Hey, forget suing, let's just beat the crap out of them, then give all the
"stuff" to our friends!
I wonder how much he "charges" to take a pic w/ him!
=H=
Cat Scratch Thiever
Hey Napster, get your greasy paws off my intellectual property.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=85000700
BY TED NUGENT
Tuesday, March 13, 2001 12:01 a.m. EST
My younger brother Johnny and I rounded the corner of the vast parking lot
outside the concert arena and immediately spotted the greasy hippie with the
huge bag slung over his arm. Brothers Nuge looked at each other with a gleam
in our rock 'n' roll eyes and stated in unison, like military commandos:
"Bogie, 12 o'clock!"
We approached the young man at a steady gait, stepping past his three or
four customers. Though I had my hair pulled back tight in a ponytail, he
looked confused. Still, we figured he had to recognize me, given that he was
selling Ted Nugent T-shirts at a sold-out Ted Nugent concert.
We surrounded him and told him that he could not sell shirts with my name
and photograph on them. It was illegal, unfair and unacceptable. At this
point Johnny and I yanked the canvas bag of merchandise and cash from his
grasp and departed, returning backstage to hand out the cheap imported booty
to friends, crew members and charities. I used some as rags to clean my
guns.
We relentlessly repeated this across America for years, determined to stop
the unjust bootleg merchandising of my copyrighted image. We ran into
occasional resistance, but it never deterred me from taking what was
rightfully mine. Even on ABC television I faced threats from some punk who
thought he was dealing with just another pushover dope-smoking hippie band
that he could rip off with impunity. Hell, I hunt grizzly bears with a bow
and arrow. Bring it on, greaseballs!
I didn't need anyone to explain to me whether selling or giving away other
people's products without their permission was the right thing to do. Common
sense is alive and well in America if you're not stoned, drunk, greedy or
just plain stupid. To think that anyone could even argue that Napster has
the right to give away an artist's product is ridiculous.
Hey, I have a good idea! I'll just stand outside the local grocery store and
offer its food free to the public. It doesn't matter if the owner took the
risk, pays all the taxes and overhead, struggles with a bureaucratic
land-mine field of regulations and laws, invests his warrior work ethic in
bucketsful of sweat day after day, and basically busts his butt to provide a
quality service and jobs for the community. Hell, no. I'll just make that
decision for him, thank you, and give away his products and hard-earned
money. Who does he think he is anyway?
The same applies to recording artists. We invest sweat and blood and
millions of dollars creating musical products. It takes years of insane
sacrifice and grueling tour schedules and intense effort. To think a third
party should be allowed to give away our product for zero compensation is
brain-dead and un-American.
The Recording Industry Association of America attributes a 39% drop in
shipments of compact-disk singles in 1999 to this Internet downloading
system. Full-length CD sales also dropped dramatically. In the short amount
of time Napster has been in front of the courts, its users have grown from a
few thousand to more than 50 million. Thank God common sense is still
operating in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which recently ruled
Napster must stop providing unauthorized music.
Artists--or grocers for that matter--who wish to give away their own
merchandise or services as a promotional or marketing scheme can have at it.
But on any legal or intellectual level, only that individual can
legitimately make the decision. Artists and record companies already give
away an enormous amount of free goods. No one outside that business circle
should dare to do it for them and expect to get away with it.
Facing a runaway freight train of technology, we in the industry are moving
to upgrade the quality of music delivery while also protecting copyrights,
intellectual property rights and freedom of speech. With the book and
motion-picture industries also susceptible to the sort of pirating Napster
encourages, these communities will increasingly have to fight with us if
they are to protect their futures.
There is no reason for allowing intellectual property to enrich lives
without payment to the artist or business team. I'm just an ol' guitar
player, but surely what is fair is fair. I'll leave the mind-boggling
technology to the experts, but if I want bread, I'm going to pay the baker.
Mr. Nugent is a guitarist, vocalist and songwriter, animal-killer, and
general asswipe!
SpitFire Records will soon waste a bunch of money, time and energy to
release the latest piece of crap he calls music, "Full Bluntal Nugity."
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