Michael Jackson comes out against locking up music pirates

[Jo]

yesterday pop superstar Michael Jackson came out against a proposed new law that would put music pirates in jail. Although Jackson admits that stealing music off the Internet is wrong, putting file-swappers in jail is 'absolutely inappropriate':

The self-styled "King of Pop" feels that, while he would like to see the practice of stealing music off the Internet stamped out, the legislation against the downloading of copyrighted material was too harsh.


"I am speechless about the idea of putting music fans -- mostly teenagers -- in jail for downloading music," he said in a statement from his Neverland Ranch in the western state of California. "It is wrong to illegally download, but the answer cannot be jail. Here in America we create new opportunities out of adversity, not punitive laws, and we should look to new technologies ... for solutions. "This way, innovation continues to be the hallmark of America. It is the fans that drive the success of the music business," the "Gloved One" said.

Jackson's spokesman in Los Angeles said the 44-year-old singer felt that lawmakers are tackling the problem in the wrong way in the proposed law.


Who's bad?

[mkelley]

Yipes. Either M.J. is not the looney we always thought he was, or he has a seriously clever publicist (or agency) working for him. How many want to vote on the latter?

In any case, it's truly refreshing to see a reasoned statement coming out of an artist' camp. Too bad it will probably be a lone voice.

[poopyhead]

In any case, it's truly refreshing to see a reasoned statement coming out of an artist' camp. Too bad it will probably be a lone voice.

there are many artists against these types of laws....remember the "save napster tour" ???

i think it featured limp bizkit

[vance43211]

what kills me is that DR Dre supports the law

and every song that he has ever wrote

he has stole the beat off somebody

[poopyhead]

and every song that he has ever wrote

he has stole the beat off somebody

really??? that must be making P Diddy pretty jealous

[andkiich]

Wacko Jacko needs all the friends he can get right now.

[pacmania_2001]

I'd have to agree with the clever publicist theory more than him being not a looney.

Didn't it say in another article posted here that the RIAA was issueing subpoena's against people who downloaded Michael Jackson songs?

[AlienDust]

I am a fan of rap music, but I have no respect for Dr. Dre. He wants to make music that boasts of illegal activities, which are far worse than downloading music (ie selling and using drugs, homicide), but then wants criminal penalty against those who download music. He appeals to his fans by claiming to be "from the streets", and doing what he had to do to get by, even if it was illegal. Now when his FANS obtain his music in an unlawful way, he wants to cry about it. So either he should shut the hell the up about being from the streets of Compton and give up "gangsta" rap, or stop bitching about those who illegally download music. One could argue that he merely plays a character in his music, and has since changed his ways and is no longer involved in the illegall activities of which he once was, but if this is the case then deserves no street credibility and has no right to call any other artist fake. And after all, he did proudly say "F*CK THE POLICE" so how can he ask for their help now?

That's just my opinion on the subject...

[thayne]

I just saw tommy Lee on Foxnews boo hooing about all the money he's loosing cause of DL, what a crock! Even the guy giving the interview asked him how it's hurting him since he's filthy rich. It was funny, totally threw him for a loop, he just him-hawed his way around it. He also would not say wether he was for or against putting teen agers in jail.... What a prick! I bought lots or Motley Crue tapes when I was younger, 3 of the same one in one year cause the damn things were so cheaply made they wore out in only a few months. Who's ripping off who?????

It's really hard to feel sorry for these dopes....

[AlienDust]

thayne, I agree with you. We were the ones getting screwed for awhile. When I was younger I used to get $5 allowance each week. I would save it up and have enough to buy a new CD or tape every three weeks. As I got I older and had more I money, I started spending more and more of my money on CDs. Then CDs started costing $17-20 at Record Town, I started thinking that is was ridiculous and stopped buying them for awhile. At that point the record companies couldn't have cared less about how consumers felt about the prices, their attitudes were that we should just deal with it. Now that we have found a way to deal with it, to avoid getting ripped off, they want to cry about it. However I do still buy music of my favorite artists when its reasonably priced, but I will not pay $20 for a 12 track rock CD, or for an 18 track rap CD containing 8 original songs, 2 remixes and 10 skits.

[thayne]

I stopped buying all music in 1995. I have been engaged in my own boycott since then and I don't download mp3's either. They are loosing money because they have alienated themselve from their customers. I'll never buy another CD, ever and I won't DL either. I spend my time and money on movies now

I wonder how many others are out there like me? Maybe it's people like me who are really killing their sales, I sure hope so!

[daredevil]

I've got a lot of mp3 but none (or very few) from internet, all coming from my own collection or from the public library.
The music I listen to is very hard to find either in shop or on the net.
Most of the MP3 you can find on the internet are from well known artists and who earn a lot of money, they're all claiming that they loose money and that they sell less and less discs but have they only think about the quality of the music they made.
I live in France and they said that last year they've sold more cd than ever, I think that's because artists try to be more creative and made quality cd's.
And Have they think about how hard it is to listen to MP3 : you have to have : a pc, a cd burner, an internet connection or a mp3 converter and an mp3 player. Things that everybody have at home, of course .

For me MP3 doesn't harm the music industry and can help it to sell more cd, but try to consider the consumer

[mij]

I totally agree with thayne, I think it is time someone organised a boycott of CD's/DVD's until the prices are dropped to a more sensible level.

I am sick & tired of hearing of hearing from multi-millionaire musicians/actors & middle men whinging about piracy, they do not deserve the ridiculous amounts of money they make from the much poorer fans. Like thayne, I have not purchased a CD for years and have recently stopped going to the cinema, but more importantly, as a parent have taught my children how they are using and relying on youngsters to maintain the current ridiculous prices & lifestyles.

I will stop now before this turns into a novel, but people need to realise that we as the consumers ultimately have more power than any daft law they come up with.

mij

[poopyhead]

I have been engaged in my own boycott since then and I don't download mp3's either.

how about music videos

SVCD music vids look great.

[mysticgohan17]

heh, michael jackson comes out . dr dre said f*** the police almost 20 years ago, how can you still hold that against him aliendust?

[dcsos]

And if we bpoycott, we can still get our music

We buy the DVD
LED ZEP for example..
then extract the PCM audio ...create AUDIO CD or individual mp3's for songs..
Done deal...

UNLESS THE LISSEN TO THE RADIO TAX kicks in (just kidding)

[kickbxn5]

MJ is probably downloading some tunes right now.

[Diplomat]

The only reason I listen to DL songs is to preview their CD and since most of these clowns put out so much junk. There just mad that we find out that there CD sucks before I go to the store to buy it and get ripped off.

I too am a rap fan and I think its soooo funny that these guy rap about how much money they got (bling bling) but then a few people get there CD illigelly and now there are losing so much money. Hey I got an idea SAVE YOUR MONEY!! Go buy eight 100,000 cars and wonder were your money went

[Metaluna]

I'd have to agree with the clever publicist theory more than him being not a looney.

Didn't it say in another article posted here that the RIAA was issueing subpoena's against people who downloaded Michael Jackson songs?

An artist doesn't necessarily own the right to distribute his own music. There have been cases where a record company stopped their own artists from giving away their own music (I think this happened to The Offspring, who had some of their songs up on their website for free, and got sued by their label, but I'm not sure).

[Heavensent]

the music industry is full of lies.
when cd's just came out they balmed the price tag on the new media
which is "so hard to manufacture" and on the booklet that came with it.

and now, YEARS after that, you can buy an album online in mp3 format
and still the price is the same ???
they found a new "reason" why not to lower prices now
- they say that we are ripping off the artist.

if anyone of you whould ask an artist how much money he gets for each
cd that is being sold, you be amazed to know that he gets VERY little
of the whole thing.

the music industry is ripping off the artist AND us.
im not going to buy another music cd until they come up with a way
to lower the price.

and i mean REALLY LOW

[pacmania_2001]

An artist doesn't necessarily own the right to distribute his own music. There have been cases where a record company stopped their own artists from giving away their own music (I think this happened to The Offspring, who had some of their songs up on their website for free, and got sued by their label, but I'm not sure).

I was under the impression that Michael Jackson did own the rights to some of his older material though.

[vance43211]

Diplomat quote

The only reason I listen to DL songs is to preview their CD and since most of these clowns put out so much junk. There just mad that we find out that there CD sucks before I go to the store to buy it and get ripped off.

i agree with that

i remember 15 -20 years ago

every artist album that came out, 75 -85% of the songs on that album were great songs and artists waited 1-2 years before bringing out a album

these days

they make a good hit, put 13 -15 tracks of bullsh#t and have the nerve
to call it a cd
and they come out every few months with a new cd

they sell way more music than the old schooler did because of better promotion

they got that from master p

i haven't brought a cd in years and i won't unless it is a old school cd that i just got to have

[AlienDust]

heh, michael jackson comes out . dr dre said f*** the police almost 20 years ago, how can you still hold that against him aliendust?

My point was just that he implied that he sold drugs to get himself started in the music industry, and was proud of it before he was rich. He used those acts to gain money, and help build himself up. Now that he's rich, he doesn't do that anymore, because he doesn't need to. But acts like HE'S THE EXCEPTION, meaning that if he wants to do something illegal for personal gain its ok, but now that he doesn't need to do illegal things anymore (because he is now rich from it) that no one else should be allowed to do anything that is against the law for their personal benefit. And I'm not saying that since Dr. Dre did something illegal, now everyone else should be allowed to break the law as well, I'm saying that he's a Hypocrite.

[dvdnew]

I remember a few years ago when you can buy tapes and CDs, I read that CDs were cheaper to manufacture than tapes, but the prices were 9.99 for tapes and 14.99 for CDs.

[DeadLamb]

I'm saying that he's a Hypocrite.

yeah I wonder about that too with some of the rap stars.. little strange to be still be rapping about gun this, gun that, shoot him, shoot her, stacking dough, being a pimp and having ak's and.......... errrr wait, is that a 15 year old girl with an iPod of my tunes?!?!? police!! Police!! Help help help get her name for my lawyer!.. Just strange is all..

as for MJ, he still own the rights to tons and tons of music from all sort of artists? So at least on some level he is talking about more then just music. Interesting..

Bought one in the first wave of CD players, back when Tower Records had 1/2 the store tapes and 1/2 the store records, with maybe one row of cd's.. New cd's were $15-17.. I still rem the guy going "Oh that is just for now, soon and they are out for a while they will be down to the cost of records and tapes"... flash forward 12+ years or so... errrrrr that first cd I bought is still now around $16 bucks.. sigh.. BS!

Of course as for mp3's.. I was buying 98% of my cd's used so I was "off the radar" as far as the stats for buy cd's long time ago.. Mp3 is just like a radio station / taped tunes to me.. Still not a replacement for a "good" cd with "good music" on it. Errrr but it seems fine for the bulk of the crap that is put out now..

[Gargoyle]

The only reason I ever DL MP3s (which isn't very often) is to see if I want to spend the money on buying the CD; i.e do I like the music, and is there more than 1 or 2 'good' songs on the CD.
What I don't understand is why the music industry continues to charge $12-20 for a CD! If a movie that costs upwards of $100 million to make can be bought on DVD (same manufacturing method) for $10-15;
then a music album should only cost $3-4, and that's being generous. If the greedy bast**ds in the RIAA lowered the price of a CD, I'll bet they would sell tons more, and still make plenty of money.

[Turtle D]

Man, I haven't really bought a CD in a while... for $20 a pop, that's crazy! The manufacturing process he definetly gotten cheaper. Where their problem is in is marketing. Spend less on marketing and more in the content of what is being put out. When artists put out good stuff, the marketing is word of mouth = no cost to Record Labels. Look at Slipknot. They sold over 1 million CDs without a video, radio airplay, or marketing. Sold all by word of mouth.

Now, let's look at Metallica, my favorite group. I own everything they have put out (with the exception of their new CD) on CD, tape, DVD or VHS. I have a Metallica tattoo on my shoulder. Now, let's look at content. I think their new CD is sh#t. I won't buy it. Download it, maybe, if they are lucky. Did I spend $85 on a ticket to see them this weekend here in Chicago, yes... and I happy... no.

If artists spend more time making quality music, maybe more people would buy it generating a lower price in single CD pricing. I would like to see maybe $7 - $10 per CD. When tapes were $9.99... the process was more expensive to produce. They have eliminated that cost, why are the prices now higher?

And, one last thing... awesome comment about an 18 track rap CD... 8 songs, 2 remixes, 8 skits... lmao...!!!!

-Dennis

[macleod]

daredevil wrote:

I've got a lot of mp3 but none (or very few) from internet, all coming from my own collection or from the public library.

I believe (at least here in the US) that music from the public library is not public domain. I just point that out because the way I read that sentence is that your own collection (which is legal in the US I believe) AND from the public libary were both OK.

Anyway, just wanted to point that out.

[CloudBurst]

Well the record labels and RIAA and whoever else has their hand in this cookie jar (which ironically usually does not include the artists) forgot the most useful motto to live by:

Live by the sword, die by the sword

Hell, these guys have been so high on a monopoly (collusion and price fixing) for so long that they make microsoft look like the new kid on the block. Great they lost a verdict on the price fixing so you only have to have a receipt from like 10 years ago and fill out paperwork for a whopping $15. What doesn't get used in the kiddy goes back to who...oh that's right...the record labels. Hell the only people who really made out in the deal were the lawyers (who are not top on my list either). And since they lost the verdict, how come the 17-20 dollar price-fixed CD still costs 17-20 dollars?

So along comes MP3 encoding and peer to peer, which made the downloading of songs quicker and more efficient than going to the store and buying a CD and standing in line and listening to some idiot counter-person (PC Disclaimer - I am not implying that all counter-people are idiot, I am only using the description to provide dramatic effect. So this description, my proud counter-person reader, probably does not apply to you). Well the downside to this is it's illegal as it breaks the 80,000 lifetime copyright act which, since corporations hardly ever truly die, stays with them the whole 80,000 lifetimes. Does this stop everybody from doing it, not really, after all it's only a slight bending of one's morals, to the point where it becomes the norm in society. So much so that the nearly computer illiterate people know what you are talking about when you say download an MP3 ( these are the same people who look for the 'any' key when they are prompted to press any key)

So what do the record labels do to combat this (other than sueing colledge kids and grandparents)? Nothing, absolutly nothing. They do not lower the CD prices, they do not provide better artwork on the sleeve covers, they do not add more "good" songs to the CD (subjective), they do not provide extra content (could be on a seperate disk) with the CD they just go about doing business as usual. This is also not some whinning they do nothing for me so screw them argument as it may seem, however, in a society where, if you blink, you are left behind, well I'm sorry bub but business as usual just doesn't cut it anymore. Well the cork is already out of the bottle and it is NOT going back in no matter how many people they sue. Either adapt or become obsolete, that's the new natural law. Hell it has taken Apple computers, a computer company, to come up with something that sorta resembles (but not quite) something that the Record companies shoulda had in house years ago if they really cared about adapting.

Do I feel sorry for all the artists who are losing money over people downloading the music, well somewhat. But the artists are also placing their future in an obsolete corporate environment that is sooo 20 years ago and REFUSES to adapt to the times. And for the record labels that whine that they are going broke because of people downloading songs I say whatever, they are still making money hand over fist, just less money hand over fist. And to the people that say that all music will dissappear if people continue to download music, I say that in it's current record label environment that may be true, but musicians will adapt faster than the record labels. There was music before record labels existed and there will be music after record labels disappear (if there is ever a scenario that they do)

On a side note, the one poster that said that cd's should cost 10 -15 dollars because they cost the same to produce as 10 -15 dollar DVD's forgot to take into account that a CD is actually cheaper to produce than a Dual Layered DVD so therefore should cost less than the 10 - 15 dollar DVD.

So flame away if you even bothered to read this far but I just call it like I see it.

[overloaded_ide]

Go to Wall Mart!
You can Buy Lethal weapon DVD for $5! Many more good movies and some not so good, All $5 DVD.

Also tons at $10!

Their is absolutely NO arguement that is reasonable for the prices of Cd's!
They do not cost millions to film! They do not have hundreds of people acting, film crews, stunt people, etc.... behind the scenes! They are DVDs, much better than CDs, newer, and hold more content!

SO compare I bought Lethal Weapon, Captin Bob, 2 Ernest movies, Several 2 disk sets etc.... and many more, all for only $5 each and tell me exactly WHY I am suposed to pay $20 for that moldy oldie cd of the best of so and so from the 60's or 70's????

Can we say RIP OFF boys and girls? So who is stealing from who??

I too as others have stated have stopped buying Cd's now! I'll buy em at yard sales or from a $1 bin on close out sales.

I don't pirate to speak of, but yes, I own it on 8track, cassettes, and even old phonograph records! SO I WILL download the songs if I can find them as MP3s sometimes. I already own the song, I have the right to listen to it!
It's none of thier business rather I have a working 8track player or not!

And even if I did want to buy the Cds, most are not for sale anyways so what to steal???