Dear _____________,

Dear _____________,

Dear _____________,

Dear _____________,

Dear Record company executives,

Dear Musicians of the world,

I am writing to you in this hour of need, in this hour of greed and hate and persecution. Yes it is a dark time for our nation and for our world. People are in media induced comas, being told not to panic about swine flu which inevitably leads to panic. People are afraid to leave their houses at night for fear of being stabbed by children on street corners, and now people are terrified by pirates, “Hackers” (Note this is in inverted commas as a hacker is your definition not ours), phishers, scammers, script kiddies, viruses, worms and Trojans roving the high waves of the internet.

And why not? We have been told to be afraid of them for our own protection, we are told everyday that these are the people who are sending our world to hell, we are looking through the windscreens of our luxury cars at the edge of oblivion, being slowly nudged towards it by these people! Or so we are told.

I looked out of my window yesterday, I work in a large building it was a good view, and I couldn’t help but look down at the analogue world (If we have a digital then what is this I stand on now? Not real world because for some the digital domain is more real than this) and I looked at the people in their cars, on the pavement. I looked at this proportionately small mass of people, and I tried to imagine their crimes for which they would be tried and punished. Films, music, television show, I looked at these people and pointed a virtual gun to their temples, but the difference is you are willing to pull the trigger.

I am a musician, I am in a band, we have recorded music, it has been copyrighted, am I concerned about people sharing it? No. Fervently not. I am not concerned by people sharing my music, I am not concerned with my music reaching a wider audience, I am not concerned with people obtaining it FOR FREE. Music is my integrity. If someone however were to perform my music elsewhere under a different guise as a different band, and claimed it as their own, then I would be furious. But this is not the issue here. We are not talking about a report in which plagiarists are punished heavily for the false propagation of my work, it is instead a report which presumes the, guilty until proven innocent, users are all downloading illegally.

I am also writing to you as a supporter of open source, creative commons and hacker based ethics, I work with computers day to day. I disseminate information from social media sources, I gather resources from the internet, it forms part of my life and my work. I understand the digital domain, I understand how quickly it will change and adapt to your moves, already the wheels are turning, people are moving against your plans and changing the way they share information, as the hackers manifesto says, you can stop one of us but you cannot stop us all. Do not think for a moment your #3strikes policy will stop people sharing, these measures have not worked in the past why will they stop now, you will simply drive the problem underground where it can boil and grow and rear its head again (This will cause you a bigger problem in the long run).

But what am I writing? (After such a long and rambling introduction?) Of course it is another incendiary and inflammatory letter about the #3strikes policy. I do not agree of course with this policy, as I said I am a musician and a computer user, and I (As well as many of us) are happy for our work to get spread among the people. Any press is good press, the more people who listen to my music are more likely to come to my gigs, are more likely to read my publications, to view my pictures and to enjoy what I do. I make music, art, theatre for the people. Of course it would be wrong of me to say that I am not in this for myself, because of course I am, but I do not make music for the money, I do not act for the fame, I do these things for the reward of being able to get on the stage, watch people react to what I do. As Hannah Nicklin has already said, money is the carrot not the stick; it is the encouragement for people to create art and music.

I guess I have no argument here, I guess there is no great literary work contained here, for that you will have to read the open letter written by Hannah. I guess there is no real reason for anyone to read this, or to have it published, after all I am not a writer I am a musician, one who is writing this as quickly as possible at work, but I feel my point is contained here…somewhere.

Thanks

wbbigdave