Virtual Reality - Pt 2: Digital Thieves

Something of a late follow-on post here, due in no small part to the various real world pressures that have a great deal of control over my life.

We previously looked at some examples of the ways in which our lives have become "virtual", how much of our consumer needs are now found in digital form, as opposed to the physical existence of the past. This has a huge impact on how we value these things. Our economy is essentially based upon scarcity, we can apply a value or worth to physical items as there is always a finite amount of them. However, as the old saying goes: time is money, as workers living in a monetary system we necessarily have to apply a value to time.

Digital goods are effectively nothing more than information. Music, films, software, all of these things we consume are ultimately binary code. Information has been exchanged freely for as long as mankind has been able to. Whether that be early man using basic forms of communication to share hunting/gathering info with his kind or a group of friends discussing their various thoughts and ideas on any subject they care to talk about. Of course, we also pay for information in the form of books (physical items) or education (time-based), but no-one can deny us our right to share the information in our heads (non-physical) with anyone we see fit.

This leads us into the subject of piracy. If your MP3 collection is ultimately non-physical information then surely it is your right to share it as you see fit. On the other hand a great deal of time and money went into the recording of those MP3s, which surely should be reimbursed. And this is where the dilemma lies. Its a simple fact that most people do not see piracy as theft. But theft is not so black and white, it has many shades. No-one can deny that there is a massive difference between stealing from a big corporate shop and stealing from your friends, likewise robbing a bank is not the same thing as robbing a granny. There are many different types of theft, each with their own moral and legal status.

Piracy is a form of theft, albeit very different to the others. To put it into perspective, if i go round your house and take your new U2 CD, then the result is i will have it and you won't, even though you payed for it. On the other hand if i go round your house and copy your U2 CD, then you have lost nothing. Clearly these 2 situations are different. However, while you may own that U2 CD that you payed for, you do not own the music within it, nor do you own the right to copy it (that of course belongs to the copyright holder). Essentially all you do own is the otherwise worthless piece of plastic that the music is stored on.

Now if we remove that mostly insignificant physical element of the album, we are left with just the information. As consumers, when we "purchase" and download an MP3 we don't own anything. Even the artists rarely own their music, publishers own the copyright and record labels own the recording. Believe it or not artists make very little from the actual sales of their albums, regardless of format. Music piracy harms the music industry more than it harms the musicians, and as we have seen there is a huge difference between stealing from a corporation than stealing from a person. For unsigned artists, or those signed to independent labels, it can be a bit different, certainly as far as the morality is concerned.

By no means am i trying to advocate piracy, as a musician myself i would obviously prefer people to pay for my music which i have spent a lot of time making (my only release to date is available as free download but thats not to say future releases will be). I am certain that without the needs of the physical world and the associated costs most musicians would be happy to give their music away, but unfortunately our society is not like that. It costs money to feed ourselves, it costs money to keep a roof over our heads and musicians should be paid for their work.

Nevertheless, piracy exists. It is not a new thing, but the semi-virtual nature of our world has made file-sharing so easy and huge that piracy is no longer contained to friends taping each others music. There is in principle no difference between a legal MP3 from iTunes and an illegally-sourced MP3 from PirateBay, infact often the DRM-free tunes from the latter make for a better "product" from the consumers perspective (i know Apple have dropped DRM, but that doesn't help the millions who have paid for tunes they can't even make copies of for themselves).

Has piracy devalued music? No. Has the digital/virtual nature of our media consumption devalued music as a product? Arguably, yes. These are just my opinions, but they are based on the way i see the world around me. Piracy is a big concern for the music industry, an industry that has been ripping off artists and music fans for too long. Piracy is an issue for the artists stuck within an industry that is rapidly collapsing. The "illegal" distribution of music through file-sharing is nevertheless an example of people taking back their rights to share information freely.

The monetary system has been around for a long time, it was conceived to manage the exchange of physical goods and services. Digital goods and virtual products cannot be valued in the same way. There is potentially an infinite availability of any MP3 or digital file, while the value of money is based upon its finite quantity. Clearly this leads to an imbalance. For the sake of this argument i have focused on music, quite simply because it is the industry that is being affected the most by this new digital age. You can find pretty much anything you want online for free somewhere, but this is of course limited to virtual goods or digital information.

In part 3, i want to look further at how the principles of the monetary system cannot be applied in the digital world. For now though, i would like to hope that the collapse of the music industry is the start of something newer and better, the opportunities for artists and musicians to empower themselves have never been greater. Whatever the future holds, people will still want to listen to music and musicians will still want to create it. Until now, huge corporations have controlled music and its consumption, but digital downloading has changed everything. The future may be unclear but the potential is great.

Virtual Reality - Pt 1: The Digital Age

It seems that our lives are becoming increasingly more virtual. Not in the all-encompassing way of films like The Matrix or Lawnmower Man (although its no great stretch of the imagination to envisage a world like that in the future), rather a virtual reality that we have a detachment from that keeps us in the real world. Digital technology has replaced the need for physical items in many aspects of our lives, most prominently entertainment. For many of us our computer has become central, integral even, to our daily business. As consumers, many of our favourite "possessions" exist on our hard drives, likewise a great proportion of our social lives are spent online.

If we look at music, the days of having physical collections of CDs or records taking pride of place in their rack, shelf or strewn about the place possibly not in their correct sleeves are gone, instead replaced by some sort of organised system found in the My Documents folder on your computer. The only physical space required for an extensive music collection is the hard drive itself, which we measure in terms of Gigabytes rather than metres (or feet). The way we acquire music has changed similarly, virtual stores like iTunes or Beatport have replace the traditional record shop providing convenience (instant downloads, pick the tunes you want, no disappointment of finding out the record you want is out of stock) at the cost of the record shop experience (the excitement of looking through the artwork on the way home, the personal touch of talking to the staff and receiving recommendations).

For movie lovers, downloading the latest Hollywood titles, and watching them on your PC connected to a TV or decent monitor, is often better than renting movies from the likes of Blockbuster or LoveFilm, only to find that when its finally in stock the disc is scratched and ends up skipping at the best bit. Again, the convenience of instant downloads comes at the cost of the personal touch of dealing with the film-lovers working at your local rental store. Although the sheer size of movie downloads can also take the "instant" out of the download process.

Keeping up to date with the latest news is even easier now with the multitude of websites that provide breaking stories almost immediately. The need to sit down and flick through pages of crap and adverts in newspapers that tell you what happened yesterday is effectively gone.

MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and the millions of forums and other social websites provide ways of communicating with each other that were practically impossible only a few years ago. We can talk with people all over the world at any time with costs and timezones practically irrelevant.

These are just a few examples of the sort of virtual reality that exists in our lives. Of course, we still exist in physical reality, we still need physical goods, we all need to eat, we all need a roof over our head, our computers, TVs and stereos need manufacturing and the electricity required to power them has to come from somewhere. Watching a film at home is not as good as going to the cinema, listening to music at home is a completely different experience to going to a concert or club event, reading a newspaper on the train to work is often more practical and convenient than surfing the net on a laptop. And of course, social networking sites are no substitute for real socialising and spending time in the company of your friends and loved ones.

Not everyone in the world has access to the technology that we do, while the internet is not exclusively for the rich, it is nevertheless a luxury only available to those who can afford it. For much of the world, this kind of virtual reality is the stuff of fantasy.

The subject of piracy is the root of many debates, with a great deal of differing opinions. The virtual world, not being bound by scarcity in the same way that physical items are, leads many to change the way in which they value the virtual items they "own" (in many cases we own nothing now, instead we merely purchase a license to use). In the virtual world money is not necessary, or at least not in the way it is now. Infact it is only the needs of the physical world that require any sort of financial costs to be applied to digital products. While virtual money exists, and has the same value as its paper companion, the vast amount of legitimate free music, information and software shows that the monetary system as we know it is rapidly becoming outdated.

These last points i will expand on and investigate further in my next post. For now though, i think we can see that while our relationship with the virtual world is more detached than that of the "virtual reality" concept, it is certainly true that the need for physical items has largely been removed in many aspects of our lives, instead replaced by a digital universe (webiverse even) through which we can not only satisfy many of our needs but also achieve so much more than we ever could in the real world alone.

Decriminalise Cannabis Petition UK

I've tended to avoid the subject of drugs and drug laws in this blog to date, for what its worth its a topic i would prefer to explore in greater detail rather than simple speculation and opinions.

Nevertheless, anyone with any intelligence can see that the drug laws are not effective. Not only do they fail to prevent the real crimes involved with drugs (infact most of these crimes are a result of the drug laws), they also fail to prevent the serious problems that arise from the use of hard drugs (crack and heroin). Drug laws criminalise a substantial proportion of the world's population, people who are otherwise decent law-abiding citizens.

While i personally believe that the only way we can move forward in this respect is the complete decriminalisation of all drugs, i understand that its a slow process and would require the co-operation of all the world's leading governments. However, the British government took a step in the right direction a couple of years ago by downgrading cannabis to a class C, unfortunately that decision has recently been reversed, due in part to the great media propaganda machine.

Full cannabis decriminalisation should be the first step towards a newer better system regarding drugs. Again, this is not something that can be achieved overnight. Aside from the fact that cannabis is a relatively harmless drug (unlike alcohol and tobacco), it is proven to have a great number of positive uses, especially medical. A great number of people with health issues can benefit from using cannabis, and research is constantly showing more ways in which this natural, easily cultivated plant can be advantageous to sufferers of many illnesses.

Unfortunately the current laws prohibit the use of this drug in these ways, forcing sufferers to criminalise themselves and turn to the so-called black market to relieve their suffering. At the very least laws should be changed to allow for people to grow their own plants for personal use without fear of prosecution. This would not only be an acceptance of the fact that a large number of people do (and will) use the drug regardless of its legal status, but remove the need for otherwise innocent people to have to purchase the drug from street dealers, and in doing so continue to support a criminal industry.

Surely this would be a better way to combat the crime associated with drug use than the current system of full-blown criminalisation. As we all know, the drug laws do not work.

The reason i have brought this topic up is because it has come to my attention that a petition within the UK has been launched to "petition the Prime Minister to Decriminalise cannabis cultivation for personal use only (not for profit)."

The petition can be found here: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Growing-Cannabis/. Please sign it and tell as many people as you can, email your friends, post it in your own blog, make a video on YouTube, whatever you can. If enough people can show their support for what is a reasonable proposition, maybe our government might just take notice.

This is the Last Time I Talk About Snow

I'm going to keep this post short as i have said pretty much everything i wanted to in previous posts. There's still some snow but overall it seems to be clearing up now, to the disappointment of some and relief of others. However, it appears that a large number of employers are refusing to pay their staff for the days they were unable to attend last week. This is disgraceful, not only is it unfair (it might be illegal although i can only speculate), but in my opinion hugely irresponsible. Considering we are going through a serious recession here, any companies punishing their employees for a genuine inability to attend work are showing a complete disregard for the safety and well-being of their workforce, instead forcing their employees to risk their lives (and indeed the lives of others) by traveling in genuinely hazardous conditions just so that they can earn enough money to continue paying their bills. The government run Transport For London is guilty of this aswell as many other companies, both large and small. Again this is both greedy and irresponsible.

The BBC seems to have lightened up a bit on their reporting of this snow crisis a little though, perhaps due to the situation down in Australia. Aside from the few fatalities in Britain (and by no means do i wish to devalue them), the extremely hot weather down under has been far more serious than our freak snowstorm. Kinda puts it all into perspective, the value of the hundreds of lives lost in bush-fires is greater than the cost of the weather to our economy.

Nevertheless, i have dedicated a fair bit of time to this subject over the last week. As i have said previously, weather controls our lives in ways that governments, banks and religions can only dream of, this has been an example of that. It has not been my intention to criticize those so trapped within the work system as to be effectively forced into trying to continue with their daily business, regardless of the dangers. Instead i hope to have put forward an alternative viewpoint to that which has been propagated by the mainstream media, specifically the BBC. Hopefully, these last few posts, like the rest of this blog, has provided some food for thought if nothing else.

And for those that genuinely hate the snow, at least now you can look forward to plenty of rain!

More Snow... And Buses

Its still snowing! What a fun week this has turned out to be. I guess i was wrong about it all being cleared by yesterday, its great to wake up and see my hometown of Swindon covered in a thick white sheet, certainly makes a nice change from the usual grey theme!

Of course, while we should be enjoying ourselves and making the most of this rare treat, the BBC have continued to report this as "some of the worst weather in almost 20 years", personally i would call it some of the best snow since i was a kid. The BBC have definitely taken the throne as the champions of British propaganda this time, citing huge figures regarding the cost to our economy as the main tragedy in what they surely want to call the "snow crisis". You would think from the way they have been reporting that Britain had been hit by a tsunami or something.

But who's really losing out here? Those workers that are getting to spend the day with their loved ones surely aren't suffering, they should be entitled to pay for this time off if they physically can't get to work. The big corporations have got loads of money, enough to cover them for this week. I should think most of the rich fat shareholders are too busy having fun to worry about this (if they are worrying, they shouldn't). City traders selling up their stock in public transport companies know full well they can by them back next week cheaper and make a nice profit. Perhaps some of the small businesses and tradesmen might be having a hard time right now but that doesn't exactly account for the billions that the official statistics are giving us.

I reckon the BBC and everyone else like them are just out to make us feel bad for enjoying ourselves. Clearly they want to maintain the idea that our work defines us and that our jobs and our economy are so important that we should once again risk our lives and the lives of everyone else by trying to get to work by whatever means necessary. Then, of course, they can report about how the snow is causing all these road accidents.

I think i said more or less everything i needed to in my previous post here, nevertheless snow is fun for kids, why can't us grown-ups enjoy it too. Everything will be back to normal again next week, so make the most of it.

On a completely unrelated note, i read today that a Christian alliance are retaliating against the probably blasphemous Atheist Bus campaign with their own range of adverts claiming that "There definitely is a God. So join the Christian Party and enjoy your life". While we atheists, backed up by scientific knowledge, have had to compromise somewhat by using the word "probably", its seems completely wrong to me, and many others, that the Christians can be allowed to use the word "definitely" in such a way. Considering the foundation for much of the Christian complaints were that the “no God” claim could not be substantiated, surely then their own claims are even more unsubstantiated. I would suggest, in a fair compromise, their slogan should read "There might be a God...".

Maybe we should complain to the Advertising Standards Authority, i probably will.

Snow!

Well, apparently Britain descended into chaos yesterday, brought about by that great influence on us that is the weather. Or so the BBC would have us believe (here is one of many stories from their website).

I don't want to sound like i am downplaying this, but when serious weather hits us like this there is nothing we can do but accept it, Britain is perfectly well equipped to deal with rain, we get enough of it, but snow, forget it. In fact it seems that the real problem here is not the weather itself but the fact that people couldn't get to work, and i suspect for many they chose not to go to work instead enjoying the only thing that makes cold winters worth enduring.

The BBC repeatedly asked the question "could anything have been done?", while showing footage of some Londoner complaining that the roads weren't gritted and likening the situation to being in a third world country (about 30 seconds in to this video). With much public transport unable to operate, the only way for anyone to get to their oh-so-important jobs was to drive themselves through hazardous conditions. No wonder then that there was a large number of road accidents and injuries.

The way i see it, much of this chaos could have been avoided if everyone just took the day off. All the workers for big corporations who actually contribute very little to society should not put their lives and the lives of others at risk just so they go into the office and attend their apparently important business.

Ok, i'm not saying everyone should stay at home, doctors and medical professionals are needed more than ever in cases like this, similarly people still need to eat. But in times like this, people need to shift their priorities and think about each other, think about their community, their friends and family. Apparently the snow cost our economy £1.2 billion. I don't know how they work this out but in the current economic climate thats not the worst day we've had.

I'm not claiming to be an expert on the things that the BBC addressed, i have a very basic understanding of economics at best. I just can't help thinking that if our priorities changed a little, yesterday could be seen as an exceptional day with exceptional weather, rather than some sort of small scale natural disaster as it seemed to have been reported. Life goes on, tomorrow the snow will be gone and everything will return to normal, yesterday could have been fun for everyone. I think the kids had the right idea.

Thoughts on Thailand

Its been well over a week since i got back to this cold hell-hole that is England. What can i say? To think this is the first time i've been to Thailand, it sure won't be the last.

People told me my life would never be the same again, in some respects they are right. Its not the first time i've been travelling, i did 3 months around Australia and New Zealand, albeit some time ago. Nevertheless its a good reminder of how great the whole backpacking experience is. Of course this time i was not alone, its truly a great thing to share such an experience with someone close to me.

Thailand is an amazing and beautiful country, culturally speaking the difference to the western world is immense in so many ways. To see a nation that has such a relaxed attitude toward the things that over here would be considered a health and safety risk is at first strange but soon became refreshing. At many of the beach bars there was loads of fire-based entertainment, the sort of thing that you simply would not be allowed in this country. I guess their philosophy is if you are stupid enough to try jumping a fire-skipping rope drunk then its your own fault if you get burned.

The shabbily-built wooden huts that provided most of our accommodation are again something you would never see in England, although that is mostly due to the weather here. Similarly, the vast bulk of public transport around the country consists taxis of one form or another (taxi-cars, taxi-boats, even taxi-buses!), again a lot of these seem like they have been knocked up at home and would no way ever pass an MOT. It seems that everywhere there is a kind of shanty-town attitude towards many of the things we consider to be important health and safety issues.

Its this attitude that characterises Thailand and its culture. For a country that has not really known democracy for long and is really quite poor in comparison to ourselves, they experience a type of freedom we simply can't in our "Nanny State" society. Of course, its all relative, nowhere is perfect and Thailand is not without its faults but thats not what i wish to discuss right now.

The most striking thing about Thailand for many is of course the natural beauty of the country, particularly its many islands. My own "Final Destination" voyage (see previous post) led us straight to Phuket, a place we spent very little time, it reminded me very much of any number of holiday resorts, i might as well have been in Majorca! Next point of call was Ko Phi-Phi (the place i now realise i would likely have spent my Christmas on that ill-fated tsunami year), this is possibly one of the most beautiful places i have ever been, with gorgeous beaches and some amazing scenery. I even managed to (eventually) overcome my fear of drowning (i'm not much of a swimmer) and went snorkelling, another opportunity to see much of the islands beauty.

The beach at Tonsai was not in itself a great beach but the cliffs surrounding it were spectaculkar enough to make it the next point of call. Staying in a wooden hut partway up the mountain was also an experience. We didn't have enough time to do much though because our next destination was Ko Phangan ready for Christmas and New Year and its many parties.

Ko Phangan is in many ways the most westernised of all the places we visited, with many Brits and Europeans living there for long periods. The fact that there seemed to be a party every other day (all vaguely related to the moon) is probably reason enough for many hippies and ravers to want to spend long periods of time there. Whether these parties are as good as the festivals and free-parties we enjoy in England and Europe is a matter of debate, nevertheless they are cheap, fun and warm. Thailands hard-line zero-tolerance attitude towards drugs seems somewhat at odds with this party island but, again, thats not something i want to discuss here now.

My own personal ambition of spending Christmas in the sun was unfortunately hampered by the sudden, uncharacteristic downpour of rain Christmas day which continued on/off through to New Year, alongside plenty of cloud cover the rest of the time. Guess i'll have to go back there again next year.

Following Ko Phangan, we left to visit Ko Tao, a smaller island a little north within the gulf of Thailand. This island is another beautiful place, laidback with plenty of nature and scenery. Following that we had to return to Bangkok and reluctantly prepare ourselves for the journey home. Our flight got delayed/cancelled and we had to stay at a posh hotel for an extra night, paid for by the airline. :)

Coming home was not the nicest experience, not that there was anything wrong with the flights, just the knowledge that our holiday was over and we had a particularly cold England to look forward to. Still, as for life-changing experiences, it certainly had an impact on both of us. Now, our main objective is to find a way to go back there next year.

Personally i feel quite refreshed and inspired, my creative juices are flowing and i'm hoping to get some more tunes finished soon, this holiday has inspired me in new ways. I have plenty more thoughts on Thailand, society and everything else i like to rant about but they can wait another day. Hopefully this little memoir hasn't been too long or boring, i guess its been more for my benefit than anyone elses. I might even throw a few photos up on MySpace at some point.

Anyway, if you are still reading this and have yet to visit Thailand i strongly suggest you make some plans, its not an expensive holiday (apart from the flights) and its worth every penny. Next New Year (2009/10) is actually a proper Full Moon, something surely worth celebrating in style.