OK, here's my 2 c****
OK, this is now getting ridiculous - all I did was type c**** ...... as in 'dollars and c****'
(OK being serious now)
I can't seem to pin myself down to a fixed, generalized viewpoint which I feel is 'correct' - because I don't feel there can be a viewpoint
or solution which
can be applied universally.... which is what a lot of these kinds of discussions seem to end up searching for, in vein.
So instead I'll just go off on a massive philosophical tangental waffle ride..... jump onboard if you want.
...... otherwise skip to next post, no offense taken!
Whenever there is real change there is much upset. When the boat rocks stuff gets broken. Some of it is fair and justified some of it isn't. And on the subject of 'fairness' I also don't think we should use the past as a yard stick for fairness either just because it was stable and we were comfortable and safe with the status quo. Strictly speaking the old system (I mean traditional business models before the internet and other new technologies began this whole paradigm shift) was to a greater or lesser extent just as 'unfair' as today - David generally never stood a chance against Goliath ........... but it
was far more stable and fairly static and in many ways more comfortable. Everyone knew the rules. And that stability allowed everyone to get settled in their own area of expertise and
that enabled everyone to feel
secure and
safe and learn a craft and make a living at it. I think when you break it down it is often the threat to our security/ safety (and that of those around us who we rely on) which is the main issue that concerns us - it's about practical stuff - even if we discuss it as if it were intellectual/ ethical. OK so it's usually a mixture of both really.
The point I'm trying to make is that **increased freedom** (like an encounter with the truth) can be absolutely devastating...... meaning it can shake up or even destroy all that we relied on, that comfortable and 'fair' status quo.
These days we're all encouraged to 'embrace the future' and to worship, celebrate and above all have absolute faith in 'progress' as the solution to everything - even to all the problems that 'progress' has itself created. But what's commonly known as 'progress' actually amounts to no more than technological advances plotted against time -hardly something to put faith into! Sure, a 'Star Trek' technology based utopia is waiting for us at the end of the rainbow - but that is exactly where it will always remain. Yet alongside this blind faith in 'progress' we're also being heavily encouraged to stay locked into 'old paradigm' thinking regarding the implementation of ever more extreme rules, regulations, laws etc. This to me makes no sense at all - it's totally contradictory. There's can be no such thing as a dystopian utopia ... and don't believe anyone who tries to convince you otherwise!
Therefore IMHO the only viable solutions (applies to all areas of life) to the massive changes we see taking place will come from
our own equally (at the very least) original and imaginative paradigm shifted levels of thinking, attitudes and behaviour. If you drive across America you can use a variety of vehicles but once you hit the Pacific Ocean you need to totally change your thinking from 'wheel based' vehicles to 'hull based' vehicles - end of story. Well, we've hit the Pacific folks. The solution(s) to the challenges thrown up by technology will also have to come from somewhere entirely new and not by tweaking (or amplifying) old concepts and behaviours.
A lot of people kind of instinctively see how outdated a lot of the 'old paradigm' thinking is - how it was based on a hierarchy model based on centralized power and control that is now crumbling. But IMHO this new social/ business/ intellectual/ cultural anarchy (which is what it is) desperately needs something the old rigid system never really needed in order to function.
What this new system requires in order to work is:
personal responsibility.
That is why I applaud James' stance (and the fact he is
taking a stance) not so much because I agree with him (or disagree with him for that matter) but because thinking about this kind of stuff seriously and acting from the position of personal responsibility
has to be part of this whole revolution/ solution/ paradigm shift. Whether we like it/ realise it or not we are actually all gaining enormous power as individuals - the evidence for this is that how we think/ behave has a huge impact on the world around us in a way it couldn't have even a few short years ago when we were never anything more than mere consumers and/ or tiny cogs in a machine that was far bigger than we were.
Today, increasingly, we're more than just consumers - we are
participants - (even if most of us are still behaving like consumers) therefore choosing to support this, support that, copy this, buy that, spread this information, create this software, join this community, spread this idea ..... all of these things have very real and immediate consequences! If that isn't the evidence of our increased power and the need for responsibility in directing that power then tell me what else is it?
We are used to thinking of responsibility in terms of 'ethics' - doing the right thing - but today it is becoming far more than 'just' ethics (not that I'm downplaying the importance of good ethics!) - it is also now increasingly about POWER too. How we ordinary plebs CHOOSE to behave today really does increasingly have the POWER to influence and even create the world we get back in return.
In that sense I feel that (part of) the paradigm shift is realizing that we even have to stop thinking in terms of being 'obedient' because that's 'the law' or whatever ... obedience is NOT responsibility. Instead we need to think (I mean as a society) in terms of being truly responsible - as a consequence/ necessity of having personal power/ personal freedom. Responsibility and freedom go hand in hand and each enhances the other. An attitude and true understanding of responsibility in this sense goes way, way, WAY beyond mere obedience.
Obedience is about respecting the authority and power of others (like 'mummy and daddy' who provided all our needs so we should be obey them as a consequence) - and mummy and daddy will tell us this is being 'responsible' - it is not, it is being obedient.
Obedience is limitation - hardly in keeping with today's mood of unprecedented change and expansion in all areas of human civilization is it?! No one is interested in being obedient and for good reason - it's now a completely out dated motivation.... even if most people haven't quite figured out what exactly is the new motivation!
Personable responsibility on the other hand is all about engaging with freedom, power, expansion, possibilities, taking on new concepts and far more in step with the fast pace of change and empowerment we see all around us. It cannot be stressed enough how the obedient/ dutiful attitude is simply not good enough (intelligent enough) to motivate people in these times. We need to drop it and evolve beyond it. Just like we evolved beyond human slavery, women as inferior etc which were once accepted as normal, unchangeable attitudes and behaviour.
Increased power and freedom will never, ever make people more obedient - it will make them LESS obedient! And rightly so! And so any system relying on obedience at its core is doomed to fail ... and, again, rightly so!
We need to think in the age we are in - it is an age of personal freedom and expansion of technology, ideas, etc Those who want to resist this inevitable evolution will try and impose more (outside) control and enforce obedience. Those who see where we really are will look instead towards a new fresh mood of personal responsibility as a compliment to our personal freedom/ empowerment. This widening difference in approaches applies as perfectly to the music/ recording industry as it does to the wider world. You can see this split in everything that is going on today!
The thing is: people alive today (in the Western world anyway) haven't really had a true taste of proper responsibility/ power - because the western world is far more controlled by 'authority' than anywhere else on the planet. That is why they are still thinking in terms of obedience (for instance with copy protection) which is why when they have the freedom to be disobedient (piracy etc) they take it! In this sense a culture of obedience actually leads to irresponsibility! (ie naughty children)
So now that thanks to technology (internet, software etc etc) we are increasingly able to do everything ourselves (or amongst ourselves) personal responsibility is becoming more about us all choosing to create the kind of industries / culture/ society that we want for ourselves ..... for instance by supporting the aspects of industries / culture/ society that we
value voluntarily (when we could just as easily get away with
not supporting it, not valuing it and making use of free and usually second rate alternatives). It is a testament to the crazy corporate world (and it's associated notions of obedience) that we have been living in for so long that the idea of voluntarily (as opposed to reluctantly) and actively supporting our own industry/ culture / future (!) seems like such a radical (and quite frankly ridiculous) idea.
The point I am making is this: It really doesn't matter what rules, regulations, copy protection systems etc are or are not in place - until we relearn how to value stuff again no one will be particularly willing to support it. The way we will learn to value stuff again is to take back control of it and learn about the consequences of personal responsibility (or lack thereof)
for ourselves - which is exactly what we are all now in a position to do, and what is starting to happen. It is really all about just growing up! Being
consumers has given us all such a childish/ teenage like attitude.... hence the 'wild party' that is piracy and the whole irresponsible attitude in culture generally ...but eventually even teenagers get bored of drinking neat vodka, setting fire to their parents' back garden and filling the swimming pool with jelly ... eventually irresponsibility (and the mess it produces) gets very, very boring.....
-o-
Moving on.... as much as I love DP I think it is just inevitable that the brand of DAW we use will become increasingly irrelevant - just as the way our electricity is generated is something we don't worry about these days (OK so energy production is maybe not such very good analogy, but you see what I'm getting at).
What I mean is that the concept of
defending that which we rely on (for instance DP) - defending its 'right' to exist is really a 'legacy concept' (to coin a new phrase!) from the deeply hierarchical old school business model. It is 'king of the castle' mentality. It's no longer appropriate. I don't mean we shouldn't care what happens to DP, but we need to be thinking more in terms of 'mutually championing/ supporting/ protecting' what we
value and not merely trying to defend what we (seek to) own/ control (there's too many people with a hand on the steering wheel now for the second model to work).
And this leads back again to
personal responsibility and it requires that we (the general public) all do something truly revolutionary: think about stuff and actually have an opinion about what we really want, what direction we want the industry/ culture/ the world to go in etc. For example: do we want the music industry (and culture in general) to go (further) down the drain or get more interesting again? These are revolutionary questions to ask because to even ask them seriously is to assume the power to answer them! (BTW sorry if this is all getting too Yoda-ish!)
Because, given that we all have access to the technology and the tools and means of communication it really is up to us (if enough of us decide to assume that responsibility). There is absolutely no reason why we have to all take responsibility - but if we don't then someone else will be in calling all the shots.
There was a time when questioning the direction we want things to go in would have been irrelevant - because we had no control, we all knew our place and all had our niche (it was unfair, in a literal sense, but it
was stable and secure). And I know many would argue that we ('the people'!) have less control now than ever before. I do get that, I really do - but I think that's just an old out of date
idea that just hasn't been properly challenged yet. Ideas are powerful things! It cuts both ways.
Like the 6 billion dollar man - "we have the technology" .... and when this outdated idea is challenged it will fall like Goliath.
I guess what I'm suggesting is that because now that any old David can compete with any Goliaths out there that we are heading towards a world filled with Davids and without any Goliaths.... and as a consequence of this our basic attitudes (whether we are making music, recording music, making software etc) have to change to reflect this new situation.
Culturally, socially and in terms of business it's a bit like we are all changing from being employee status to being self employed status. When you are a corporate employee you can steal all the stationary you like ..... this attitude doesn't work so well when you are self employed! Again it's all about figuring out the difference between mere obedience and actual responsibility.
It's corporations that are clinging on desperately (I mean look at them - it's pathetic! LOL) ...... the rest of us have got to learn to
let go a little ... free your mind .... only those who can go with the flow will survive / prosper ............ BUT to go with the flow these days means to radically change our attitudes, behaviours, outlooks, mindsets ....
To sit back and watch what happens and expect the future to deliver while clinging to old ways is NOT going with the flow ....
The potential problems / solutions surrounding software competition, copyright and digital information etc are numerous and will keep on coming (as in everything else in life) .... that is
why our mindsets, attitudes, philosophy, intelligence, critical thought, imagination and sense of personal (and collective) responsibility (as a recognition of our personal and collective power!) are soooooooo crucial right now - more so now than ever before. This may all seem irrelevant or fanciful - and in fact this is exactly the problem, because the solutions have come from a more evolved, 'higher' perspective (and be implemented with a mood of voluntarism) because we
are all becoming more responsible/ powerful ... whether we like it or not!
If we can get
that attitude right, figure out our priorities then the inevitable 'rocky boat ride through the choppy seas of rapid technological change' will at least be heading in roughly the right direction - which is all that matters... seriously that's the only thing that really matters!
It must not have the numbers or didn't place highly enough in SOS's sacred user poll or you could bet your bottom Euro it would exist. Probably the toy perception as you stated. Reaper suffered from the same perception, and SOS coverage is going a long way to change that. Another difference is Apple makes no pretense of charging for it do they? Not sure. Do you even need a serial number to install GB?
