Kid Rock misses the point.
Kid Rock has been making some noise about piracy this week, first at a concert and now with a PSA. I’ve always had a soft spot for Kid Rock - he was one of the first acts I worked on at Atlantic Records many years ago. In fact I still have a Kid Rock bottle opener on my key chain. But I think he’s got this argument all wrong.
He started out the week making some thoughtful remarks, telling to the BBC, “Back in the day, we all know the stories of the Otis Reddings and Chuck Berrys and Fats Dominos who never got paid… the internet was an opportunity for everyone to be treated fairly, for the consumer to get a fair price, for the artist to be paid fairly, for the record companies to make some money.” But they stuck to the “old system”, he continued. “I will be on iTunes eventually because I can’t avoid it, but I like to always stick to my guns and prove a point.”
But he then goes on to miss the point completely, saying “I don’t mind people stealing my music, that’s fine - but I think they should steal everything.” And followed up with the PSA below.
I don’t get it. He goes from making some important points about the music industry to freetard statements about stealing everything. I can’t tell if he’s trying to be sarcastic, but he sounds like it. The point here is not that stealing is right and property is wrong, a statement I’m often wrongly accused of making by reviewers and journalists who also missed the point. Companies ripping people off, or people ripping off companies, are not the only two options. There are many shades of grey. This problem with information is not an open and shut case, it’s a dilemma. Will send him a book post haste…
June 28th, 2008 at 10:33 am
It’s hard to believe that this is the same teenager from Detroit who was sent to the studio with D-Nice back in the days and made “Grit Sandwiches For Breakfast”, “Yodeling In The Valley” and “You Don’t Know Me”. Ahh…those were the days.
One.
June 29th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Of course he’s being sarcastic and parts of it are pretty funny. It’s pretty clear that the music industry crafted that speech with the intention of blurring the line between theft and copyright infringement. All of the other examples he gave are examples of theft. Sharing a copyrighted song can currently be classified as copyright infringement, not as theft. File sharers aren’t stealing files from each other, they are allowing people to download a COPY of it.
This is the distinction that the music industry is trying to blur. They want to add confusion to the issue, not clarity.
July 4th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
I don’t know man, he seems to be right, how can it be OK to illegally download a movie or a CD, when you can buy it online? If you could download a car of Ipod illegally, Apple and Toyota would be out of buisness. Its OK to DL the big fish, their shit stinks anyway, but what about the small guys?
July 7th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
The diference is that stealing is taking something from someone, download is COPiNG, if toyota could copy your friend car, have one for you, and still no taking his car, it will be ok.
The companies just like to say “stealing”, becouse make people thing they are doing something wrong.