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I honestly hope that this method is adopted by other artists, and that people start realizing that the music and the fans are the top priorities, not breast implants or servitude to mega-corporations.') FAQArray[index++] = new FAQInfo("Why have you made your music available online without any up-front charges?", "I've done a lot of reading on the current debates surrounding Intellectual Property (IP), and have thought long and hard about which position we, as musical artists and members of the band Halogen, should stand behind.
One side vehemently defends music (as well as text in a book, movies on a DVD, etcetera) as copyrighted IP, and that copying and distribution in ANY form is grounds for a criminal lawsuit. In my opinion, this side would encompass such organizations as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).
The other side usually uses the argument "information wants to be free," and seems to regard free trading/sharing of music as completely acceptable; in most cases, those that feel this way bolster their argument by stating the fact that large record companies compensate the artists with only a few cents per album sale, and pocket the rest (which, for the most part, is true). This seems to be the attitude generally adopted by users of such trading software as Napster and, more recently, Gnutella.") FAQArray[index++] = new FAQInfo("Can I donate more than US$5.00?", 'You most certainly can! I have created a separate PayPal donation link below for just such a purpose. Thank you for your generosity!
This left me asking myself a question: is there any format that cannot be compromised by those determined to get the data or music inside in a non-encrypted format, to use for themselves or (more likely) to share with others? Frankly, I believe no such format exists, at least not one that allows such encrypted content to be extracted and viewed at any point by those that legally purchase it. To paraphrase what I\'ve read many times: if it can be viewed (or listened to, as it were), it can be copied. Period. Sometimes, this may involve a complicated procedure, but in most of the cases I\'ve seen recently, it\'s actually quite a simple process (in Adobe\'s case, embarassingly so).' LongAnswerArray[2] = 'My mother is a huge Stephen King fan, so it came as no surprise to me that, when he released his first eBook, Riding the Bullet, she heard about it almost immediately and relayed her interest about it to me via email. After browsing the site, I noticed a particular question in the FAQ regarding printability of the eBook PDF -- apparently, the fact that it was not printable was a conscious decision made by the publishers. I knew that my mother was not the type of person to sit at a computer monitor to read any book, even if it was written by her favorite author. So, after a simple search on a very well-respected search engine, I located a freely-printable version of the book in a simple TXT file. My mom was thrilled when I presented her with the printout of the book (even though I considered it to be completely substandard, as the formatting was completely wrong), which made me happy.
Apparently, Mr. King (and his publishers) received a lot of complaints regarding the non-printability of his novel; his next eBook, a serial novel titled The Plant, was fully printable, and relied completely on the honor system. People could freely download the PDF files from Mr. King\'s website (for a limited time only, as it turned out) and print them out.' LongAnswerArray[3] = 'Mr. King asked in return that people donate one to two dollars per installment as compensation; while I donated the appropriate amounts for each installment I downloaded, I do not know if this was a successful venture for him. Regardless, I was quite impressed by this move, and is one of the reasons why our songs are available as they are now.
While the eBook example may seem a bit off-topic when it comes to music, the principles of the distribution medium remain the same. I\'ve been fairly cynical my entire life, and when I saw that The Plant was a simple, printable PDF, I knew right away that there would be those that would download every one of the volumes (without paying for a single one) and place them all for free download from their own sites, preventing Stephen King from even having the opportunity to request the donations for his work. However, I also feel that, given the opportunity to do so, most people (including myself) would much rather directly express their appreciation to artists, authors, musicians, or anyone else they admire, rather than attempt to send their letters or emails through the faceless corporations that control much of the IP today. It would seem that, in most cases, this type of interaction involves money, but I\'ve found that sometimes a simple "thank you for creating something new and unique" via email is quite effective.' LongAnswerArray[4] = 'Please don\'t get me wrong; I am not attempting to ride on my own personal High Horse of Morality and tell everyone that if you don\'t donate to us or any other independent artist, then you\'re doing a Bad Thing and will go to Hell for it -- this couldn\'t be further from the truth. I think that, in all the heated debates over IP, most of those involved in the discussion have forgotten about the main component, the single thread common to every facet of the argument: the content itself.
Would I pay any money at all for the new Britney Spears album? No; I don\'t personally care for Britney Spears. Would that make downloading the album using Gnutella (and not allowing the artist any compensation whatsoever) justifiable, since I would never have purchased it anyway? It must be considered that if the latest single from that album is floating around trading networks or on various sites, it is almost guaranteed that more people will hear it than if it were only available at retail outlets or played on the radio.' LongAnswerArray[5] = 'It is my personal opinion that this type of sharing has the ability to give such exposure to independent artists many times over that which is currently enjoyed by mainstream acts; those listeners that crave content different than what is currently "hip" can use Gnutella (or something similar) to search for music from an artist that they heard about through a friend of a friend -- an artist, for example, that sounds like one of the listener\'s favorite artists or creates music in the same genre, but does not have a contract with any of the five major music labels and therefore do not have music videos on MTV or every-hour-on-the-hour radioplay.
Do I sound a little hypocritical? Yes; however, I am of the firm belief that there must be change and compromise as the widespread copying of IP continues, and I would rather seem a bit hypocritical than be viewed as a behemoth conglomerate resistant to any change. Thus, I\'ve come to the conclusion that I must compromise, but in a way that everyone (including our band) wins.' LongAnswerArray[6] = 'It would be pointless to attempt encryption or some other type of control over our music format -- hence, the inclusion of all music available for download on this site. Copy our music, spread it around, share it with people who you think might enjoy it, remix it (and hopefully send us a copy -- I love remixes); if you have the time and necessary tools, and you ask nicely, we may be able to provide some of the separate tracks so you can REALLY remix one of our songs. All we ask is that our names continue to be associated with the songs available on our site, and that the files not be changed from their originals (unless you are doing a remix, and credit is given to our band for the original composition) -- I\'ve found the easiest way to do this would be via the ID3 tags within MP3 files.
I have found that merchandising through cafepress.com presents a great opportunity for both us and our devoted listeners, as they can own memorabilia associated with our band, and, at the same time, we can have a small source of revenue.' LongAnswerArray[7] = 'I have also decided to place donation links on our download site, rather than resort to ugly banner ads or obnoxious pop-up/pop-under boxes. In my personal experience, I can\'t count the number of times that I\'ve heard music from an artist that I would gladly pay a dollar or more for, but was unable to do so. Donated money would go to new instruments or computer equipment, and perhaps even a six pack of Zima every once in a while. Donation is certainly not obligatory, and I wouldn\'t stop creating or distributing music simply due to "a lack of interest" (as the Stephen King website informed readers might have happened to further episodes of The Plant when it was available).
Overall, I\'m thrilled that I have the opportunity to make my music available to the entire planet; judging by the reaction to our first (and only, so far) live performance, I feel our music is good enough to stand out from the myriad of bands in existence today. I hope that people all over the world will save a place on their hard drive for our music, and will look forward to what comes next from our band.' function longAnswer(qid,id) { if (id == 0) { document.all.answerspace.innerHTML = "
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