[dzagama]

We all agree that the RIAA is outmoded and exploitative.

We all agree that artists should be able to make a living and maintain all rights to their art.

What we disagree on is assigning value to something as metaphysically arbitrary as digital content.

However, the analog world is similarly an arbitrary distribution of matter and momentum.

We can argue that an MP3 file is effectively a hexadecimal number; people are assigning value to numbers; yet, isn't that true of the universe in general?

A live performance is simply the arbitrary position and vibration of matter. All of which can be represented by a sufficiently large integer, or sequence of integers.

All information, all literature, even the state of the entire, fucking, Universe, can be represented as an integer.

However, seeing it this way, seeing the truth, is seeing the trees and not the forest.

Only a few integers, out of the infinite void, in a similarly arbitrary way, give us a feeling of enjoyment.

Only a few, of the infinite arrangements of atoms, are functionally useful.

Perhaps it's not the number we assign value to in a Capitalistic economy.

Perhaps it's the process of discovering the pleasurable/useful integers and arrangements of matter that we reward with value.

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Anyways, I'm happy with the status quo of artists having the option to release content under whatever license they choose. And being able to sue the pants off of people who break that license.

I'll continue to boycott institutions which abuse that system.