Finally, after some three years of searching I turned up a lead on such an album. (Malice Mizer's "Merveilles") It took me nearly two weeks to find and download all the tracks, as well as to find all the information I needed to sew the tracks together in their proper order.

Then I listened to the album and liked what I heard. I like it so much I burned it to a CD so I could play it on my stereo or in my car. I liked it so much that when I eventually ran across a pro-copy of this CD I plunked down $40 to buy it, with glee.

Before continuing, let’s pause for a moment and see how many RIAA theories this experience has already countered.

Am I using P2P primarily to steal the property of the RIAA? No, I am looking for rare music that is for the most part either on independent labels or is only available as imports.

Am I saving every track I download and keeping a recording that some artist is owed money for? No, I am merely listening to hundreds of artists as I would on radio in search of something I like. That which I do not like is quickly discarded and is no more in my possession than any song I might have casually heard on the radio.

Does the volume of viewable traffic on P2P generated by my use of it reflect an accurate measure for the RIAA to judge its losses due to P2P? Absolutely not. My use of P2P is extensive, but rarely, if ever, involves anything to do with the RIAA. The only exception being the downloading of music from my old LP’s and 45’s which (according to what I’ve been told of the law) have already been paid for.

Is it easier for me to download the music I like than it would be to buy it on CD? No, downloading music is extremely tedious. Any album I might really like could take two weeks to a month to download. If it was a matter of knowing what I wanted and I could easily go to a store and buy it at a reasonable price, I would not put myself through this kind of aggravation day after day.

Has the RIAA done the job it was designed to do by seeing that there is high quality music available for me to buy in America that adheres to the highest standards established by the American music industry? No, I now have to go to Japan and Europe to purchase CD’s that live up to those standards.

And most importantly, when I found music that I liked and otherwise would have bought, did owning a home burned CD of the album stop me from wanting to buy a professional copy of the CD? No, I paid twice the RIAA asking price for the CD. And did anyone have to put a gun to my head to get me to shell out this money? No, this was money I considered well spent on a product that I was very satisfied with.

Now to continue, you might ask, what in the world would make a CD worth $40 if $20 for the common American CD is considered way too high? Let us compare this CD to the average garden variety RIAA CD. First let’s look at the cover. The common RIAA CD has a cover that is either bleak looking black & white, has a lame looking picture of the artist on it, or is in some other way generic looking and not particularly pleasing to look at. The cover of the CD I purchased is similar to the album covers of the 70’s. The front cover has sophisticated artwork that is both pleasing to look at and offers some analytical challenge as to its meaning, possibly offering some insight into the concept of the album.

Yes, the album has a concept. The average garden variety RIAA CD does not. The average RIAA CD is just a collection of unrelated singles with no overall point and is going nowhere. If you keep only selected tracks from the common RIAA album you have lost nothing. In fact, aside from the hits, most tracks on RIAA albums are nothing but filler that most people would prefer to not to have to pay for. Contrary to this, there is no part of the album I purchased that is not of a consistent high quality. Every track is hit worthy, and the album would seem incomplete if any track was omitted.

Now let’s look at how the band (Malice Mizer in this case) is represented on the back cover. The average RIAA band is commonly pictured as a bunch of grungy low-lives who just walked in off the street. They are usually photographed in dull settings, and general they display little that says anything about where they’re coming from musically or spiritually.

[Let’s pause for a moment to mourn the death of spirituality in rock. Time was you could look to just about any rock band or artist to be expressing some kind of spiritual inspiration. Some names that come to mind in this respect are Yes, Kansas, The Moody Blues, Shawn Phillips, Todd Rundgren, Dan Fogelberg. What has the RIAA offered us to take the place of these? Creed?]

Flipping the Malice Mizer CD over you see the band not even photographed, but oil painted in full costume, looking very much like something you’d expect to see on a Peter Gabriel era Genesis cover. Each member of the band is shown in a state of contemplation, as if dwelling on some idea far beyond the comprehension of the average mortal being. There is not a single expression of conformity to tell you that this band fits into any pre-determined RIAA filing system. You can tell just from the cover you are looking at a band that is as one of a kind as Genesis, Jethro Tull or Pink Floyd. You can tell you are about to experience sounds that came from a hunger to express an artistic vision of music, rather than a desire to become rich by providing a standard prefabricated corporate vision of what music should be.

Ah, but this CD has far more than just a front and back cover. It comes with a booklet so thick it requires an oversized jewel case to contain it. Page after page of the kind of art that used to be so much a part of the rock album buying experience. No place on the CD or packaging where art could be placed has been overlooked. No expense has been spared in making this CD a total package that a home burned CD could never take the place of. And yet, there are even more things that can and have been done in the past to make owning albums desirable over home recording. But the RIAA has done away with all of them. They have established such a low standard for CD packaging that any American CD can easily be replicated on a home computer for less than a dollar in materials. And they wonder why so many people don’t want to pay $20 for their products.

Now I should compare the actual music to what you get on the common RIAA CD. I should compare it, but there is no comparison. Real Symphonic Rock held to the standards of The Beatles or The Alan Parsons Project in their heyday has never been recorded digitally and seen release in America. Since the advent of digital recording, the RIAA labels have been adamant about denying access to this kind of high standard setting music. To find a new rock CD you can use to fully explore the potential of your digital hi-fi system, you literally have to pay twice the RIAA price to get them from Japan. But even if you have to put up with lyrics in Japanese, the joy of the experience often leaves you feeling the money was much better spent than it would have been on any two CD’s the RIAA might have thrown at you.

The music of the common RIAA CD is drab, standardized, provides no surprises, does not expand your horizons musically, and sounds just as bad coming out of 12 inch speaker as it does coming out of 3 inch speaker. Considering that I have RIAA test records from the 50’s that clearly define the RIAA’s purpose as an organization dedicated to setting and maintaining the highest possible standards for recorded sound, they have seriously failed in their initial mission. They have left America with the least interesting of any audio listening that is being produced anywhere in the world at this time, and so we have no need for high fidelity at all. A pocket sized MP3 player and a set of cheap earphones is all you need for most RIAA music.

This brings us to the comparison of the music on the real CD to the quality of the CD I burned from MP3’s. Was I able to download a CD quality copy identical to the commercial product? I was curious about this. So the first time I played the real CD on the Hi-Fi I set the controls at what had been optimal for the burned CD. At first I noted the intro seemed a bit louder. But when the orchestra kicked in the sound almost picked me up and blew me through a wall. Quickly re-adjusting the controls I discovered whole ranges of sound the MP3’s had not been able to capture – just like an LP groove is limited in the sounds it can contain.

I also noticed that there was an acoustic guitar playing against the orchestra. This had been entirely lost on the MP3. The range of an MP3 is so limited that bigger sounds eradicate smaller ones and make certain instruments inaudible. Even on a vinyl recording I would have been aware that the acoustic guitar was there, even if it wouldn’t have sounded so pristinely clean as it does on the pro-CD.

I became curious about this and did some research. I read that the CD quality the RIAA is telling the courts you get when you download an MP3 would only be possible if you were downloading uncompressed waves. Every bit of compression used to create an MP3 takes something away from the quality of the music. By the time you get down to the standard 128 MP3 rate you might as well be listening to vinyl. You could say, "Yes, but at least it’s free of scratches," but they often contain glitches that are so offensive you’d gladly put up with a little vinyl surface noise not to have a scary screech in the middle of your song.

In typically counterproductive RIAA fashion they do not point out the flaws in MP3’s as a means of promoting CD sales. Instead they perpetuate a myth that MP3’s are CD quality and try to get you to pay for them as if you were buying a CD quality product. So, let’s now look at this insane notion that anyone with any sense would ever pay for an MP3.

Let’s just look at what you get and don’t get with a pay site. The price of each track is about 99 cents. For a CD with 14 tracks you are paying just about the same price you’d pay for CD under the new Universal Music price cut.. But are you getting an equivalent product? NO! You’re getting the same limited quality sound we used to pay $6 for back in the 70’s

But are you even getting as much value as we got for our $6 way back then? HELL NO!! What you are getting is a vinyl quality sound bite that can’t even leave your computer. Most people wouldn’t even be able to play it on their hi-fi system because pay MP3’s are protected from being transferred. You can’t play it on any hi-fi, boom box or portable MP3 player you own. That is, unless you want to pay even more money for the special portable player that works with that site. And God knows how much that will cost.

For the purpose of demonstration, let us project ourselves into a future where the RIAA has gotten its way, done away with free P2P and probably no longer even produces CD’s. All music is sold through on-line sites that the RIAA owns an interest in. There are not even any independent artists or labels because what the RIAA can not buy up will shut out of the market by means of monopolistic practices. (Don’t say we don’t know they’ll do this. We know these people by now. What they can do they will do, unless we, the people, find some way to stop them.)

In a future where our movement has failed, let’s look at an unfortunate music buyer living under the yoke of the RIAA. Let’s say that 14-track album our figurative future pay site user just purchased is Roger Waters’ "Amused To Death." Being as the RIAA has also found a way to shut down all used CD stores and record shows, our pay site user was forced to purchase this album on MP3 in 14 separate bits, costing $1 a piece with the added cost of his software, subscription fee, ISP and God knows what else they’ll come up with to soak the guy for before he can even start to download. Since Roger Waters is a former member of Pink Floyd and thus created his album in that same continuous play style, what will happen to Roger’s album where the tracks are supposed to interlock? You guessed it, major breaks in the music where there shouldn’t be any. The natural flow of the album will be disrupted no less than 13 times because it’s virtually impossibly to get MP3’s to connect fluidly without burning them to a CD. And often they don’t connect perfectly that way either.

Ok, after 12 listens our frustrated pay site user is just about ready to accept this major hindrance to his enjoyment of the album when the absolute final insult to end all insults kicks in. A little window pops up that says, "You have reached the limit of 12 plays for this album. The MP3’s will no longer work. If you wish to hear this album again you must go back to the pay site and pay another $14 to download the tracks again."

(If you think this is science fiction, please be aware that I read this in the proposed plans for many of the pay sites that are now in the works. They are actually planning to make you pay full price for music you can only listen to a certain number of times, and MP3’s that won’t play at all unless you’re connected to the Internet.)

In this future the RIAA has not only figured out how to get you to pay for nothing (music you can’t claim any kind of ownership for) but they’ve also figured out a way to make you pay twice, maybe even an infinite number of times if you really like the album and would like to go on listening to it for the rest of your life. Imagine over the course of your lifetime paying $100 or more for one album.

What is the RIAA perspective on albums like "Amused To Death" that so directly point up the flaws in MP3 listening and generate discontent because a listener might actually want to listen to them more than 12 times? "Have no fear," Cary Sherman’s successor will say. "The RIAA has taken steps to ensure there will never again be any of those troublesome albums like "Tubular Bells" or "Dark Side Of The Moon." Imagine the audacity of Mike Oldfield and Pink Floyd, making albums that can’t be cut up into five-minute chunks or pigeon holed into specific categories. Sure they have consistently been on and off the album chart for the last 40 years and made us a ton of money, but we can not have these non-conformists making this classic music anymore. We must have prefabricated disposable music that will only be of value one year and then thrown away. That way people will not want to download albums multiple times. We must make music that listeners will be sick to death of by the 12th play."

Well, our poor duped pay site user is sick to death over the fact that "Amused To Death" has left his hard drive. But there’s no way he’s going to pay another $14 to get it back. Nor is he going to waste his money on the latest over hyped pop hits, which he hates in spite of all the ads the pay site software keeps throwing at him, telling him what a loser he is for not conforming to the acceptable tastes of society.

Maybe the site will even do like The Columbia Record Club used to do and send the latest pop hits to him without his even asking for them, and then demanding that he pay, simply because he did not see the E-mail he should have responded to which might have stopped them from sending it. But, of course, anyone who’s ever been in the Columbia Record Club knows sending back the card doesn’t always stop the latest pop album from being sent, and even if you send the album back you could still be getting letters from their lawyers for years.

So our future music fan thinks of another legendary old album he’s been curious about. Let’s say it’s Rick Wakeman’s "No Earthly Connection." He goes to the search engine to look for it. And guess what, it’s not there. Why? It’s out of print, of course. Why is this album out of print? Because A&M owns the copyrights. And even though they no longer want to publish the album, they won’t release the copyrights to the composer so he can release it on his own label. And with all other venues of acquiring old music having been crushed by the RIAA, Rick Wakeman's album has literally been silenced permanently from the ears of future music students and enthusiasts.

Realizing he can’t get anything on the pay site that isn’t currently in print, our future pay site user reflects on the legends he’s heard about a thing that once existed called free P2P, "They say there used to be a site called WinMX where you could just download rare music and enjoy it. What was the harm in that if nobody was selling the album anyway? I sure wish I could go back in time to when the Internet was free, before those commie bastard RIAA people took over everything. Oh well, the hell with this. Think I’ll just turn the damn computer off and read a book. At least the law they drew up to stop me from doing that hasn’t been passed yet."

I originally intended to end this piece on that note, suggesting the idea that a controlled RIAA owned Internet would be so devoid of fun and enjoyment that most people would just throw their computers away. But then I was reminded of the law that is now on the table in England that would make it a criminal offense to record audio books for the blind, and I am forced to wonder if our future pay site user will have any options outside his computer at all, other than to leave the country and try to find some place where true democracy still exists. But with three young people practically being lynched in Australia for sharing music I have to wonder about the effect all this will have on the rest of the world as well.

Basically the RIAA has single handedly done what everyone from Hitler to Bin Laden failed to do. They have brought our society and all its sacred values to its knees. They have undone two and a quarter centuries of attempts to perpetuate the great American experiment. If we fail to stop the RIAA all the valiant struggles to preserve American freedom will have been wasted - not because of atomic bombs or biological warfare, but because of music.

Because of music the quest for world peace could be set back 100 years. The gradual spread of freedom and the decline of dictatorships we have worked so hard to inspire would be completely reversed if we allowed the RIAA to show the world what a joke freedom in America has become.

Will we have to endure another civil war to save America from the unconscionably selfish acts of its own musicians? Will we have to literally burn industries to the ground to prevent them from enslaving us? Or worst and most unthinkable of all – will we have to destroy our own government and rebuild it from scratch to fix what is wrong with it?

Nobody else is daring to ask these questions out loud, but this is where the RIAA and its supporters are leading us. The American people will not sit still and watch their lives become an Orwellian nightmare. If this nonsense does not stop now, sooner or later there is sure to be an incredible backlash with world rippling consequences. All because of music.

Music was given to man to be his joy and enhancement to life. To even think of ruining someone’s life because of how they desire to enjoy music is an unpardonable sin for which the RIAA will never be forgiven. Nor will the musicians who support this "pay or be destroyed" mentality ever enjoy our respect or love again.

In conclusion, I leave you with the Procol Harum parable of "The Worm And The Tree." http://lyrics.net.ua/song/46305 Music itself is the tree. The RIAA is the worm. We who love music are the woodsmen with his axe at the ready. Let any musicians or RIAA people reading heed this parable and know the terrible fate that awakes them if they continue to use music as a destructive force.

This commentary reflects the true experience of a music fan using p2p and my honest fears based on my analysis of pay sites. It was originally posted at Boycott RIAA.com in hopes of demonstrating the flaws in the RIAA’s thinking on these matters, and is presented here in an updated form since it can no longer be accessed from the Boycott RIAA.com site. Please note that this article is not intended to promote any CD’s or bands that I might mention or describe. These examples are used merely as demonstrations of certain types of CD’s. There is also an added bit at the end on the destructive potential of RIAA tactics. This is probably the longest piece I will ever write on behalf of the movement. This piece encompasses just about every factor I personally want to be considered by the courts if and when they make laws pertaining to these issues.

Original article here. Reproduced with permission from the author, Otaku Of Tomobiki.

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