On my son's birthday (10/25) I wrote the following after returning from a press conference announcing the launch of Digital Freedom:

To the extent artists have rights, they were only mentioned in passing, along the lines of "We believe artists have the right to be paid, BUT..." The three short videos on their web site tell the story. (FYI, we learned thanks to a reporter's great question that these are actors hired by Qorvis.) The first one is a "technologist" whose hands, literally, are tied. He claims he can't sell his new widget because of the music labels; he doesn't say if he approached any content holders about licensing...

To me, the most offensive video was the first one. I'm old enough to remember the miniseries "Roots." Anyone who saw that most likely was never the same again. So here is this coalition, taking a young African-American actor, binding his hands, having him talk about not letting them "tie you down," and holding his fists up in the air. To me it was evocative of Kunta Kinte, tied to a post, defiantly refusing to be called Toby while being mercilessly whipped. So when this young man curses the major labels with tied fists held high, are we to equate those labels with slave masters? Well, the CEA did call the record labels terrorists last week.

Lo and behold, a visit to their site today (www.digitalfreedom.org) reveals that the African-American technologist is gone; just a guy with duct tape on his mouth and a woman with a bag over her head remain (no, I'm not joking about those two). Perhaps I wasn't the only one offended?

posted by Patrick Ross @ 4:35 PM | Free Culture Movement

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