...basically, all the record label whores who don't know shit about music but get paid for...hell, I don't really know.
Record companies like you to believe that the production of a CD requires a large, professional team of people... They would have you believe it needs to cost millions to produce what they want you to call "music".
In reality, there was music before record companies and there will be music afterwards. Only when music industry goes belly up, will the artists themselves actually be free to make their music the way they want it without interferance. With the corporate middleman comes a "comittment". You become property... an investment, and are expected to behave in a way that the focus groups say pleases the public. It takes the individuality out of music... out of art... and turns it into a tamed force... one that will not scare, one that will not shock, one that will not move hearts and minds. Record companies would have you believe that art is better if it immediately "clicks" with an audience prepped and ready to receive the next batch of disposable ditties...
The record companies traditionally were able to hold a lot more power than they do now. Now that they are losing the means of distribution that gave them a reason to be... more and more people are starting to question what they had been told, especially now that media is becoming democratized by the internet. Shutting down filesharing services is not about intellectual property. Record companies are still making money, they just pretend to be hurt because they are afraid of a free alternative to the artificially necessitated "service"they provide. They no longer control communication, and like programs, they struggle for survival, desperately pushing for legislation such as the DMCA (giving corporations power to hand out subpoenas and sue five year olds)... Our corrupt government happily complies with their "benefactors" but it does little practical good. On the internet, there is no law, there are no borders, and it is the only place where a semblance of true free speech exists. For every push against filesharing... against alternatives... techs develop newer, more clever, impregnable, anonymous means of communication...
Although it is still true to a great extent that knowledge of technology equates to freedom, techs are now handing their tools over to the public. China cannot stop or control freenet. The internet is too large to be contained. They like to think they are in control but it is largely an illusion perpetuated to keep the public afraid and in line (same principle as a fake surveilance camera). Libel is only actionable if it is traceable (protecting those who cannot afford to be frivolously sued into bankruptcy)... Information that is "illegal" can be disseminated to the masses. Government secrets? The government answers to the people, period. There are no secrets to be legitimately kept. Taped phone conversations? Why not? 20/20 can do it and not get thrown in jail. This IS freedom of the press. This IS true freedom of speech. Fight those who would try to deny you it!
"congress shall make no law..."
