Barry's Bulletin #4

Teaching About Napster:

a Case of Theft or Liberation?

by Barry Duncan

Started two years ago, Napster is the controversial file-sharing service which recently has had a U.S. federal injunction to block global access to thousands of recordings. On March 6, a federal judge ordered the song swopping service to remove copyrighted material in its system. Napster allows consumers to sample music at random. The number of users went from 1.1 million in its early stages to 64 million in March.

Critics assert that the industry is paranoid and unwilling to innovate and must take part of the blame. "The record industry has been sitting pretty for many years and Napster is a wake-up call," says Brahm Eiley, President of Convergence Consulting Group in Toronto. Recent surveys indicate that that Napster users are more likely to buy CDs than non-users and are more willing to pay for on-line music services as well. However, Brian Robertson of the Canadian Recording Industry Association asserts "The writing is on the wall. There's a whole generation of young people growing up with the view that they don't have to buy sound recordings. If that continues, there's obviously less music available to enjoy in the future."

Thanks to pressure from Napster's phenomenal success, the industry is now proposing new ways of legally downloading music through paid subscriptions and various user fees. Vivendi and Sony have announced plans to launch a "virtual jukebox. However, the techies and hackers continue to find loop - holes in the system that allow them to down load Napster. Now that people have had a taste of freedom, it is going to be difficult to ask them to go back to the old ways. Clearly, there is a potential gold mine on the Web. Andersen Consulting estimates on-line music sales will reach 3.2 billion (U.S.) by 2005.

In the last ten years, everything in the entertainment business has led to centralized control. The success of Napster is obviously an exercise in decentralization which is full of exciting possibilities as well as perils for musicians and producers.

N.B. Canadian copyright differs from American and in the case of Napster would appear to provide some interesting loopholes. To grasp some speculations about how Canadian law might apply, read Professor Michael Geist's column from the Glob e ∓ Mail. Here is the lengthy URL www.globetechnology.com/servlet/GAMArticleHTMLTemplate?tf=globetechnology/TGAM/EBusinessFullStory.html∓cf=globetechnology/tech-config-neutral∓slug=TWGEIS∓date=20000727

• Brainstorm the pros and cons of Napster. Who has used it? Explain how the software works. To what extent have people acquired new tastes in music because of the ready access to the thousands of recordings?
• Copyright law bestows certain rights on both producers and users. For example, there has been a 'fair use' clause in copyright which allows people to sample other people's works. One thinks of rappers who sample other musicians' work in their songs. But copying whole albums, CDs and videotape is illegal (N.B. There is a U.S. copyright privilege that states that this is acceptable for non-commercial use.) but has become socially acceptable. What do you think of the ethics of copying?
• The music business is complex and includes many stages before there is a finished product. Research the costs for producing and selling a CD. You must consider the physical production cost, calculate the marketing budget which can be astronomical, reckon with the challenge of effective distribution, arrange for deals of returned CDs which are not selling, figure out a store's overhead and the royalties owing to performers. Although the CD may only cost a dollar to produce, these other aspects must be factored into the final price. Does this kind of information change your mind about the economics of the music industry?
• With everyone freely swopping bits, how will artists and writers who created those bits get paid for their efforts? Brainstorm some workable solutions. What do you think would be good compromises for the music industry to make?
• Debate Courtney Love's observation: "Stealing our copyright provisions in the dead of night when no-one is looking is piracy. It's not piracy when kids swap music over the Internet using Napster. There were one billion downloads last year but music sales are way up, so how is Napster hurting the music industry? It's not. The only people who are scared of Napster are the people who have filler on their albums and are scared that if people hear more than one single they're not going to buy the album." - Courtney Love, NME, 6/29/2000
• Discuss the following question from media teacher Andrew Driska: "Who are the real thieves? Napster users or the record companies who have shot CD prices through the roof? It is important to detach artists from the recording industry; they are not part of it, they simply use it to make a living.
• Do you agree that without copyright laws there will be no impulse to create? Andrew Driska points out:"This has to be one of the greatest propaganda lines of the capitalist system. The assumption that artists only create for money is shallow and only a business culture could come up with a line so insultingly dumb. The impulse to create happens regardless of your financial situation. Most bands have very humble beginnings. They tolerated low-paying jobs and living in slums so they might get together with their band and play music every night. When they get signed by the industry, they see it as getting paid to do something you love, and they rarely sign so they can get rich Industrial people are and musicians are two different kinds of people. To an industrialist, the primary motivation is money; to the artist the primary motivation is art." What is your response to these observations?
• Use the following quotes from artists to discuss some advantages of Napster. N.B. These are positive ones except for Metallica. Examine several quotes and defend or refute the arguments.

  "From day one our fight has always been to protect the rights of artists who chose not to have their music exploited without consent. The court's decision validates this right and confirms that Napster was wrong in taking not only Metallica's music but other artists who do not want to be a part of the Napster system and exploiting it without their approval. We are delighted that the Court has upheld the rights of all artists to protect and control their creative efforts. The 9thCircuit Court has confirmed that musicians, songwriters, filmmakers, authors, visual artists and other members of the creative community are entitled to the same copyright protections online that they traditionally been afforded offline. " - Metallica Feb 12, 2001

  "Napster could be a great way for people to hear your music who wouldn't have the chance to hear it on the radio." - Madonna, Rolling Stone, 9/28/2000

  "Most people I know who use Napster listen to stuff they'venever heard before. And then they get psyched and go out and buy the damn records. It's more like a sampler." - Ian MacKaye, recording artist, Fugazi, and co-owner of Dischord Records - Salon.com, 1/8/2001

  "We have just finished a tour, we played in Barcelona, the next day the entire performance was up on Napster and three weeks later when we got to play in Israel the audience knew the words to all the new songs and it was wonderful. Digital music is just one of many things that contribute to an artist getting their message across. Of course it is going to change record companies are going to have to embrace it and change with it and find different ways of getting revenue, maybe using Napster as a business model for their own on-line thing." - Colin Greenwood (Radiohead), NME, 9/28/2000

  "Napster: It is the future, in my opinion. That's the way music is going to be communicated around the world. The most important thing now is to embrace it, and that was the spirit by which we did this co-promotion." - Dave Matthews (Dave Matthews Band), referring to his band's recent Featured Music promotion with Napster, Billboard.com, 2/9/2001

  "We believe that the Internet and Napster should not be ignored by the music industry as tools to promote awareness for bands and market music." - Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit)

  "We should think of (Napster) as a new kind of radio-a promotional tool that can help artists who don't have the opportunity to get their music played on mainstream radio or on MTV," - Chuck D, New York Times, 4/30/2000

Napster Simulation Game

In preparation for a debate and/or simulation game, participants should check out several Web sites, both official( www.napsterr.com) and unofficial. Check out the Web sites and assess the arguments from both sides. As in any debate, it is essential to anticipate the arguments against your position. NB. The tricky part of this role - playing exercise will be to find students, mostly pro Napster, arguing the industry point of view.

Role play the following representatives of the different factions in the debate about Napster:

• record industry executives who like the current system and want to keep the status quo.
• artists who feel they are being unfairly exploited by the system and who believe ultimately that they gain from having open access to music files.
• artists such as Metallica who despise Napster and believe their income has been harmed by the exchange of music files.
• Napster users who believe that the record industry has had excessive profits and exploited their artists, especially those who are not super stars.
• Napster users who may not have an axe to grind but sing Napster's praises because the system has served to developed their musical tastes thanks to the incredible quantity and range of choice.
• How might the future of both the entertainment business and our current delivery of education be radically altered if we were to take the Napster example to its logical conclusion? This would be a digital universe in which decentralization would be the norm and we would all be encouraged to share our files of diverse materials from songs to books. What is your response to this vision?

After reading her cover story in Maclean's Magazine, March 15, a few random thoughts about why Naomi Klein has been genuinely successful

• Published at the young age of 29, No Logo is her first book. It involved four demanding years of solid, painstaking research. She writes brilliant, polished prose and makes sometimes abstract, cultural and economic ideas understandable by her colourful anecdotes. There are many passages throughout the book which sizzle with journalistic panache.
• She was the right person at the right time to look at the long term implications of marketing, corporate control and public space. No Logo was published by a mainstream publisher - Random House and benefited by wide spread circulation internationally. It has been translated into seven languages.
• She has an experienced publicist. Her punishing schedule of talks, media encounters (Many more in April because of the controversial Summit of the Americas in Quebec city) and consultations have been well managed. As a weekly columnist for the Globe ∓ Mail she provides us with a useful update on her No Logo thesis.
• It is an amazing success and NoLogo is the number one best selling non-fiction book in Canada. Now some jealous critics are taking pot shots. After all she is young ,bright, attractive, composed, speaks well and has a quiet but intense charisma. Yes, ironically, Naomi Klein is almost a brand and she has been described as " the champagne warrior princess of the ant-corporate movement." And No Logo is,arguably, the most important and most readable book for media teachers and cultural workers to read in the past year.

Announcing a new e-journal

Announcing the first issue of Studies in Media ∓ Information Literacy Education (SIMILE), a new e-journal published by the University of Toronto Press. The journal is intended to be an electronic meeting place for anyone and everyone interested in the broad subject of media literacy. The journal will be published four times per year, in February, May, August, and November. Each issue will contain three or four full-length refereed articles from scholars approaching media literacy from a wide variety of perspectives. There will also be comments about these articles (more about this feature below). Special care will be taken to include viewpoints from outside North America.

SIMILE hopes to bring together scholars and educators at all levels from the research university to the grade school to the community college and everything in between. The submission of theoretically-based work that has been tested and applied in the field-the kind of work that demands collaboration between university-based researchers and, for example, high school teachers-is strongly encouraged.

The articles in this issue are scholarly but accessible. One deals in an interesting way with The Simpsons, using the concept of post-modernism. Another one deals with media research through tracking the activities of a media teacher. Another looks at children and television as reported from New Zealand.

Protest In Quebec City April 20-22: Anticipating the Media Coverage

On April 20-22, the free-trade Summit of the Americas will be held in Quebec city. Already it is a controversial event because of the anticipated protests and what has been seen by some as excessive security measures in response to the success of protesters in the' Battle in Seattle' last spring. It is axiomatic that the media love conflict. 'If it bleeds, it leads' is by now a cliche and the visual drama in Quebec city will be tailor- made to the lead stories in the daily news. What happens to an event when all sides from protesters to the government reps and corporate spokespersons play up to the media? Media coverage will range from clashes with police and the military to interviews with high profile leaders at the summit and some coverage on the alternative and parallel conference(s) taking place The summit is,therefore, an ideal media studies case study for scrutinizing bias, intentional or otherwise, and power relations and the creation of news stories which tend to support the dominant ideologies. What is omitted will often be as important as what we are allowed to see.

• Throughout April and May acquire your basic Summit resources through organizing files, book marking Web sites, and clipping newspapers and magazine articles. Tape a variety of newscasts, especially during the summit. Try to get variety. For example, try to compare traditional right of center coverage (small c conservative) versus left of centre (small l liberal), seek out right - wing newspapers such as the National Post versus the slightly left of centre Toronto Star and the slightly right of centre Globe ∓ Mail. The Washington Post and New York Times will also take different editorial positions. Before April 22 try to explain these differences. Look for what Barrie Zwicker calls "pre-summit spin" - statements that appear intended to influence how the public should interpret the Summit. N.B. after the summit, "post- summit spin will be about how the public should interpret the event.
• Marshall McLuhan pointed out in his famous phrase, "The medium is the message" that each medium will cover the major conflicts of an event in different ways. This is because each medium has its own inherent biases, sensory and technological. Try to determine the difference in the messages from learning about the summit through radio and television compared with impressions formed through newspapers and magazines. To what extent do the images of both the official representatives and the protesters change according to the medium involved in the coverage?

The media have been accused of intensifying a conflict through over emphasis well in advance on riots and protests and their destructive, negative fallout. This tendency combined with what many believe is excessive security measures for the summit can only aggravate the conflict. Toronto media critic Barrie Zwicker comments: "The media salivate when they talk about Quebec city and the probability of violence with the result that the positive views for global changes get put aside." Find evidence of fear mongering tactics and try to reach a consensus on its impact.

Debate the following assertion:"I am pleased that the true undemocratic nature of the Canadian government is being so starkly revealed by these extreme measures that they're taking. This is a wake-up call to all Canadians that we don't live in a democracy." Duff Connacher, chair of the Government Ethics Coalition and coordinator of Democracy Watch, an Ottawa watchdog group. Toronto Star March 17, 2001

• How much coverage is given to the parallel conferences e.g. The Council of Canadians, The Peoples' Summit April 20-23 Is it fair and adequate coverage? Explain.
• Follow the coverage in alternative sources such as www.indymedia.com and www.straightgoods.com. What do you learn from these sources that mainstream media coverage fails to address?
• Role play and/ or stage a debate in which you agree to play the part of various representatives and protesters with their distinctive ideological positions Here are some roles to conside:
  • Government officials who often work secretly with leaders from other countries who believe that free trade has given us jobs, that our economy is better off, and that free enterprise has served us well.
  • Groups such as The Council of Canadians, environmentalists, concerned citizens not officially linked to a specific group, all of whom believe that unless major pressure of a non-violent nature is brought to bear on governments that we will end up surrendering our economic, cultural and social rights to transnational corporations.
  • Representatives from corporations who will want special trade advantages and, if necessary, deregulation of laws about the environment.
  • Hard core activists - people who are prepared to fight and destroy property. (They were quoted in The Toronto Star article on "Fortress Quebec," March 17. "We are interested in nothing less than the destruction of the table of capitalism.")
• How would you assess the media coverage of each of these groups before, during and after the Summit?
• As an exercise in constructing meaning, cut out photographs in magazines and newspapers which show conflict. Show how the captions serve to anchor the meaning. To put you in the driver's seat, choose some dramatic examples and write your own captions, thus changing the meaning. If you have access to Len Masterman's book "Teaching the Media," you could photocopy the exercise in which we are given photographs of a protest and police skirmish and below each, two sets of captions with opposite meanings. One set of captions makes the police look like likeable officers of the law and in the other, they come off looking like vicious, repressive goons.

The following write-up comes from the on-line anarchist web site. What is your response to this news item? Write a press release from a government spokesperson in which you offer a critique to the anarchist on-line editor.

Resisting capitalist globalization ...
Mobilizing for Quebec City ...
Creating radical alternatives ...

Next April 20-22, 2001, Quebec City has the dubious honor of hosting the Summit of the Americas, which brings together the 34 heads of state of North, South and Central America, as well as the Caribbean (except Cuba). Besides the usual scare-mongering about security and terrorism, and empty rhetoric about democracy and human rights, the stated purpose of the Summit will be to put the final touches on the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement. The Summit of the Americas meeting will be largest police and security operation in Canadian history, all while the 34 leaders and an entourage of big business elites, technocrats and corporate media enjoy their cocktail parties, gala dinners and public relations spectacles.

The FTAA extends the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) to the entire hemisphere, and is to be implemented by no later than 2005.

Resources:

"Straight Goods" is an on-line watchdog working for Canadian consumers and citizens. The purpose of Straight Goods is to help you save money, protect your rights and untangle spin with investigative reports, features, forums, archives, and links to many others who share our values. The current edition has a feature entitled "A Dummie's Guide to the Quebec Protest." There are valuable links to many sources throughout. www.straightgoods.com

Media Education Summer Schools

Media Lit graduate program this summer in North Carolina:

Canadian media literacy pioneer, Barry Duncan, will teach one of the three, one- week sessions in media literacy at North Carolina's Appalachian State University in July of 2001. The first session starts on July 9th. This class is simply called Media Literacy and will be taught by David Considine. The five day program will look at principles of media literacy as well as media literacy and curriculum connections. The emphasis for study will be magazines, photo journalism, movies, advertising and news. The second class, starting July 16th will be a hands-on creative one: Digital Production.

Barry Duncan's class is scheduled to run the week of July 23rd.This class will examine media literacy from a global perspective, including the impact of U.S. media on other cultures. Duncan will include an examination of critical pedagogy and demonstrate both his famous mall crawl [deconstruction] and no doubt his equally famous loon call. We are already accepting students from overseas for these sessions. Early registration will run April 5th- 24th. We can offer on campus housing for approximately $50 per night which includes 3 meals. ASU offers a 36 hour masters program in media literacy, and an 18 hour certificate of completion. Summer sessions are open to non- degree seeking students. We are also offering some classes online during full term semesters. This is useful for students who start a degree on campus in summer and then continue their studies online from their home state.

For information about the content of classes, the campus location or registration contact David Considine directly:

Fax 828 262 2686 Phone 828 262 2270
Email- Considinedm@appstate.edu website for our program:

Introductory Additional Qualification Course

For Ontario teachers, York University in Toronto is offering an introductory Additional Qualification course in Media Studies August 13-17 with additional sessions in the Fall. Instructors are Neil Andersen, Barry Duncan and Ian Esquivel. Contact baduncan@interlog.com

The Final Word

"No populist movement emerges full blown, knowing what it wants and how to get it. The values, goals, policies, and strategy of this movement are still to be worked out, not from some authority on high, but on a day-to-day basis, by groups around the world with a diversity of passions and beliefs. But one thing is clear: civil society politics are the politics of the 21st century. It is time to take them seriously."
From "Global Showdown: How the new activists are fighting global corporate rule," by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke,(Stoddart), 2001.