4a
Opinion
Tuesday, August 29, 2000
For comments, contact Ben Embry or Emily Hughey at 864-4924 or e-mail opinion@kansan.com
Perspective Don't be tempted by third parties
t appears as though Ralph Nader, anti-corporate con-
It appears as though Kaipn Nader, anti-corporate consumer ninja, has a new target. Gone are his attempts to champion workplace safety, corporate accountability, and workers' rights. He has turned savagely against them. He is now the hired gun of the Green Party, and his enemy is ... Al Gore.
Normally I'd be thrilled by the prospect of trouble for Gore, who is as charming and likable a man
as week-dead haddock. But the alternative this election year is Dubya Bush, who makes the haddock look downright attractive. Why couldn't the Republican Party have nominated a brighter, less shallow candidate? Like
Mike
Loader
columnist
opinion@kansan.com
It's enough to drive a good conservative to a third party, just as Gore is enough to drive liberals screaming into the arms of Nader.
say, the chimpanzee of your choice?
Don't do it, folks. I know it's tempting, but voting for a third-party candidate is almost as meaningless an act as not voting at all. If you vote for Nader, Bush and his oil companies will beam in delight. If you vote for Buchanan, Gore and the Buddhist temple of the week will offer up mantras for your soul.
Third-party candidates have never done more than briefly highlight the narrow cause they champion, usually damaging it in the process.
And why would you vote for these people anyway? Nader is a natural watchdog against consumer endangerment; his record in that regard is admirable and to be applauded. But a president cannot be a man with only one issue.
The commander-in-chief must wear many hats, and should be not only well-versed but also genuinely interested in all the facets of running the greatest country on the planet. Nader cannot. He is obsessed with his crusade to the exclusion of most of the rest of the world.
As for Buchanan, well, what can you say about a man who combines the best features of Hitler, Stalin, and Neville Chamberlain?
My ballot is still up in the air. The thought of voting for Gore makes part of me recoil in horror. But the more I examine Shrub Bush, the more frightened I become. Like many conservatives, I believe in character, hard work, initiative, self-sufficiency and moral strength. George W. Bush has proven himself sadly deficient in all of these areas. I used these pages to condemn him during the Republican primaries for grievous defects in character and conduct. I see no reason to change my tune just because he won.
Two unappetizing choices. But sometimes that's what life gives us. My vote will go to one of them because I want my ballot to make a difference. Tough choices can never be solved by retreating into a more pleasant mental delusion, whether it goes by the name of the Green or Reform Party.
Leader in a Henderston, Nov., senior in journalism and history.
Chan Lowe / TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES
By the numbers 1 in718 Chances that a U.S. fisherman died on the job in 1998
1 in 4,613 Chance that a U.S. police officer
Points by which the percentage of U.S.college students who are "frequent binge drinkers" has increased since 1993
Points by which the percentage who are abstainers has increased
60 Percentage of Americans who believe that sex education should be a required school subject
28 Percentage who believe that teaching evolution should be required
Source: www.harpers.org
Editorial
Napster owed respect in today's music world
The software is a savior in an industry dominated by big corporate interests.
Legal or illegal, Napster, a popular MP3-sharing program being sued by the Recording Industry Association of America, deserves support. It is single-handedly saving music from the corporatization that has overtaken the recording industry.
Although corporate labels appear to be looking out for artists' financial well-being, they are really motivated by the drive for profits. Napster's power is its ability to introduce many listeners to artists without the use of a record label.
For an organization that claims to be acting on artists' behalf, the RIAA's members are anything but unified in support of artists. The companies behind the RIAA straddle the fence, spouting double talk about piracy while subtly encouraging participation in illegal MP3 trading if there's a profit in it.
Sony Music Entertainment Inc., Sony's conglomeration of music subsidiaries, is one of the record labels leading the charge against Napster. Meanwhile, Sony's consumer electronics division is busy churning out portable MP3 players, sold for a hefty profit to Napster users on the go.
Similarly, Time Warner Inc.'s subsidiary, Warner Music Group, backs the RIAA lawsuit while its Internet subsidiaries, Road Runner and America Online (pending federal approval), simultaneously make millions of dollars providing an infrastructure that makes file transfers possible.
Corporate schizophrenia aside,
it's clear that this isn't a battle about property rights or artists' well-being. This is a battle about corporate profits.
Shawn Fanning, Napster's creator, beat the major labels to the online music revolution, and they're bitter that they didn't get their slice of the pie. The fact that Fanning has achieved the consumer base to make millions in profit and continues to offer music for free must only infuriate record executives more.
In an industry where CDs are made for less than $1 and then sold for $15 and up, profits are enormous While artists can, and do, gross large profits from CD sales, the real money is being made by the record labels. Whether deciding which bands get radio promotion or how much to spend on marketing, these labels exert enormous leverage on artists, trapping them in a no-win situation — play by our rules or never make it big.
"An increasing number of young people don't buy albums, so we are not only losing that immediate revenue ... They are growing up with a notion that music is free and ought to be free," he said.
Richard Parsons, president of Time Warner Inc., put it bluntly in a recent issue of The Los Angeles Times.
Napster's promise lies in its ability to cut the labels and corporations from the equation. In a world where any artist can distribute his or her music directly to an unlimited audience without getting trapped by the record moguls, musicians can truly thrive.
Regardless of the legal technicalities, Napster deserves our respect. It's moving us from a recording "industry" toward an era of true musical freedom.
Joe Jarvis for the editorial board
Editorial
Banning Napster would end piracy
The program's users are greedy and steal money from artists.
Many musicians have found themselves fighting against Napster, a company that enables computer users to download MP3 files onto their hard drives and CDs, and for good reason.
Greed is the overwhelming drive of most Napster users. If you support an artist, go out and get the album. Snagging it from Napster doesn't pay them a cent, and as Sheryl Crow put it, is nothing more than the theft.
College campuses, traditionally where CD sales thrive, are now where Napster use is the highest. According to www.stopnapster.com, CD sales where Napster is most common dropped 4 percent this year.
The users cannot blame the industry for costs. The high-cost argument would hold water only if Napster were the only way to hear music cheaply. Why not listen to the radio or buy the CD used?
From an artistic point of view, Napster takes an endless amount of emotion and purpose from music. Rarely are songs meant to stand alone. Albums are put together
in a sequence, where one song is intended to be heard after another, whether they are related in subject or not. A considerable amount of time is spent on song placement on an album, and Napster nullifies this album effect.
But the most faulty argument for Napster's existence is that the bands and the music labels already have enough money. Who are we, as consumers, to decide when an artist has earned enough money? Isn't that the band's decision?
Plenty of people would say that some college students or computer users have too much money, but that does not give them the right to steal from artists.
While an immediate answer may not exist, a possible solution to this music downloading is to alter the make-up of CDs, if the artists so desires, to prohibit the creation of an MP3 of one of their songs. This would also benefit the smaller bands who rely on MP3 swapping because only their MP3s would be available for download.
Although it is unlikely both sides will agree on a solution, stealing or cheating others out of their reward is unfair and should be put to an end.
Ben Tatar, dissenting
Free for All is the telephone public forum for the Kansan. Callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. The Kansan reserves the right to edit submissions, and not all of them will be published. Slanderous statements will not be printed.
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I am very upset with the article that you have in regards to the Burge (Union) party. I did not appreciate that picture of one of my friends standing up there with his hands up like a criminal. I do not agree with that and the bad portrayal of Black students on campus.
I'd like to know why it is that only negative things in regards to Blacks on campus is ever printed. How come the positive things, such as HawkLink, Take Over the Beach or the Alpha Phi Alpha car wash, are never printed? It's not fair, and it's not right.
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So far all I've learned at KU is that there really is such a thing as uphill both ways.
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If anybody sees Britney Spears,will you give her my number because I just want to hit her one more time.
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What's the deal with the heat?
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Can someone please tell me why I pay over $4,000 a semester in tuition yet they can't put in sufficient lighting over on the other side of Jayhawker Towers where there's a parking lot? Especially after there was a recent rape on campus.
I think everyone out there should really think about one thing when they go to vote this November. If George Bush is elected, he's going to be the one who gets to decide the Supreme Court, which means no more abortion, so just think about that for a minute.
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