Thinking or Skimping in Western Society - The Editor’s Desk

If you look around the blogosphere for any length of time, you’ll find that 90% of the posts on most blogs are short snippets - often no longer than 300 words - that say “me too!” to a news item or post on another blog. Read more

Another great idea: Eliminate Corporate Criminal Liability — Robert Reich’s Package Deal

The Free Articulator is interested in great ideas that advance civilization and resolve problems. We look for such ideas and let our readers know about them, so that these ideas can inform their creative products:

• Poems
• Songs
• Fiction
• Nonfiction
• Visual art
• Sculpture
• Scripts
• Plays
• Etc.

Many of the songs Joel Falconer and I have written have developed out of online conversations about social and political events that we have had some pretty animated discussions about. So one of the things we do, as contributors to the Free Articulator is forward ideas that seem to us to be worthwhile in terms of advancing our civilization and making it possible for human civilization everywhere to shuck off those artifices that are creating problems for us. The corporation is one such device.

It’s no secret that I’m not very happy about corporations and their irresponsibilities. The idea of a corporation was basically good and initially served society very well, as you’ll find out if you watch The Corporation. Since becoming aware of corporations and how they work I’ve done quite a lot of research into them and also looked to ways and means of combating the evil they do. Robert Reich however, has come up with a novel idea. I think it’s worthy of consideration, and may provide a storyteller, scriptwriter or other Creative Artist with story material. So check it out.

Imagine a Future Beyond the Tip of the Last Ice Berg…Pull up the Parking Lot!

Greetings everybody, I have been so busy tying up loose ends of this year in preparation for the next year that I have not yet had an opportunity to read everything I wanted to read. Thus Al Gore’s Nobel Acceptance speech of 10 December has only now hit my radar. It is worth the read, and some parts in particular have relevance to the role of Creative Artists in society. Read more

I’ve got a message for you

Elbert Hubbard died on the Lusitania, 7 May 1915, the sinking of which brought the United States of America into the First World War. One of the works he wrote is credited with starting the entire business of trade magazine publications as we know them today, and he is associated with the establishment of the American art & craft movement of the last century. Read more

The Points of the Creative Artists’ Code: Eight - Your work is your responsibility

In this article explaining the eighth point of the Code of a Creative Artist, NDK Creative Artist discusses the responsibility artists have to protect the integrity of their art. — Joel Falconer, Editor-in-Chief

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I wish the media would tell the real story about Prince…and if they won’t then I would like to

Along with the celebrity tabloid nonsense that continues to plague our lives with trash for the mind and spirit, like Heather Mills I’m just sick of the media distorting facts, provoking violence and generally acting like complete moroffs, that it just annoys the bloody heck out of me!

Yeah, I know I’m not supposed to have an opinion. But I do, and this is the Free Articulator where providing you follow civilized, and submission, guidelines that actually mean something, you can pretty much say what you please.

Yesterday I looked at the latest misreporting of Yahoo and Reuters and read this about Prince: Read more

How do I feel about America and Americans? It takes a lot of balls…

I feel I ought to clarify how I feel about America and Americans as we have recently received some rather uninformed and disturbing anonymous defamatory communications and accusations challenging the Free Articulator and me personally. We are now investigating further with the possibility of additional action to be undertaken given the nature and frequency of the communications received and threats made. The person making these statements is obviously unaware of defamation law and is probably in violation of their ISP’s terms of use and we are looking into that and their obvious personal agenda.

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America, leave Iran alone!

I watched the BBC with mounting horror last night as America’s Secretary of Disaster Capitalism, Condoleeza Rice, ‘declared war’ on Iran by announcing the imposition of sanctions that are designed and intended to do nothing more than provoke Iran and provide Fascist Imperial America, the Duperpower (opposite of Superpower: a duplicitous, deceitful, dishonest rogue nation whose words of ideal mean nothing) with the opportunity to begin World War III.

“Under the influence of politicians, masses of people tend to ascribe the responsibility for wars to those who wield power at any given time. In World War I it was the munitions industrialists; in World War II it was the psychopathic generals who were said to be guilty. This is passing the buck.

The responsibility for wars falls solely upon the shoulders of these same masses of people, for they have all the necessary means to avert war in their own hands. In part by their apathy, in part by their passivity, and in part actively, these same masses of people make possible the catastrophes under which they themselves suffer more than anyone else. To stress this guilt on the part of the masses of people, to hold them solely responsible, means to take them seriously. On the other hand, to commiserate masses of people as victims, means to treat them as small, helpless children. The former is the attitude held by genuine freedom fighters; the latter that attitude held by power-thirsty politicians.” - Wilhelm Reich, The Mass Psychology of Fascism

I want to see Bush and his cronies in the International Courts at Nuremberg for War Crimes, crimes against humanity and the subversion of democracy. The last time Fascism raised its head in the world, the world said “No,” and for 5 years fought to create freedom and liberate the German people from tyranny, millions died. An attack on Iran today is going to be Poland in 1939 all over again. I hope you will all join me in telling the Duperpower to leave Iran alone.

Radiohead - What will the fans (market) do?

I think this article: Radiohead bets on fast release, open pricing is another indicator of the music industry creaking at the seams. However, the line “It’s up to you” is a challenge to the public to embrace the independent artist’s new business model. It’s telling the audience to be honest about downloading and those who would contemplate simply taking it for free simply because they can, should consider well what they may be doing to the future of music and the industry of art & entertainment.

The question we should ask is: Are the public–the fans–as dishonest and corrupt as the industry itself, or are they truly loyal (and honest) fans who want to support the independence of artists whose talent and products they enjoy?

I think Radiohead are asking that question with “It’s up to you” which is really, another way of asking “Given the opportunity to steal, to take without fair payment, are you a thief?” it’s too bad they’re not publshing the figures as they occur, for the results would be very interesting. What Radiohead is doing is similar to Stephen King’s e-Book download experiment.

The Rise of the Independent Creative Artist - Prince, Radiohead Lead Way with Bold Marketing Moves

When the Free Articulator launched its first articles on the 4th of July 2007 it did so with the Declaration of Creative Independence, and the Code of a Creative Artist, a set of principles which state very clearly how Creative Artists will deal with the business and industry of artistic creative endeavor, and interact with society and civilization.

In September the Free Articulator published my article the Traditional Music Industry Shows Increasing Signs of Collapse. It was pirated within a day of publication and came to the attention of MySpace.

Earlier this year (July, 2007) Prince caught everybody’s attention with the licensing of two million copies of his new album Planet Earth to the UK’s Mail On Sunday. It was touted as a “give away” by the international media, though nothing could be further from the truth; Prince licensed the album to the Mail On Sunday; that’s smart marketing business, demonstrating an understanding and appreciation of what intellectual property rights are all about and how to use them effectively.

This licensing deal with the Mail On Sunday permitted the legal give-away of two million albums and raised the ire of the Music Retailers Association in the UK, who warned musicians everywhere “not to do the same or else…!” Precisely the sort of attitude and response that would encourage musicians everywhere to follow Prince’s example, and by the way, I’d love to interview Prince for our Intellectual Property Series, as I’ve been following what happened to his career since he lost the use of his name to his former-label and I’m thrilled to see his comeback garnering so much attention, as it simultaneously educates and redefines the business model of creative individuals with the industry, society and the public.

Now Radiohead has adopted the idea of the market setting the price for downloaded material and generated millions of dollars worth of free international advertising that purportedly sends a shockwave through the busines, and reflects the insight offered in my article on the inreasing signs of collapse of the music industry. The old model in the recording industry (detailed briefly here) doesn’t work any more, it is a rip-off of artists who have been kept ignorant of the industry’s workings, and disenfranchised of their rights through chicanery and ignorance that is becoming well-known worldwide.

However, as AJC points out in his blog Science of the Invisible, “It ain’t gonna work.” At best, he’s right: Radiohead’s move is free international promotion and that will work, is working, but has little ongoing traction or utility, as one needs to have a large audience, and be a brand that people and the media are aware of.

AJC is also right about what the music industry should do, but, changing a bad philosophical, moral code and business model to something morally sound and ethical requires a radical change in thinking and practise that takes a long, long time. The time to change required extends when you’re talking about an entire industry that is used to having open season exploitation of creative ignorance. Can such a leopard change its blotches?

The industry is a servant of the artist and their public, not the master. That’s the new model, the model of the independent Creative Artists who license their work to others for mutual benefit, sharing the wealth and potential of a work or collection on reaonable and fair terms without giving up ownership or paying for the rip-off of their own property. End the corruption, end the decay. Let’s have an industry we can trust.