[Nettime-bold] Re[2]: <nettime> Terror in Tune Town

[Pit Schultz <pit@klubradio.de>]

TS> its a power game, as far as i understand it.

yes. and so far i only understand that digital code doesn't
work the old way, where power was about disciplination. now
its about the modes of control it says. i think gaining power out
of digital code lays in it's rematerialization. encryption
for example is "hardening" code, other modes define the
individual, scan what codes go in and out. the third
kind, and maybe the strongest one is perception management,
the propaganda-spectacle. napster, in the end of the day,
got a lot of press, a lot of hits, and therefore has a lot of
"value". temporary freedom, yes. endless supply, yes.
destruction first, reconstruction after. very modern indeed.
we are all part of this process.

napters management, like at mp3.com is making deals with the
old powers, and finally in a big embracement, a "hybrid"
of old and new (music industry) is emerging, where sales do
not go down, and a little percentage of grey zones is good
for the business. all that hype - i really can't understand it.
napster marks nothing more then the spear-head of digital capitalism,
where new business models occur because friction between old
and new is at the max. so what? who wants to read business plans
all day? and who wants to download 40 Gigs of mp3s when the
next standard (aac) is just waiting around the corner?

isn't copyright law a derivative law? intellectual property
is not written down in any constitution, it's constantly changing,
and belongs more to contract things like the nafta. just for a
moment it seems that computer code is stronger then law,
here the understanding will change, is already changing,
to IP becoming a plain commodity, even under a more
processual definition: mental labour or the smoothly
shifting regime going under the name of "bio power".
this is about much more advanced forms of control and competition
including open source and gift giving battles.

or why does 90% of nettime postings of these days route back
to some kind of online journalism? it's the dumpness of
'actuality' which sucks - not the yes or no to copyright
it's the lack of hard differences in this one-world, a deep
demand for "real" information which makes us want to download
more?

and file-sharing as a killer-application? all what is new
is the wide use of a central/distributed directory service
with an easy interface. hotline/trecker was certainly what
inspired napster plus the warez djungle of temp-ftp-sites.
there is nothing radically new if you carefully observe
what is happening -  it doesn't make a difference when
the press or lawyers are banging in.

anyway, this thread was really fun to read!



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