If I believed for a moment that this was actually about protecting intellectual property, I might be inclined to agree with some of you guys. However, "content providers" have very much the same mentality and attitude that they had twenty-five years ago. I would like to quote Frank Zappa. The full text may be found
here.
Frank Zappa wrote:
The ladies” shame must be shared by the bosses at the major labels who, through the RIAA, chose to bargain away the rights of composers, performers, and retailers in order to pass H.R. 2911, The Blank Tape Tax: A private tax levied by an industry on consumers for the benefit of a select group within that industry.
Is this a consumer issue? You bet it is. PMRC spokesperson, Kandy Stroud, announced to millions of fascinated viewers on last Friday’s ABC Nightline debate that Senator Gore, a man she described as “A friend of the music industry,” is co-sponsor of something she referred to as “anti-piracy legislation”. Is this the same tax bill with a nicer name?
The major record labels need to have H.R. 2911 whiz through a few committees before anybody smells a rat. One of them is chaired by Senator Thurmond. Is it a coincidence that Mrs. Thurmond is affiliated with the PMRC?
I cannot say she’s a member, because the PMRC has no members. Their secretary told me on the phone last Friday that the PMRC has no members, only founders. I asked how many other District of Columbia wives are nonmembers of an organization that raises money by mail, has a tax-exempt status, and seems intent on running the Constitution of the United States through the family paper-shredder. I asked her if it was a cult. Finally, she said she couldn’t give me an answer and that she had to call their lawyer.
While the wife of the Secretary of the Treasury recites “Gonna drive my love inside you” and Senator Gore’s wife talks about “Bondage!” and “oral sex at gunpoint” on the CBS Evening News, people in high places work on a tax bill that is so ridiculous, the only way to sneak it through is to keep the public’s mind on something else: “Porn rock”.
Frank Zappa wrote:
lt is unfortunate that the PMRC would rather dispense governmentally sanitized heavy metal music than something more uplifting. Is this an indication of PMRC’s personal taste, or just another manifestation of the low priority this administration has placed on education for the arts in America?
The answer, of course, is neither. You cannot distract people from thinking about an unfair tax by talking about Music Appreciation. For that you need sex, and lots of it.
The Parental Advisory sticker that we all know and love was supported by the RIAA in order to distract the general public from a tax on blank tapes. The money collected by the tax would then be given directly to the RIAA, under the notion that any blank tape sales were depriving them of record sales. Taken in today's terms, this would be like suggesting that blank CD and DVD sales were depriving the RIAA and MPAA of album and movie sales, which is patently untrue.
If we wish to vilify Taly for feeling entitled to the fruits of an artist's labor, than we must vilify the "content providers" for feeling entitled to Taly's money. Indeed, they have already lobbied to have data storage mediums taxed, and the money funneled to them, on those very grounds. Now, as Taly is Canadian, they would not have gotten her money, but they still feel entitled to it.
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