I want certain kinds of protections

[Lucas Ives]

And let's play with brass tacks, Vinnie lays down LOTS of albums. If I "steal" some, it OBVIOUSLY ain't hurting his income. You know how much that guy makes?! Seriously

This point of view, especially given that you're another working musician, kills me. It is at the heart of the issue that DSOP's arguing -- which is, by the way, completely disjoint from the RIAA's boneheaded anti-piracy strategy (see also the PIPA that's making its way through congress right now).

[Morgenthaler]

I see two parallel discussions - or at least one distorted one.

One is whether it should be possible for musicians to make money from their music.
Of course it should. And is. I'll get to that.

The other is whether the 'Protect IP Act' and the 'Stop Online Piracy Act' is the way to go, in terms
of dealing with the illegal behaviour that is a part of the internet of today. It is, if you want to live
in censorship comparable to that in China, Iran and Syria. The bills are way too losely
formed, giving the authorities way too many ways too kill initiative, progress
and the further development of the free, democratic internet.

I strongly encourage all of you to sign the petition to stop these two acts:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_internet/?slideshow

I also encourage you to take a look at some of the possible consequences of those acts, were they
to be carried out: http://americancensorship.org/infographic.html

And back to my first point. It is still very much possible for musicians to make a living. But it takes
serious dedication and being willing to adapt to new ball games. The era of the LP heck even the CD
is over. I see three major movements:

One is selling cheap downloads of mp3's (iTunes, Amazon etc) while offering more expensive stuff
like high quality music downloads + art work + special bonus features in those downloads.

Another is to let your music be available at cloud music services like Spotify and Rdio,getting a
small fee everytime your music is played.

The last is crowd funding, which means putting enough free stuff out there that people recognise
you, and then asking for money to record properly. This is already taking off in a big way through
sites like Kickstarter.com.

I agree, it must be a very tumultuous time to be a musician, but there will be ways to make
money in the future. I would not mind one bit if the filthy rich music label people where removed
from the equation.

But for now, we can't risk politicians to censor the free internet. It could close down sites like HOD,
just by ONE member sharing ONE illegal link. And who here could not imagine a pissed off former
member signing up again, with that sole purpose: To f*ck things up for everyone else.