Powazek: Just a Thought: SXSW to MPAA: STFU: Derek Powazek has an insightful write up on JD Lasica’s SXSW presentation on the future of darknets.
According to Derek one of the panel members, Kori Bernards, took quite a beating over trying to defend the MPAA to a room full of tech heads.
“What followed was an hour-long firing squad as one audience member after another directed angry questions her way. The feeling of pent-up frustrations with the movie biz was palpable, especially as her claims of flexibility and excitement within the MPAA to find “creative new solutions” to the problems raised by the audience rang more and more hollow, the more times she repeated them.”
Although slightly sympathetic to the content industry Derek hits the nail on the head: “And that’s really the problem, isn’t it? There are these industries of middlemen – RIAA, MPAA – that claim to “protect artists” but what they’re really protecting is themselves. Artists (and I include myself in that word) need to rise up and tell these people to go get stuffed. We can decide when a mashup is perfectly fine with us. We can decide to embrace file traders to build awareness of our work. We don’t need you anymore. You’re just holding us back.”
I like to support artists. I buy CDs at shows when I see them and know it’s going in the artist’s pocket. If I hear a band playing on the street and they’re good and have CDs I buy them — and I feel good about it. But the charade that the RIAA and MPAA are all about protecting the artists is just one giant sham. And even the “artists” that they “protect” (does Britney really deserve to earn *that* much more?) by and large are wealthy mega acts that quite frankly no longer need the protection at this point.
A podcast of the panel can be downloaded here.