Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Why I'm not going

I'm sure you all have heard about that movie coming out...

You know...

The one that is being heavily criticized but religious folks everywhere.
You know...

The one that on one hand says it's just fiction, enjoy it. But on the other hand they have HUGE billboard saying "Seek the Truth". Now a friend pointed out that 'seek' is a verb, so technically they aren't claiming to have the truth. True... well not really.

Though it would be nice to think that they are simply asking us to find out for ourselves what the truth is, but the truth of what they are really saying is different.

The movie teaser implores us to seek the "truth" of the "greatest cover up in human history". A quote from the movie. Of course they are free to quote from there own movie. But make no mistakes they intentionally want people to consider if it's the truth.

It all comes down to money.

20 years from now, no one will remember this movie. And if they do it wont be because of it's groundbreaking ... but because it made money by being offensive to Christians.

I wont help them by making them more money. I wont, in anyway, add to their pocket books. I will not be a party to that evil.

The are free to do what they wish in this society. If God doesn't stop them, who am I to try? But I wont help them either.

And...

I wont mention their name here either.

The Author

Monday, May 01, 2006

Downloads, Lawsuits & Money

Well it seems that Canadian artists aren't as interested in prosecutions as the Music Labels would have us believe.

I have to say, I have heard quite a bit from people I know about the morality of downloading. It seems a lot of people don't really see anything wrong with it. It's so easy, and there doesn't seem to be any good reason to think that people will get caught. And if recent court decisions, combined with Canadian Internet Service Providers (ISPs) resistance to the music labels attempt at getting at their info are any indication, then that wont change any time soon. And now with a bunch of major artists starting a lobby group to stop the prosecution of individuals it seems that may not change too soon (if at all).

But it got me thinking.

You see, I don't download. Why? Cause I'm christian and those who own the songs call it stealing. It's their songs, and if I am not willing to buy it on their terms, then I shouldn't buy it. And legally, morally and in the real world they are right. But....

I also know that the ones making the money aren't the artists. Sure they make money, but only after a WHOLE LOT of records are bought. The ones making lots of money are the record labels. And that is what irritates me most. Not that they make money, or even lots of it (google does that and I don't have a problem with them)... but that they claim that:

"creative people must be compensated for their intellectual property."

Please.

I mean if you want to protect your property, my all means do so -- but don't patronize us with lines about "artists" or "creative people". The reality is that only the Major Labels are really being hurt by downloading. Small artists are the biggest winners. After all, now they have a way of spreading their music, with little to no overhead. And if that's true, then more and more artists are going to skip signing with major labels, because there are doing just fine -- thank you very much!

In the end, although I don't rejoice about downloading (or shouldn't rejoice in anything that isn't good), I know that this is the best thing for the music industry, and especially small artists. The major labels will lose power -- not all of it mind you, since someone has to do some promotions of artists -- but more and more as time goes on. Because no matter what the legislation, or technology, all of them can and will be worked around*.

The Author

*Side note: I don't know why the big companies don't understand this basic concept, but if you can see or hear something electronically, then it can be copied. The only way that it could be stopped is if they prevented all capabilites of people to program computers, or hear/see the music/movie.