Ad Terras Per Aspera

The New York Times is running an article about the public discussion between Lawrence Lessig (the Stanford University professor who is so against criminalized file sharing it hurts) and Jeff Tweedy (the leader of the band Wilco).

They both agree that people have a right to culture, and I agree with them. I’m always on the look out for something new. Something that is actually new, and isn’t the same rap or pop rehash you find on MTV or VH1, something that isn’t complete shit. The only way to do this is to download it: I’m not buying a CD if I don’t know what it sounds like first. If I did that, I would be potentionally rewarding them for producing shit.

I also think that by attempting to shut out people who want to distribute your music over the Internet (who ultimately are your fans) is an unbelievably stupid thing. Free bandwidth to distribute things is hard to come by, so is free publicity. If you want to make an honest living, then let your fans do the right thing. By charging $25 a CD for shitty music, and try to sue your fans for doing the right thing only means you’re stealing money from your fans.