Disappointed by the Dead
Anyone who's ever been to archive.org understands how cool it is. Not only is there the Wayback machine, guaranteed to embarrass bloggers for decades to come, but there is also the extensive audio and video archive.
I just downloaded and watched the movie White Zombie in its entirety, for example. I hadn't seen that since Creature Feature when I was a little kid. The audio archives are even more fun, as they contain decades of live music concerts, ready to download and burn to CD.
Okay, it helps to be a Grateful Dead fan... or at least The Cowboy Junkies. The two groups alone represent a substantial fraction of the website's concert offerings.
That should come as no surprise, as the Grateful Dead, for as long as I can remember, have actively encouraged the taping of their concerts and the free trading of "bootleg" concert tapes among their fans. In fact, I often cite the Dead when I'm arguing copyright law and piracy with recording industry apologists who hide behind the spectre of the "poor, starving musician."
That's bullshit and it always has been. You'd expect no one to understand that better than the Dead themselves. That's why I was shocked and dismayed to read this.
A week after some of the surviving members of the Grateful Dead ordered a nonprofit site to remove free downloads of the seminal jam band's concerts--sparking massive online backlash and a Deadhead petition calling for a boycott of all band-related merchandise--the band has reversed its position."The Grateful Dead remains as it always has--in favor of tape trading," spokesman Dennis McNally tells the Associated Press.
The move was so disappointing that archive.org itself tried to provide the band with a fig leaf.
The operators of the targeted site, Live Music Archive (archive.org) tried to deflect some of the criticism from the band, blaming a quick trigger finger for removing the sets from the Web."We at archive.org now realize that our mistaken attempts to move quickly were based on what we thought the Grateful Dead wanted. For this we apologize both to the Grateful Dead and their community. There has been a great deal of reaction, our actions have caused more than necessary."
By the time I'd heard about the whole debacle, the band had already backtracked. I was relieved about that, but then I read this ominous bit.
There is a caveat: The site will restore fan-made recordings; however, the more pristine soundboard recordings will remain off-limits for now.
The bastards!
What the hell are they thinking? These people have a legacy to think about, fer crissakes.
Argh. Well fortunately, I've already downloaded and burned a handful of terriffic Dead concerts before this all transpired. It's still sad, ugly business, though.
BTW, I'd like to take this opportunity to segue into a somewhat-related programming note, if you don't mind.
As you probably know, I've been talking about a long-overdue redesign of this site for a while. I'm going to finally do it sometime after the new year, and it's going to coincide with another major change as well.
I'm going to convert this site to a quasi-anonymous blog. I say "quasi" because regular readers will automatically get redirected to the new site, and it will be painfully obvious to anyone who knows me who I am. Moreover, anyone with a casual interest could probably discern my identity using Google within ten minutes.
But so what, who cares? I'm not trying to hide from the FBI; I'm trying to hide from the casual Google search. When I first started this site, I used my full name, because... well, why not? On top of that, I threw in my middle initial "N" to differentiate myself from another Barry Johnson who had already made a name for himself in the blogosphere. At the time I never could have imagined a potential downside to this (except, of course, for my mother finding out how many bad words I use.)
But things have changed. With increasing frequency, there are things I want to write about that I feel constrained not to. I'll go into more detail when we get to the "other side." Meanwhile, rest assured that I won't leave any readers behind.
Furthermore, I'm going to be looking to take on additional guest bloggers. If you're interested, drop me a line. Also, if you have any cool ideas that you'd like to see incorporated in the new design, let me know.
Later.
BNJ
UPDATE: The soundboard recordings, it seems, are still available via streaming from archive.org, if not for download.
Comments
Bastards?
That's so not fair. The audience tapes are still free and you can stream the soundboards. I'll bet they reconsider and eventually change their minds.
Can you name another band, even half as good as the Dead, that has ever given their product away for free?
Besides, I downloaded a bunch of shows already.
Posted by: Mr. Bob | December 4, 2005 10:38 PM
> Can you name another band, even half as good as the Dead, that has ever given their product away for free?
No, I cannot. And if I made that insufficiently clear I shouldn't have.
Regardless, see the update.
Posted by: Barry | December 4, 2005 11:15 PM
I'm sure you'll want me as a guest blogger.
The Grateful Dead is a druggie band. They are bad people who Dubya would like to execute after he gets drunk and drives over a few hedges.
Posted by: Bailey Hankins | December 5, 2005 12:08 AM