Guess I'm Blogging After All

Sometimes you get a wake-up call. Something or someone comes along and says, "Hey. Loser. Time to wake up." For me, that wake-up call came from a newspaper article. Unfortunately I didn't save that article, nor did I read it very carefully. Anyway, the gist of it is that a bunch of music distributors, including Sony, decided to sue a bunch of college students for downloading music from the intenet illegally. "Wow." I thought. "What a bunch of chunky, peanut encrusted turds."

It was a defining moment for me as an artist. I realized, for the first time, that I genuinely do believe that art is, or at least should be, for everyone. We live in an era where nearly anyone has the technical ability to have access to information, art, and the sum of human knowledge. Some of the biggest corporations, including Google, and even Microsoft, are trying to make as much of this information available as possible. And then Sony comes along and takes a giant dump all over it. Why? To protect their precious copyrights.

I have copyrights too y'know. I've made a lot of music, a movie or two, and written down a lot of useless drivel over the years that some people might find entertaining. I'll show Sony. I'll put my money where my mouth is. Here's my statement:

I believe that people should have access to information and art. I believe that an artist's copyright should be protected by the public, and in return we should have the right to access that information. If an artist wants to make money through their art, they should do so through advertising contracts and the selling of merchandise. If people would rather download your music than buy your CDs, STOP MAKING CDs. If people would rather watch the shaky-cam version of the latest Oscar nominee than wait for the DVD to come out, that should tell you something about your business plan.

I guess my point is, rather than sueing potential future consumers, or taking it out on the public because your old business model isn't working REVISE YOUR BUSINESS MODEL. Which brings me to the reason I'm blogging:

My friends and I have started a group (it's a bit early to call it a company, although we're sort of running it like one.) We plan to use all of the free resources of the internet to provide quality entertainment FREE to the end user. In order to circumvent copyright issues, we'll be doing something surprisingly original: CREATING OUR OWN CONTENT.

For more information, check out our group blog at dogshadowprod.blogspot.com or go to our MySpace profile at www.myspace.com/dogshadowprod or just keep checking back here. We're working fast to create a website through Google's great "googleapps" program, and we'll be updating a lot over the next few weeks to get the ball rolling.

Tune in next time when I give an eerily similar rant about Disney...