P2P: Privilges to Peek

Peer-to-peer file sharing. The biggest threat to the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). Not particularly new but it's become a more widely used and is constantly growing to bigger things. The somewhat recent addition of torrents has blown up the entire piracy issue into a huge uproar, with the MPAA and RIAA.

From it's early incarnation of Napster, file sharing has always been in a huge thorn in the backside of the RIAA. What sane person could resist free music, even better the more that participate the faster and more efficient the process becomes. A massive exchange of uploads/downloads and best of all for free. But like society today we are constantly looking for more, to improve upon our systems. Now we have torrents, the ability to transfer much larger files at a more efficient rate. It was only a matter of time before anything in the media was finding its way onto torrents. The movie industry fired back with dozens of lawsuits, few succeeded.

Now we stand between what is morally correct and what is not. I've heard both sides of the tape and it's hard to argue with either. We try to justify our actions with excuses like "Well Hollywood shouldn't be putting out such horrible movies" or "I download to demo the songs and if I like them I'll go out and buy them". But let's be honest for a minute, these are two-bit responses that can be seen through so easily. No I'm not demoralizing those who file share in any form, I'm just giving you some advice to make yourself look less stupid.

On the flip side there are many logical explanations behind the incurring wrath of piracy. One obvious one is the fact that this forces industries to improve their standards. There's no doubt the movie industry is falling into oblivion, and it's hard to find a game with enough playing time to warrant the hefty price tag. The music industry bled first and for good reason. Too many artists release singles that are catchy and grab attention but the other 10 or so songs on the album are absolute trash. Why should I pay $15 for one song.

I won't go on listing the hundreds of arguments that can be made between stealing vs. not stealing.

The irony here is now you'll see previews on DVDs (not skippable) or movie previews warning the viewer that piracy is stealing and is illegal. Preaching to wrong crowd aren't we? These previews don't show up on pirated movies because it's a matter of removing them from the file, so look who they're penalizing. The very people that actually went out and bought the DVD, and now they HAVE to wait 15 seconds before watching the movie they BOUGHT. Great move MPAA. Now the music industry on the other hand has responded respectably. Downloading legal MP3's allows the listener their choice of songs, and some artists are embracing the whole downloading thing (take note Metallica).

This is a moral issue. It may not be the same as "stealing a purse" to quote the MPAA, but to take away money from someone who has produced/created something is still a form of robbery. Whether we acknowledge the situation or not, someone is losing money and even though the movie industry is filled with billionaires one has to consider the back end of this situation. Corporations losing money = less willing to pay bigger checks for employees. The blue-collar people of society. Sometimes we're too caught up trying to seem rebellious, when we forget this isn't the 80's. And hey I hate the multi-billion corporations but as long as they aren't coming into my home and robbing me blind then I'm subject to care a damn about what they think. Now if they sued me on the other hand...

SUBSTANTIALICIOUS

The fusion of words that interact to create a new substance. It's like science. At this stage of time it's hard to invent so we innovate. We simply improve upon modern ideas and provide accessories or features that benefit the consumer's use. As humans we attempt to improve upon leisure and through that we combine everyday items to provide a more efficient output for us.

But it's not always systematic. The power of unification cannot be bound to restrictions. We use this same concept to create different styles of music, different genre's of movies and video games. The world is far too swift moving to appease to with bland ideas, and in order to keep society interested we experiment. This is the very essence of not only change but improvement in the simplest way possible by conjoining the things that already exist. This is not evolution this is modification.

"Smart Dog. Smog, Best of both worlds". The once ongoing gag on the now canceled TV series Radio Free Roscoe was constantly used as a device of humor but it's naive to be blind not to see beyond that. It's like the grade 2 class you had learning about compound words, two dissimilar array of letters that are merged to form a new definition. It's not difficult to say that it's only a matter of time before this concept is engulfed by language and writing. Snickers hosts multiple advertisements atop NYC taxis that read "SUBSTANTIALICIOUS", "HUNGERECTOMY", "SATISFECTELLENT", "NOUGATOCITY", and "PEANUTOPOLIS". Although clearly not words you'd find in a Webster's dictionary it just begins to expose us to the various hybrids of words that will make life all the more easier.

Who do we thank for this recreation? Blame society who else? Needless to say we become lazier by the second. We reap the benefits of everything. We're constantly finding ways to provide a seamless transition that would otherwise be considered dirty work. Don't get me wrong I love the whole concept of hybridity and I'm not too sure how this ended up as a rant towards my own laziness but it's almost April and I'm reflecting here. As a matter of fact I think mashups are brilliantly produced given the context and material. I enjoyed watching Radio Free Roscoe and their ongoing banter of the best of both worlds. And I admire Snickers' out of the blue campaign by tossing in eye-grabbing 20+ letter words. But somehow you can't help but find an evil in it all.

Right?