I found the video to be very interesting. I had never considered that downloading music or downloading anything would be considered on the lines of illegal and even on the lines of being sued. In the current time however, downloading music, movies are commonplace. Countermeasures such as lawsuits and suing would be seen as righteous in the 20th century but drastic in our time. I even recall seeing old commercials of the “piracy is bad” A major reason for that change would most likely be the internet and how it has expanded throughout the early years of the 21st century. With the advancement and nearly unlimited resource known as the internet, it is basically impossible for copyright and for companies to control what we download.
During the first portion of the video, it talks about how new things are built from the past. Whether it is music, or art, if it is sampled and placed with other music and art it is considered “new”. I do not completely agree with this idea. It is true that by sampling different pieces of art into one piece is creating something new however, it is simply recycling an existing piece of art. New art should draw from the past and expand on it otherwise art would not improve.
In order to combat this, the government created bills to lock down and hinder the individual from infringing on copyrighted material. The Canadian Copyright act would fine the individual for each and every song that was downloaded. To the music company that owns those songs this may seem like an adequate solution for the piracy however, all it had accomplished was the deteriorating of the relationship between the fans and the music companies. That bill would not survive in the current era where the internet is basically omnipotent and all users have power over information.
It is understandable that companies would like to receive money from consumers buying the music records and that the idea where consumers can get that same music record for free would damage its revenue. However, with the increase of technology, piracy and downloading of music was getting easier. Consumers and music artists had followed the flow of technology and even went against the music companies. Music artists, particularly the group Nudez from the video, released their music content online and allowed the consumers to do what they wanted with it. In response to that, the company which the group Nudez sold their music rights to sent letters to those that manipulated the original music and sued them. This was probably one of the most important moments for the role of music companies and how consumers have the power. As the narrator said in the video, the copyright laws were groundless and are unabled to be reinforced. Instead of solving the problem of piracy, it ended up strengthening the idea of piracy and free distribution and ultimately turned citizens into criminals. Ultimately I believe free distribution of music to be benign and should be allowed.
