I take a daily e-newsletter from an information-technology magazine. The topic today was on copyrights and artist's compensation. The editor has entered the conversation by saying he doesn't believe our nation puts a high enough value on the creative process. He said artists are not even getting one penny from the legal puchase and download of music based on the latest legal disputes reported in this article. I sent him a response about what I thought all of this means, and then I continued to think about what morality has come to mean in America. Here is what I think:
Morality doesn't get invited to the party unless she's buying the drinks.
What I mean is that morality is the very last thing musicians talk about unless someone is taking their music without buying it. Then, it's all they can do but to talk about what is right and what is wrong. Morality. But it's not just musicians. Every moral contest, which is to say every election and every lawsuit, is couched in cost. Dare a politician to make or refute one point in a debate with no reference to money—it's unimaginable. And as for lawsuits, you can't even sue someone unless you assert they injured you, meaning they robbed you of some asset—whether life or limb or property or income potential—it has all come to mean "your means of wealth." This is not only the way of our courts—it is the way of everyday conversation. "What's the harm?" is the head of the coin, and the tails-side is, "What's the risk?" Even some churches avoid doing good for fear of being sued. Morality is toted in a money bag.
But I think everyone may be mischaracterizing the younger generations, which is where most of the criticism around the immorality of music copyright infringement is aimed (for example, Barna notes in an article that Fewer Than 1 in 10 Teenagers Believe That Music Piracy Is Morally Wrong). I believe in many ways the younger generations have a better moral compass than their predecessors. It takes a "mature" person to understand the inseparable link between money and justice. In fact, if you look to the very young, you will see, as Tolkien noted in his essay On Fairy Stories that "children are innocent and love justice, while most of us are wicked and naturally prefer mercy.” Instead of being immoral, I think the younger generations simply missed out on the glory days of sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll and don't understand why the rest of us want to preserve it.
At any rate, I sent my $0.02 to the editor on this subject, and now I publish "my" words here on "my" blog for free:
Dear Editor:
I amar prestar aen…
The world is changed.
Han mathon ne nen…
I feel it in the water.
Han mathon ne chae…
I feel it in the Earth.
A han noston ned gwilith…
I smell it in the air.
Much that once was is lost. For none now live who remember it.
I suppose it’s a bit ironic to copy creative work to comment on copying creative work, but the prologue to the Lord of the Rings says a lot—the world is changed—but we probably do not yet fully understand the change. It is likely that the situation with copyrighted works will get “worse” not “better.” It is likely that the younger generations don’t consider the preservation of record title system for compensating artists to be a problem to be solved, but rather a relic of the past like Prohibition or Price Fixing or the Cold War. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a future of free music, where the music itself is never paid for, but rather there is always a value-add, like a decorative, high quality collectible CD case that is numbered and signed by the artist. Also, I believe some artists can make outrageous money even with their music being ripped, or else I can’t explain Britney Spears’ fortune. In the future it may be that artists do more live performances for their money than sitting at home collecting royalties. And I think this thought fuels some of the younger generation’s rationalization for copying music—“Why shouldn’t a musician have to go to work day after day like I do?” where their job is actually performing music rather than modeling for tabloids. Honestly, I wonder how a copyright or any right is to be expected to survive decades of lessons on “might makes right.” But we are not yet in the “none now live who remember it” age, as evidenced by my observations, your article, and the war of words playing out in the judicial system, but we all do “feel it.” We probably all feel it a bit differently depending on where we stand. Being one who makes his living by creativity, both as a software designer and a creative writer, I feel it deeply—but for now I find far more interesting the manifold change that is all around us than the desperate attempt to put the butterfly back in his cocoon.
Steve Coan
o—)
Copyright © 2005 by Steve CoanAll rights reserved. Written permissions must be secured from the author to reproduce any part of this work, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles. :)
(2nd revision)
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