Branded and Rented Lives

I’m reading No Logo, a book by Naomi Kline.

On the title page it says, “NO SPACE NO CHOICE NO JOBS NOLOGO.” On the page before that it says, “First published in Great Britain by Flamingo 2000, Copyright ® Naomi Klein 2000, Naomi Klein asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work, ISBN 0-676-97282-9.” 

Actually, I hadn’t read all the lead-in stuff at the front of the book until I started to write this, but I can see now that it didn’t wait until page 91 to get interesting. It got interesting on page eight, when Naomi asserted her moral right to be identified as the author of the book. That resonates with me right down to my toes, which are, as we speak, vibrating in harmony with the idea that what I write is intrinsically me in the same way as my liver and my metatarsals. 

Because what I write is unique to me, (and I hope what you write is unique to you) I was stopped short in my reading by this on page 91: 

Designers like Stussy, Hilfiger, Polo, DK1MY and Nike have refused to crack down on the pirating of their logos for T-shirts and baseball hats in the inner cities and several of them have clearly backed away from serious attempts to curb rampant shoplifting. By now the big brands know that profits from logowear do not just flow from the purchase of the garment but also from people seeing your logo on ‘the right people,’ as Pepe Jeans’ Phil Spur judiciously puts it.

So…the more your stuff is stolen and seen by the public, the more money you make in the end. Pirating and shoplifting is built into the marketing plans of companies smart enough to recognize that what they’re selling isn’t a product, but a feeling, a lifestyle, warm fuzzies, coolth and the ephemeral content of dreams. 

This reminded me of something I read in the late 1990s. I can’t quote it exactly because I no longer have access to the source, but it went something very like this: Photoshop is happy to allow it’s products to be stolen on the internet because they figure that once the thief becomes proficient at using it, he/she will either go to work for a graphics design company or they’ll set up their own company. Either way, there will be more purchases of more Photoshop products, so the initial theft leads to increased profits.

Now I’m going to insert a personal opinion. I think that the whole “War on P2P File Sharing” is more about marketing music and movies, than it is about lost profits for music and movie companies. 

I think the more restrictions that are put on the free dissemination of music and movies, the greater the desire becomes. But, beyond that, I think the biggest boon to the music/movie business is the “branding” of their products as the quickest easiest way to “rebel” against “the man.”

Who is it that spends the most money on music CDs, movie tickets and DVDs? Sure, you and I spend some money on them, but we aren’t maxing out our credit cards at the iTunes Store, or on movies and games, now are we? We leave those indulgences to the under-30 crowd. 

Let’s face it, it’s that under-30 crowd who is most likely to enjoy the thrill of eluding the RIAA, shoplifting, and just generally thumbing their noses at anything that smacks of toeing the line.

When your whole life revolves around limited choices and opportunities, and that’s what life is like when you’re young, limited, then a bit of “outlaw” behavior probably feels pretty darn good. And if that outlaw behavior introduces the “outlaw” to things he wouldn’t otherwise see or hear, then that can’t be bad for the companies that sell those things, can it? 

I don’t believe that P2P file sharing is the big drain on music and movie companies’ profits that they’d have us believe. I think the kids and grannies whose lives are ruined by RIAA lawsuits are simply the necessary victims in a brilliant marketing plan. Get ‘em addicted when they’re young and you have a revenue stream for life. 

Do your own research on the issue of illegal downloading from the internet. Then think about the ways you rebelled when you were young. Which made you feel better, rebelling against something nobody cared about, or rebelling against something so big and scary that you felt like a hero for going against it?

Then think about how big and scary the RIAA has become. 

Now, think about this:

Have you ever loaned or given a book, comb, magazine, recipe, CD, pen, DVD, shirt, video game or aspirin to another person? Did doing that make you feel like a hero fighting the greed and evil of a big faceless corporation? If it didn’t, then that’s just one more thing you DON’T have in common with your children. 

Our children are being trained to live in a world where outright ownership of any *thing* is granted only to corporations. Our children are being trained to believe that all they will ever be able to do is rent; they will never have the right to actually call anything their own because private property won’t exist. 

Think about that the next time you click on the “agree” button. Better yet, think about it the next time you make out a check for the mortgage payment.

Update 08-09-08:

Here’s an article which suggests that P2P file sharing is routinely used by the music industry.

Our children will soon be renting, not buying, their textbooks.

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