Gnutella community members,

As you are well aware, the forces which
profit based upon controlling music
rather than letting music be free are
still scambling. As BBC reports in
"Poor outlook for paid-for online music"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1556097.stm

Stating that "Researchers found that 62% would continue to access MP3 music files for free and had no plans to stop"

However they see a silver lining and plan
to cry to "commercialize a lot more"! As stated:

"The hard-copy recording is what the music
industry is built on, that is the premise because that is what has been technically feasible over the years.

"Now, with the internet, streaming media, digital technology, you can commercialise a lot more aspects of music than just the hard copy recording"

===========

Usually we're supposed to pit two things
against one another, both of which we value:
free music (free as in "free speech",
not just as in "free beer", as www.gnu.org points out) versus artists making a living. As we all know, the truth behind this is that 99%
of artists get DIDDLY SQUAD while
the middle-men get most of the profits. So it's a false dichotomy...

But what is there was a win-win situation
with free music, no corporate control
and no corporate middle-man taking a profit and taking control over what we hear, while still
letting artists make a living?

We are not the first to propose this..others
have suggested artists' collectives, including
ideas related to what I call "virtual guilds"
for musicians.

Gnutella, being a working model of a DECENTRALIZED
system offers the hope of expanding this idea
into something practical.

The project proposal is at:

http://Economicdemocracy.org/counterspinner.html

and your input can be sent to info@EconomicDemocracy.org or at
our own forums at

http://Economicdemocracy.org/forums/

The proposal covers the democratization
of the entire media, but key aspects
(including parts 7 and especially 8)
relate directly to the vision above.

We hope you read this project proposal, spread
the word, and post at our Forums/
as input is used to improve and expand
this vision, and to move it forward.

Regards,

Harel Barzilai
www.EconomicDemocracy.org