File Sharing Safari

Woebot

Woebot

Well-known member
I'm blog deprived so this bit of choice madness will have to go here:

Isn't it fair to say the mechanics of file sharing are incredibly
dull? There's so little at stake in the transfer of data between
nodes that the value of what's being transferred is often obscured.
The inchoate fury of musicians who feel they've been ripped off comes
in stark contrast to the attitude of most people who use P2P
networks, a kind of puzzled ennui. How could anything so banal be
illegal? While there are "chat" facilities in Soulseek and Limewire's
software how often does one actually use them? And what kind of
exchanges are people having on these inline channels? Not much in the
way of the life-changing dialogue one suspects. The internet is only
so great.

With all this in mind I put on my best smile and set off down Oxford
Street on a Saturday afternoon handing out free CDs. Motivated as
much by self-promotion as fear of litigation, everything I gave away
was "my stuff". I included a movie I'd made a long time ago, a comic
I'd drawn, a few radio shows I'd done, and some vintage mixes. Even
though we couldn't resist taking a detour past the Sony BMG
headquarters for a photo opportunity on the way home, I'm basically
sceptical of pro file-sharing rhetoric (www.downhillbattle.org). Is
it really alright to give away other people's music for free?

This was great fun. Shoppers immediately grasped the conceptual
angle. Lithe French tourists hugged me, whole Asian families gathered
round to have their portrait taken, cabbies stopped to collect a
disc, radical hipsters raised a salute and small children pointed and
giggled. Though the temperature slightly dropped as we entered trendy
Soho, people were still smiling. Giving away the CDs was easier than
I'd anticipated, and once the crowd got the idea everyone piled in.
Quite what they'll make of the contents I don't know, but people are
open-minded enough aren't they?

Rapper D2i of Black Mobb Entertainment, who sells his mix-tapes on
Oxford Street much in the way I was doling mine out, was the only
person who voiced concern. My giving away CDs was bad for his
business he volunteered. However once I'd assured him that this was
definitely a one-off stunt, we became firm friends united in the
knowledge that hitting the street as cold-calling ambassadors for our
own tiny visions takes a certain amount of chutzpah.

FACT Magazine Autumn 2005
www.factmagazine.co.uk

-----------------------

Lots of Photos here
http://homepage.mac.com/woebot/
 
S

stelfox

Beast of Burden
this is funny, but i'd say that while i'm not unaware of the conflicting ethics of filesharing, I think the argument here is pretty one-dimensional. you need to look at artists who are pro-filesharing, too. my personal stance changed quite a lot after hearing a number of reggae artists actively encouraging filesharing and bootlegging of their own work, most notably sizzla on 1Xtra a while ago, many of the rappers and DJs in Texas both endorsing it as a way to get their music out to uncharted territories and to hear other music (in a lot of these instances, grime). sure, i loathe the distanced bedroomcentric know-it-allism so prevalent on ILM and have always said that if you really care about something and think you have something to say about it, you should go out and experience it first-hand or pay for a record so you can sustain the scene. however, this isn't always possible. soulseek and limewire are invaluable research tools for me - without them the i-D Houston epic wouldn't have been possible because i'd have known a lot, lot less about the music, a couple of the reggae columns would be a lot more difficult to do and considerably behind the times rather than up to and occasionally even ahead of them. still, i'm definitely in the minority of people who ever use filesharing as a tool to do something good for music and i also download a lot of music that i do nothing with simply to save money. the one great thing about it is that it stops you buying shit because you get the chance to try before you buy. i've deleted a lot more than i've ever kept.
 
T

tryptych

waiting for a time
Does Woebot usually go around dressed like that? Now I'm REALLY gutted I missed his DJ set at the weekend...
 
D

don_quixote

Trent End
with file sharing, where is the package? has it simply been reduced to a song title and artist? i feel room for invention
 
sufi

sufi

lala
WOEBOT on the streets of central London, what a terrifying but edifying spectacle

where can we download a copy??
 
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