Perspective Matters by George Ziemann -- February 10, 2008 Today's collection of topics includes the magic filter that the RIAA wants to install in your PC, the DOJ's interest in the labels' newest joint venture, the current dearth of songwriters, Neil Young's observation that music has lost its power to change the world, Sweden performers' group asks for legalization of file sharing, and whatever else that comes to mind before I get to the end. First, an unrelated story. Got an e-mail from a friend that had two scanned photos of my wife and I. The message with them was brief: "Found these in a box and I thought of you." Well, duh, that's what pictures are for. So now Deb is scanning in a couple of photos of the friend. We're going to e-mail them with a message that says, "Found these in a box and I thought of Attila the Hun." Magic Filter A few days ago, the RIAA offered up yet another winning entry in their never-ending quest to out-stupid their last bad idea. Now they want to put magic filters in your PC. The issue of encryption "would have to be faced," Sherman admitted after talking about the wonders of filtering. "One could have a filter on the end user's computer that would actually eliminate any benefit from encryption because if you want to hear [the music], you would need to decrypt it, and at that point the filter would work." If you actually want to know more about this seriously flawed idea, there's a story at ars technica (which is where the quote came from). There's also a discussion at slashdot wherein the depths of said flaws are mocked mercilessly. As well they should be. Oh yeah. It gets better. The RIAA knows it won't work, but that hasn't stopped them from teaming up with AT&T to see how much money they can waste trying. The labels will charge it back to the artists under "new technology." DOJ Takes Early Interest in Total Music Greg Sandoval over at CNet reports that "The U.S. Department of Justice has requested information from Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group about Total Music, an iTunes competitor that plans to offer music from all the majors for a $5-per-month subscription fee." At least that's what Sandoval's anonymous sources tell him. "Two sources said that the DOJ has asked Universal Music and Sony BMG for any documents or information that would help them learn about Total Music." I was rather amused at the early response, which leaned toward the "it's about time the DOJ looked at this obvious collusion and price-fixing" point of view. The problem is that all Universal has to say is, "Gee, we're sorry, but all the documents and information are in France, which appears to be out of the DOJ's jurisdiction." Sony writes the same letter, but their documents are in Japan and Germany. That should hold off the DOJ until after the elections, when the DOJ's personnel changes. Sweden's Performers Say Legalize File Sharing "Sweden's largest music rights organization (STIM) has proposed making file-sharing legal by including the cost of music downloads in packages offered by Internet Service Providers (ISPs)." "The most pressing issue, according to STIM, is to find 'new solutions making it possible both for those who create music to get paid for their work and for the freedom and ease of the internet to be used and developed to the maximum effect for all internet users'. " And it only took them 8 years to figure it out. Songwriting and the Power of Music Sometime in the past week, Neil Young lamented that music no longer has the power to change the world. While this may be true, the bigger question is how that happened. I wasn't going to even mention this, but I received an e-mail from Adrienne in the U.K. that was somewhat related. "I read a remark in a bio of Buffy Sainte Marie that said that she found out that Lyndon B Johnson had been writing to radio station congratulating them for boycotting her, and that this had also happened to other people. "I have long wondered what happened to songwriting. Almost all the songs around are just empty, selling sex like the rest of the capitalist machine, trying to tweak desire and keep minds numb. There are a few exceptions, but the outright soul searching and political finger pointing that happened for a while in the 60s seemed to die a very convincing death. "The idea that there was a conspiracy from the highest levels to stop artists who were vocal in this way is the sort of thing one suspects, but without evidence it's always possibly paranoia." Actually, it got worse when Nixon came into office. There are FBI files on most artists from the time. They wanted to deport John Lennon, but that's not exactly a secret. None of it is. The U.S. government did everything it could to outlaw rock music, mostly by declaring it obscene. The idea of targeting specific artists for suppression is very close to the idea of payola, wherein you pay to put music on the air. Both were rampant and neither left a lot of evidence behind. Either you heard the song or you didn't. Today we have Clear Channel, which owns an immense number of radio stations. They decide what is aired. There are still songwriters writing real songs, we just never get to hear many of them because that would lead to Americans actually thinking again. So Clear Channel doesn't play those songs, even the old ones. There are at least two problems with writing it all off as a conspiracy theory. 1) The RIAA is in the Senate and House of Representatives every day, "lobbying" for more ridiculous laws. Surely, there is an occasional request for a favor in the other direction. 2) They'll tap our phones, read our email, lie to start a war and torture people. They have their own news channel (FOX), which has been running unedited propaganda for the last 8 years. The idea that they might try to influence which songs and messages people are allowed to hear is almost trivial. It would be more of a surprise if they weren't doing it. The anti-conspiracy theory is, of course, that the labels are so intellectually and musically challenged that they would not recognize a good song if their life depended on it. Personally, I think we're doing the incredibly boring 1950s again and something is going to come along any minute now. Music is cyclical. It's up to the kids, really. And speaking of kids from the UK, one of them sent me this:

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