Sakiv WarlaDec 18, 2024
Fight for the Future

BREAKING: 750+ musicians are now calling on major labels to drop their $621 million lawsuit against @internetarchive — a suit that could destroy the entire nonprofit.

Letter sign ons remain open until Wednesday at https://SaveTheArchive.com

Save Music, Save the Archive!

Save Music, Save the Archive! 750+ musicians are speaking out to demand that major labels drop a lawsuit aimed to destroy the Internet Archive—and for their industry to take concrete actions to realign their actions with the interests of working artists. Sign their open letter now to show your support.

Fight for the Future
Dec 16, 2024 at 10:07pmWeb
Show threadFight for the FutureDec 16, 2024

As they always do whenever artists organize to say "hey giant corporations with tons of $$ and PR, don't destroy the thing we love", industry titans are now responding.

Go ahead and read it if you can get past the paywall: https://www.billboard.com/pro/300-musicians-fighting-effort-protect-copyright-why/

Why Are 300 Musicians Fighting an Effort to Protect Copyright?

More than 300 musicians signed a letter denouncing the labels' lawsuit against the Internet Archive for offering free streams of old recordings. Why?

Billboard
Show threadFight for the FutureDec 16, 2024

If you can't, it breaks down to:

"SCANDAL: a nonprofit devoted to preservation advocates for the right to preserve history and culture—and the right to access it"
+
"We don't actually *mean* to destroy the Archive, it's just a suit!"
+
"AI is scary"

Show threadFight for the FutureDec 16, 2024

You can tell from the subheader, where the author concedes that the Internet Archive does important work, that industry execs are on their back heel way more than last time, when they sued to destroy the right to own and preserve surveillance-free digital books.

So that feels good.

Show threadFight for the FutureDec 16, 2024
But the worldview in here is pretty old and unimpressive. Basically: copyright system = only option for artists to ever make a living. (Despite the fact that most aren't making a dignified living anymore, only record and DSP execs are, see the letter.)
Show threadFight for the FutureDec 16, 2024

Reality: copyright is broken for most musicians.

It's mostly used by giant corporations to amass enough rights and power that they can generally successfully bludgeon musicians into saying whatever they want, or at least, suffering in silence.

Show threadFight for the FutureDec 16, 2024
You think they might have trotted out something other than the same old lines. It's not like it's a surprise we did a letter. We did another with authors and the Internet Archive a couple years back and it changed the entire conversation about the suit from big publishing.
Show threadFight for the FutureDec 16, 2024
Tho the point about "labels always trying to get more $$ for streaming" and how that benefits artists is just false on its face. They purposefully obfuscate their profits and cut deals so artists never see the $$. https://publicknowledge.org/the-streaming-market-is-fundamentally-broken-its-time-to-fix-it/
The Streaming Market Is Fundamentally Broken. It’s Time To Fix It.

New paper shines a light on the dysfunction of the music streaming ecosystem while proposing solutions to ensure a more equitable future.

Public Knowledge
Show threadFight for the FutureDec 16, 2024

Then there's this weird mental gymnastics fearmongering thing about how other companies that aren't the Archive might use AI to replace musicians and somehow that justifies suing over old 78 records.

Um, no?

Show threadFight for the FutureDec 16, 2024

Finally, the author seems shocked that we would accuse labels of trying to destroy the whole @internetarchive when...their suit, if successful, would do just that.

LABELS: TAKE ACCOUNTABILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS.

YOU'RE 1000% SUING TO DESTROY #INTERNETARCHIVE.

Show threadFight for the FutureDec 16, 2024
If major labels don't intend to destroy IA, they'll drop their suit, plain and simple, and work with IA to find a way to respectfully preserve music and music culture. After all, it's ~$41,000 in streams since 2006 they're suing over. IA fans would fundraise that in a heartbeat.
Show threadFight for the FutureDec 16, 2024
PS: For more background on this issue, we did a guest post on MusicX last week, check it out: https://musicx.substack.com/p/digital-libraries-and-the-future?publication_id=24027
✘ Digital libraries and the future of music preservation

And: 600+ musicians signing letter against labels' Internet Archive suit; existential copyright trolling in books+music; rising threats to fan privacy; does Spotify Wrapped know you're gay, too?

MUSIC x