Response to Music Downloads and Copyright Issues

When I began, I wanted to write a scathing letter to Lars Ulrich to chastise him for his childish behavior over the whole Napster thing back in 2000. But, that is long ago and far away. What bugs me now is this article about Nine Inch Nails. In that article, Reznor's band grossed over $1.6 MILLION dollars from an online download of their comprehensive, 36 track album Ghosts I-IV. His total cost: ~$38 dollars. Notice in that article that he gets to "[keep] ownership of the master recordings and 100 percent of royalties." That's right. Take that first figure, $1,619,420 USD, and subtract $38 USD. What do you come up with? I calculated that to be $1, 619, 382 USD after you subtract the cost of putting that album up for sale. I understand that this profit must cover other costs as well, but in my mind, based on a modest budget, he should be keeping a grand portion of those dollars in his pocket.

With that logic, let's now take a look at a few other facts about Reznor. According to MusicUnited.org, he's up in arms about the downloading of his music by the public, his fanbase. He is quoted towards the bottom of that page, pull up a "find" box using the control key and the "f" key at the same time, then type in Reznor, click find, and you're there. He says: "There’s nothing wrong with giving some tracks away or bits of stuff that’s fine. But it’s not everybody’s right." He later says that he "loves technology." I would have to agree with that statement as being true for him. He does seem to love technology when it is of greatest monetary value to himself.

Now, we have another article where Reznor speaks again. He says: "Steal it. Steal away. Steal, steal and steal some more and give it to all your friends and keep on stealing." You can even watch him on a fans video recording through YouTube. Compare this speech to his previous comments about giving out music: "There’s nothing wrong with giving some tracks away or bits of stuff that’s fine. But it’s not everybody’s right." That's right, he's telling his fans to steal his music since his record company has his album priced too high.

I'm sorry, but this does not gel in my mind. I cannot understand how it is wrong to steal sometimes, but exactly in line to steal others. This goes against everything I was ever taught as a child and what every person will find on the "laws" tab at MusicUnited.org. Under the law, there is no exception for overbearing record executive holding the purse strings too tightly. The law says that "stealing" music through P2P downloads and sharing copies is illegal. Another commentor on the Wired Blog shared a link to a PDF file that states Reznor made $2 million instead of the reported $1.6 million. The validity of this piece is unconfirmed at this time, but more research could be done.