On Thursday, March 9th, Robert Thomas of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Jared Bowser of Jacksonville, Florida were hit with criminal indictments in federal court in Nashville, Tennessee that might send the two young men to prison for eleven years.
Their crime? They shared songs from Ryan Adams’ Jacksonville City Nights album with other fans on an Adams’ fan web site before the album’s release. Yup, they are charged with uploading TWO songs to a web site, a felony offense that could possible net each one more heavy jail time than many rapists, thugs and thieves get for the REAL crimes that they have committed.
Thomas and Bowser ran afoul of a little-publicized section of the "Family Entertainment And Copyright Act" (FECA) that criminalizes the act of "pirating" music and movies before the "official" public release date. When this tinker-toy of a legal concept floated through Congress in early 2005, the Reverend was among the few that saw the danger in such wide-ranging and ridiculously broad legislation. After writing about this in May on the "Mondo News" page of our Mondo Gordo BBS web site, I received several emails claiming that I was overstating the importance of this law. One writer said that the Reverend was "Chicken Little" screaming that "the sky was falling" when surely nobody would ever be charged under this new law.
Well, folks, the chickens have come home to roost. This law was written at the request of the entertainment industry, a docile Congress giving the copyright cartel a virtual "wish list" of ways to screw the average person to the wall.
The investigation of this grievous offense was launched by the F.B.I. and U.S. Attorney Jim Vines at the request of Lost Highway Records, a division of industry giant Universal, after the TWO songs were found posted online a month before the September 2005 release of Adams’ Jacksonville City Nights album. In a statement to the press, reported by Nashville’s Tennessean newspaper, Universal Music claims that "in this particular situation, pre-released copies were irresponsibly leaked without authorization in a way that damages our artist and our marketing plans."
In announcing the indictments, Vines said, "any perception that copyright violations are victimless crimes is just plain wrong. Whether stolen intellectual property is given away or sold by thieves for a profit, the rightful owners of the property are still hurt." The Recording Industry Association of America – simple-minded thugs in cheap suits – seems gleeful about the arrests and the certain ruination of two young men’s lives. RIAA CEO Mitch Bainwol, quoted by Reuters, stated that "prerelease piracy is a particularly damaging and onerous form of theft. It robs artists of the chance to sell their music before it even hits the streets or becomes legally available online." Bainwol concludes his drivel with the telling comment, "the message here is clear: significant crimes bring significant consequences."
Brothers and sisters, this case has the Reverend shaking with barely contained rage. Thomas and Bowser are not charged with literally "pirating" Adams’ new album. They weren’t hawking burned copies of the disc with photocopied covers in a back alley somewhere, nor were they caught in the garage cranking out counterfeit copies of the album with an old eMachines box and stacks of CD-R burners. No, they were both FANS of Ryan Adams; sharing songs from a new album by an artist they RESPECTED and ENJOYED listening to along with other FANS of the artist. They weren’t stealing a penny out of Adams’ pocket nor were they attempting to profit from their actions.
For several years now the Reverend has been a small voice crying in the wilderness, warning music lovers that the hammer was about to fall. Sixteen thousand industry lawsuits later and many people STILL think that the industry is justified in threatening fans and suing the beejezus out of the (dwindling) mass of its consumers. Every piece of legislation that the industry manages to force down our throats limits the choices we have in music, movies, books and other media. The copyright cartel’s ultimate goal is to monopolize the sale and profit of ALL media, assisted by a compliant and cowed herd of sheepish consumers.
It is likely that Thomas and Bowser will be able to plea bargain these charges down to probation and a (large) fine. The case, at this point, seems to be mostly symbolic, the unlucky pair randomly chosen as "examples" of what will happen to you if you don’t toe the industry line and consume music the way that THEY tell you to. No matter what that jackass Bainwol says, the crimes of these two young men fall far short of "significant" in a world of violence, terrorism and, ahem…corporate crime. Regardless, Thomas and Bowser will be forced to travel from their hometowns to Nashville for trial and lay out thousands of dollars for lawyers for a crime they never should have been charged with in the first place. Their lives will forever be changed for the act of sharing a song they liked with friends. No matter how you slice it, the result is still fucked….
Ryan Adams is a marginally talented albeit prolific artist who has hitched his creative star to the pseudo-hip Lost Highway imprint so that he can still look "street" even while benefiting from the marketing, distribution and legal muscle provided by a major label like Universal. A difficult, moody, and often times petulant little bitch, Ryan Adams is the perfect poster boy for the growing anti-RIAA movement. He has allowed himself to be used by the industry to further its social and political agenda. It’s only fitting that those of us who oppose the industry’s machinations should also choose Adams as a symbol of our discontent.
Love the music-makers, hate the music industry! Oh yeah, it’s definitely on now….
