a library, with music I’m not allowed to. My preferences must be kept private, I must hide in  this socially created bubble a bit more- we must stop sharing, enjoying and laughing together. Even though sharing is what we do and culture is built through references to older material. Mesh-ups are a new thing, born with the rising internet culture. One can now create art through the internet, by picking a song from here, a rift from Japan, a sound effect from Star Wars, put it all together and voila. Here we now have something personal, but global and for everyone. If we can write books referencing Shakespeare, why can’t we make music referencing our favourite band?
With this law we will lose our privacy, possibly our rights to the internet, we will all lose out on music but culture will be affected deeply too. We are being forced into individuals by a system that doesn’t believe in “mass” in any context other than profit and entertainment. We are being dumbed down, we are being titty-fed and milked at the same time and we will never get out of this tiring cycle unless we stand up. Internet has been called a revolution in terms of communications and human interaction, for some reason though we are letting them take it off us.