Re: Re: Zoe Keating in NY Times article.@borisfx.com

[Rick Walker <looppool@cruzio.com>]

I get a lot of 'quit crying over spilt milk'  kinds of responses
to my own anger about the way that music and musicians have been so 
devalued
in our culture due to the new paradigm shift of downloading (and the 
demise of the CD)

I know it's not going to change (though I have some powerful friends who 
are attempting to
come up with a new paradigm---more on that later),
but what I've noticed is that people are really uncomfortable about
anger being expressed openly in a public forum,  but they seem completely
okay with the major companies being completely usurous and exploitive.
It's a sort of <shrugs shoulders> "regretful but that's the way it is 
and we
are powerless over it."

At the same time,  major corporations spend millions of dollars trying to
improve their images through the media (look at BP after their Gulf of 
Mexico
debacle)...........the major corporations DO listen to public opinion 
and they
do respond when there is a grass roots surge of protest.  Even the 
largest company
on earth, currently,  Apple,  is suddenly scrambling
to try and bring some of their manufacturing back onto US soil because of
universal public displeasure at the disclosures about the slave wage 
conditions
of their Chinese manufacturing sites.

At one point in this country in the last century,
  the major industries heavily exploited their laborers and they rose up
against them and the Labor Unions were created and Child Labor laws
were created and the 40 hour work week was established............all
humanizing and positive influences in our culture.

It took,  however,  major displeasure by the government and industry
and a lot of indignant anger and organizing to forge those changes.

iTunes,  Spotify,  Pandora and their ilk are 
exploitive..........period.   point.   dot.
Apple went from a cool 'underground'  artsy company to the largest 
multi-media
(indeed, purely the largest) company on the planet,   partially because 
of their
technological innovation and partially because of this very exploitation.

Why don't we all just say "NO,  not any more"  to these people?

It has nothing to do with being an old fart.