Excess for all

UNESCO Courier, July, 2000 by Micz Flor

Micz Flor [*]

Young rebels are not only attacking the music industry but also creating new circuits of solidarity via the Internet

The Internet has provided a playground for young rebels to hit the music industry where it hurts: stealing their intellectual property. Breaching copyright laws has long been seen as good conduct. Back in the 70s, punk record labels used slogans such as "Home taping is killing the music industry, keep up the good work." However, the threat to established publishing houses has always been limited, as pirating on ordinary tapes made distribution technically complicated. Throughout the 70s and 80s some independent mail ordering systems were set up, creating a network amongst pirate radio stations. But they never hurt anyone.

Today, young, subversive elements have the Internet at their fingertips, and the cultural industries on their knees. The audio format MP3 allows us to compress audio CDs into small files which can be made accessible on the Internet. Just click, download and listen. All you need is a modem, a phone line and a mediocre computer. Surely, having access to exactly the same distribution channels as the multinationals dissolves established power structures. And without any financial pressure, no additional costs other than the phone bill (mostly paid by parents), youthful enthusiasm combined with a complete lack of respect for legislative regulations opens the floodgates for piracy.

Of course, "young people on the Internet" are not all about stealing intellectual property. In fact, the real opportunity lies in becoming part of a global cultural exchange--without depending on the old-fashioned music industry. Instead of producing and selling products, alternative models of work are taking shape. For example, an originally anarcho-communist concept--the gift economy--is alive and well. The philosophy is simple: trade what you have, and who needs money anyway? Pilot FM, a Vienna-based MP3 label, which has grown out of the crossover between independent Internet Service Providers and electronic sound artists, states on its website: "Though we won't charge you for the downloads, we are thankful for donations of any kind such as hardware, software, traveller's cheques, canned tomato soup, instant coffee or any other device, which you think makes life more pleasurable." [1]

Sound artists have also learned from the Internet's Open Source development. In a nutshell: the more beta-testers and developers working on a product, the better it is. This has been proven time again with software development, which is far too complicated for a single individual to manage. Turning to the cultural field, artists are rolling over the old notion of copyright. Give away your building blocks (ideas), see what others make of them and this will help your own development. So we find sample banks and archives for storing sound and music files available all over the Internet. An avant-garde hip-hop musician with a taste for squeaks may find the sound of her dreams in an archive. She may in turn transform that squeak and so the bank grows richer... The archives also enable net radios to enlarge their playlists. One of many examples is the Budapest based DJ net.radio station Pararadio [2], running a tight schedule of DJs and sound artists. Daniel Molnar, one of the spirits behind the project, explains: "We don't even need to rely on produced sample discs, we have online sample stores and free archives. (...) If you feel real, join the new folkateers." [3]

Liberating information

But the subversion goes beyond attacking the music industry to the political sphere. With the emergence of a digital equivalent to the public sphere, issues of civil disobedience and revolutionary spirit have shifted into the electronic networks.

Throughout the 1980s hackers took the symbolic role of the militant opposition. "Information wants to be free", they claimed while pulling confidential files out in the open. [4]

Today the streets of Vienna offer a cogent example of youth seizing the Internet to organise resistance. Since the new right-wing government took power, youth groups like Volkstanz organised via the Internet weekly street parades with live DJs throughout the capital, while toying with the government's helpless attempts to control them by proudly stating on their website: "All insults are welcome: we are the hedonistic Internet-generation, the dance floor wing of the resistance movement. (...) We want to fight through the medium of political street parties the territorialisation of youth culture." [5]

Belgrade based Radio B 2-92 (formerly B92) is another example of subversive youth culture via Internet. As they announce on their virtual JukeBox: "By playing music with a subtle but unmistakable political and social message, Radio B92 confronted the aesthetic that had been imposed on the "silent majority", one that failed to foster liberal attitudes in the country during the disintegration of former Yugoslavia." [6] With their on-air frequency under constant threat of closure by the government, Free B92--the website--has become a meeting place, drawing audiences far beyond the borders of former Yugoslavia.