JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Petition to stop P2P-users abuses

There are so very many issues in life to which there seems to be no nice, tidy, black or white answer. It's interesting, though, to note that many of these issues have to do with the question of "Ownership". What exactly IS ownership? What is personal property? What do or can we truly "own"?

There is a saying: "You can't take it with you". Right! You can't. So if you can't take it with you how can you be "It's" owner? As best, it seems to me, we can be temporary custodians of "things" or ideas. We can utilise them in many ways - to help others, or to boast of our talent or wealth, to bring joy to others, or to give us some shallow sense of self-worth. But, in the end, we must give them up. "Ownership", truly, is an illusion.

But I am speaking with fellow musicians so I must ask you this: How many of you have experienced those musical moments when you cease to exist and somehow the music simply plays "through" you with a life, truly, of it's own? How many of you have looked back afterwards in sheer humble awe and totally known that "You" were simply not capable of that performance? I have known many such moments in my life - and not just in music.

It's funny, when I reflect on some of the creative things I have done that I am happiest with I feel little sense of "Ownership". In fact I would go further than that and say that I feel an awesome sense of humility that I have somehow been a "Channel" through which some kind of creation has become manifest.

Now I KNOW this is all probably sounding kinda "New Age.. airy fairy" stuff LOL. But I'm just trying to be as honest as I can about it while not seeming too "Off the planet"

You may have noticed that I have not, so far, "taken sides" in this discussion. I have been watching this debate and many similar ones with a great deal of interest but have come to no nice, tidy, clearcut view on it. This is partly because, as I started out trying to explain, I don't believe that "Ownership" is a nice, tidy, clearcut concept. If it was we wouldn't have had such a history of conflicts about who owns what!

Dare I throw in a wild card here? Who "Owns" the West Bank? The Palestinians? The Israelis? WHICH Palestinians? WHICH Israelis? Who in particular? What about Jews or Palestinians of foreign citizenship? It is, after all, just a space on our planet. How can anyone "Own" it???

But I digress (I tend to do that - it's an ADD thing )

I have been known to tape music from records. I have been known to download the occasional commercial song online. In all such cases it has been for one or more of the following reasons:

- I have been unable to source the particular piece of music in any other way
- I have needed to learn a song to play in a covers band (Or sequence a backing track for my kids to sing along with)
- I wanted to check out an artist that someone else had recommended. (and yes, if I enjoyed it enough I have bought the CD)

I do NOT download the music that I listen to for pleasure and entertainment. For one thing the quality simply isn't good enough. For another I still like the concept of a well-concieved "Album" of music where everything fits together in context. But, mostly, because it simply doesn't "feel" right. Just as I remember those few shop-lifted sweets of my childhood giving me no pleasure. I cannot "justify" those downloads. But neither can I feel "guilty" about them

I feel that, ultimately, we pay for everything we take and are paid for everything we give. I know this doesn't fit too well within the paradigm of structured society as we know it, but I honestly feel it is a far more profound truth than any of our "human" laws. And this, perhaps, is why the question of who is "right" or who is "wrong" in this debate doesn't concern me too much. The issues that confound us in our "Human condition" will NEVER be resolved by laws, nor by debates, by reasoning and logic, by punishment or reward.. they will not be resolved by wars or conflicts, by political systems or religious dogma. Nothing in this world can truly be "righted" on a national, societal or institutional level.

This is part of the paradoxical beauty/ugliness of the possibilties of the anarchy or the internet to me - it truly puts the onus of CHOICE on the individual! It is a place which brings out the absolute best and the ugliest worst in people.. and all with few rules and/or constraints. In a sense it allows us each to follow nothing but our own consciences in how we treat it. It is "Free Will" in a very real sense. Any one of us could be downloading other people's music, films or literature at the click of a button. Any one of us could choose to download child pornography, instructions on how to build bombs or write viruses or burgle homes. Any one of of could create a site such as Brian has here which reaches out and shares, which provides a place for us all to help and support one another. Any one of us could visit chatrooms, not with the desire to seduce or flirt with another, but simply to provide an ear and some support to those who are lonely.

Opps... did I digress again?

I'll shaddup now

Simon