What Would Thomas Jefferson Do?

originally published July 23, 2008

The music editor for Flagpole, Michelle Gilzenrat, wrote an article (Liner Notes, "Do It Legally," Apr. 16) concerning the illegal downloading of popular songs. I read the article with some dismay, as it contained factual and historical errors, and because it explicitly encouraged readers to engage in illegal activities, i.e., the illegal downloading of popular songs.

Illicit online trafficking in music, made possible by computers and high-speed Internet services, is now a fact of life, something well-understood by anyone associated with the music industry. But Ms. Gilzenrat’s article displayed a flippancy towards this rampant theft of intellectual property that I find unbecoming to the seriousness of the subject.

The Constitution of the United States of America ensures that creative people will have the right to control the distribution of their intellectual property. Consult Article 1, Section 8 of that document for clarity:

The Congress shall have the Power... to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.

Fact is, Thomas Jefferson himself was obsessed with patent and copyright law, and insisted upon elevating those concepts to the status of sacred and inalienable rights. He felt that doing so would serve as a powerful stimulus to the creativity of the American people, igniting a cultural and economic explosion. He was absolutely correct.

So, seeing as copyright law is enshrined in the Constitution, and seeing as the Constitution was officially the law of the land as of 1788, that makes copyright law not so “flimsy” and not so “modern,” contrary to what Ms. Gilzenrat wrote. Ms. Gilzenrat’s article also quoted the folks at the “Electronic Frontier Foundation” in declaring copyright law as being "detrimental." What other parts of our Constitution shall we declare to be ”detrimental,” I wonder?

It doesn't require much technical skill to steal music anymore. No printing press and no CD burner required. In this point-and-click world, even children can rip off their favorite artists with ease. If humans could figure out how to steal bread and butter with no real consequences, then they would do so. That's human nature. But let’s be honest: if a person steals music, then they are criminals, and no amount of post-modern pseudo-logic will change that.

As for computers, the fact that technology now allows us to steal from each other, from the comfort of our own homes, and with little chance of repercussion, well, that’s a shame. But please understand: If you remove the incentive to create, innovate and excel by removing the major source of potential financial reward, then the best and brightest will cease to work in that particular field. As my grandfather used to say: you gotta feed a cow if you want to milk it.

Big record companies: a thing of the past? Perhaps. But the demonization of record companies that we've witnessed over the past few decades masks a deep ignorance of how those companies impacted our society for the better. They served as talent scouts, identifying, developing, and marketing some of the finest artistic talent this world has ever seen, and with immeasurable positive impact on America, and on its cultural influence around the world. Did these companies frequently betray their own artists in the process? Yes. Did they foist cheesy non-talent on us at any opportunity? Of course. But the good they did outweighed the bad, by a long shot. Where would we be if a major record label hadn’t taken a last-ditch chance on The Beatles? What kind of Western world would we live in if EMI hadn’t given those four scruffy lads from Liverpool a shot at the brass ring?

I agree that we must "work together to find some creative and innovative solutions" to the problem. But what exactly is the problem? Ms. Gilzenrat feels that the problem lies within the industry, not with the consumer. I, on the other hand, think that much of the blame for what is wrong with the industry falls on the consumer. Nobody in the music industry is "criminalizing the music fan." The only people doing the criminalizing are the music fans who steal music. And the ironic fact remains, glaring and irrefutable: it was the most affluent among us who spearheaded the rise of illegal file-sharing. Oh, the humanity, that those most able to afford the things we all so greedily consume were the ones to ignite an orgy of wanton thievery…

As for "fair use practices" and "protected consumer behaviors": so, outright theft is now "protected consumer behavior"? The fact that the record industry has been run by a bunch of greedy, tin-eared corporate monkeys for the past few decades is no excuse for American citizens to descend, wholesale, into base criminality.

The record industry is not in "absolute chaos." It's in a state of decline, due largely to the fact that a great number of Americans have come to hold a very blurry idea of the distinction between right and wrong, between legal and illegal, between morally upstanding and morally corrupt. We have become a nation of thieves and malcreants. The music industry isn't trying to "impose flimsy laws" on anyone; they are trying to enforce Constitutional law. The idea that digital technology somehow erases or negates our rights and obligations as citizens under the Constitution is a disastrous lapse in common sense and rational thought.

There's really only one solution to the problem: we must again become a nation of people who value the law. We must strive to be educated and engaged citizens. We must learn again to value what is of inherent value, and we must turn away from behaviors and fascinations which lead us ever closer to peril. That's a tall order at this point in history, I know.

What a shameful thing that so many of us hold so little respect for musical artists: those rare, brave individuals who gift us with transcendent moments of insight and clarity, moments of emotional catharsis, and moments of joy in lives which, for so many of us, are so full of trial and travail.

But we've chosen the cheap and easy path, one which will cause us to suffer in coming years. We cannot debate the declining state of the music business without acknowledging that a general malaise has descended upon us as a nation, across all social, political and cultural boundaries. We are debasing ourselves, as a culture and as a people. We have chosen the wrong leaders, the wrong foods, the wrong entertainments, the wrong economic choices, and the wrong lifestyle choices. We have cheapened and lowered ourselves, and we have whored ourselves to easy credit. We have become addicted to endless consumption and perilous self-indulgence.

The bill is coming due. Do we have what it takes to pay that bill? Probably not. We don't even bother to pay our favorite musicians for the beauty they give us. We just greedily seize their offerings for free, and dare them to complain.

If you starve the cow, the cow stops giving milk. That’s what country folk used to call “common sense.”

Jimmy Johnson