Steal This MP3

People are marching against the chiefs of industry
Who are trying to protect their intellectual property
Secret negotiations to make a secret deal
They’ve got Warner Brothers, Sony and the Presidential Seal
They say they lobby on behalf of you and me, I say
Steal this MP3

Fifty years ago, what some call the Golden Age
Indy FM was the king, the world was a stage
Independent labels made records by the score
Enter 2012 — now there are only four
I’ve got words for these plutocrats who claim to represent me
Steal this MP3

In between commercials they play “nothing but the hits”
And they hope to placate all of us with Lady Gaga’s tits
They laid off all their staff before the PC was invented
And now they blame the world that their profits have been dented
So the 1% is trying to make sure they get their fee
Steal this MP3

It’s the rich who line their pockets while the rest of us get screwed
It could all be a comedy if it weren’t so crude
They want to arrest you for sharing knowledge — for violating copyright
To quote my friend Attila, these capitalists are a blight
They don’t care about the culture — they just want their money
Steal this MP3

The people don’t want censorship — by that name or another
They don’t want their files searched by corporate Big Brother
And if it’s up to most of us no one would sign your bill
Just so Hollywood and Pharma can make another mill
So from the Mekong Delta to the Mediterranean Sea
Steal this MP3

Buy/share/steal this album:

“Steal This MP3” appears on the 2012 CD, Meanwhile In Afghanistan.  The acoustic version also appears on the acoustic version of the CD, which can only be found accompanying the download of the album on Bandcamp.

The music industry has been broken for a long, long time as far as promoting independent music goes, at least in the USA.  You can be sure that whatever the big corporations are up to with the various trade deals related to intellectual property, patents, copyrights, downloading music, and so on, they’re not interested in the independent musicians or other artists, and they’re not interested in the well-being of independent culture in general.  We need solutions to various problems involving the internet, free downloads, etc., but those solutions will not be found through these trade deals and laws being passed or proposed by the industries involved.  What’s good for GM is not what’s good for America.  Same goes for EMI.