At the end of February I participated in some digital disobedience regarding Grey Tuesday, where an album remixing the Beatles White album with Jay-Zs Black album was illegally hosted for download despite the threats from EMI (the holder of the White album copyright). Well, the good people at downhillbattle.org (who organized the original protest) have launched a new service called BannedMusic.org which hosts other disputed ‘illegal’ material.
I for one applaud their digital dissobedience as the current system is in need of radical change and only radical actions will bring the inequities therein to light. What inequities? Music is constantly changing, remixing and sampling are the new expression of creativity. You might argue that remixing is in fact not creating something, just ‘stealing’ someone else’s material to make something else, but in fact the art of sampling creates a whole new form of music that in many ways surpasses the original. If nothing else you should download the Grey Album to hear what I’m talking about. It’s stunningly original and quite a piece of musical wonder.
So check it out, download some of the albums (they’ve integrated bitTorrent – schweet!) and protest our current laws! Change is a Good Thing.