turn the beat around

It's always inspiring to see the youth of America united for a common cause. It's just disheartening that the latest revolutionary furor is caused by... Napster.

For those of you who've been living in a cave for the last year, Napster enables users to download CD-quality music -- on files called MP3s -- for free. Recently, recording artists and their companies have been voicing objections to this practice on the grounds that they'd, well, like to get paid for their work. The disagreement between the copyright holders and the info-anarchists, or between their respective lawyers, was brought to a head when U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel agreed with the recording companies and told Napster to shut down.

"We need to attack! We need to provoke a riot!" wrote an irate Napsterphile quoted on boston.com. Hey, this could be as big as the WTO demonstrations, and this time kids would even understand why they were protesting.

My first reaction, of course, was a thorough head-shaking over the idea that people should be so angry about actually having to buy CDs. It seems to me that free-music lovers already have a medium: radio. I personally remember waiting by the radio at age twelve with a blank cassette, ready to push the record button as soon as Q107 played that new song by Duran Duran. That was my Napster. I'm finding it a little difficult to sympathize with kids who want 'NSync's entire CD collection to be theirs at the click of a mouse.

John Perry Barlow, formerly a songwriter for the Grateful Dead, said, "I suggest massive civil disobedience." In the first place, he's in a cushy position to talk: although the Dead were known for their liberal taping and tape-trading policies, they and their support staff (including songwriters) made zillions of dollars on more than twenty years of touring. Barlow can afford to be expansive. Beyond that, it makes me nauseated to think of the term "civil disobedience", which I associate with worthy causes such as civil rights demonstrations, used to promote something as trite and indefensible as copyright violation. My guess is that Barlow's been smoking something stronger than tobacco and listening to his Doors records again. It ain't the 60s anymore, John.

At this point, readers may be shaking their own heads and muttering that I don't "get it." Actually, I do. You want something for nothing. I understand that very well. But it's clear even to me that Napster (and online music trading in general) has a number of beneficial aspects.

One is convenience. My stereo is across the room and flat against the same wall as my computer, which means I can't use a remote control from my desk. I tried bouncing the signal off the mirror on the wall behind me, but apparently that only works in movies. I could go to the trouble of wiring the stereo to the computer, but it's easier to just get up and push the buttons myself. (Play the CDs in the computer? That would render my stereo redundant.) It's enormously convenient to have a little virtual jukebox loaded with all my favorite songs right there on the desktop.

It's also a very useful tool for fledgeling or little-known bands, who are otherwise dependent on winning radio airplay to promote their music. As a fan of one of those little-known bands and possessor of both their MP3s and their CDs, I have to admit the appeal here. But this band chose to post its MP3s, which is clearly the dividing line between availing oneself of convenience and downloading pirated music.

Which brings me back to my original point. With so many better causes dying for volunteers, America's youth is getting off its sofas and turning off its televisions to howl in protest that unethical behavior has now been ruled illegal behavior. Free-music fans are filling Usenet forums with inflammatory and poorly-written rhetoric demanding that their collective right to violate copyrights and download music they haven't paid for outweighs the complaints of the record company establishment, who'd like some return on their investments.

Teenagers in Belgrade are fighting to overturn a dictator. Teenagers in Tibet are fighting for cultural freedom. Teenagers in America are fighting for free music. It all makes sense in perspective.