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There are very few things I react strongly to. One of them being the whole issue of music piracy. I dislike the word “piracy” being used in conjunction with music – “dislike” being too mild a word.

Makes me wonder – How did the whole concept of piracy come about? Was there any such idea in the pre-recording age? The only example I came about was that of a particular composition Miserere Mei, Deus written for a nine-part choir by composer Gregorio Allegri in around 1640. The work was considered to be so spiritually powerful that the Pope insisted that only his personal choir at the Sistine chapel should be able to sing it, and they would preform it once every year, during Holy Week. Things got so bad that all but two copies of the work were destroyed, of which one was gifted to Emperor Leopold I and the other to the king of Portugal. No, there were no illicit copies made, until 1770, when….ah, no, we’ll come to that later.

This might have been the first instance of some form of legislation against music. At least so far as I know. But at least the intent was noble…I mean, modern-day composers and music enthusiasts second the fact that the particular composition was as powerful as the Pope claimed.

Let me get into a little philosophy. Why would a musician compose music? The answer, of course, would vary from a historical perspective. Folk music, the origin of most music styles, and the most localized of genres were mostly about stories retold as ballads. ( I am thinking of Cacofonix strumming his lute and saying “Let me compose a song for this historic occasi..” – *Baammmff! * as I write this.) Which was mostly passed on from mouth to mouth, with bards and wandering minstrels (isn’t it funny the way we associate “wandering” with “minstrels”? Are musicians always travellers? ) singing before assemblies, villages, councils, or even Kings. It’s very strange to think of music that one cannot listen to at will, or of people having to wait months, or even years, to listen to a repeat rendition of some tune. But it was that way, once upon a time.

The concept of music as a spiritual activity has its origins in the Old Testament, and the spread of Christianity throughout Europe only helped make that aspect more pronounced. Classical music involved a degree of spiritual satisfaction, and also some amount of research. A musician of that age might be asked – Why do you make music? To be closer to God. What do you want to do with your music? I want people to listen to it, and to be affected the same way I was. I want people to see God through my music.

I am not making any assumptions about a penniless idealist who starved in order to be more spiritual. The lure of wealth and fame was a major lure for musicians even in such times. The better you were, the more famous you would be. The more famous you were, the better your standing in society, and someday, you might even be a Court musician. There. Settled for life.

The source, in my opinion, of this whole copyright issue, stems from a Benedictine monk named Guido d’Arezzo. This chap observed the confusion that generally prevailed in musicmanship of that time, which was mostly to do with the inability of a group of individuals to sing a tune from start to finish with the semblance of coordination. Alright, you could do it, but it required back-breaking…er….throat-aching practice, and, as all individuals living in the Middle Ages seemed to know, there had to be a better way. His ideas led him to develop and perfect the system of musical notation, yes, that same four-lined form filled with strange black and white symbols that’s so puzzling to us Orientals, and that is still in use. For the first time, music became something that could be owned, stored and of course, copyrighted. I doubt if the humble monk, with his noble intentions, would have liked seeing what his invention has led to.

Back to the same question. Could anybody have understood the concept of music piracy before the advent of recording? Who do you call a pirate? Someone who hasn’t paid for a concert ticket? Someone who has copied some other composer’s tunes and making money out of performing it? ( Did anybody do this, by the way? I know of Handel indulging in such plagiarisation, and no doubt, there are composers who would take the credit for others’ compositions themselves…..) In the former case, it would be a financial loss for the composer, and the organisers and the musicians, all of whom, no doubt, partake of the credit and the monetary gain. To an extent, that shouldn’t matter, unless all of the audience got in without paying for the tickets. In the latter case, it’s not only money, but also a privilege that’s denied to the deserving person. Which, to the best of my knowledge, is a bummer.

In today’s context, they use the term “pirate” to somebody who has not paid for the music, but is listening to it for free. What about somebody who has downloaded millions of music files, but hasn’t listened to a single one. Is he a pirate because of the act of downloading something available for free? It’s people who are sharing, letting a major chunk of their music files available with them open to others, that the RIAA is issuing subpoenas to. Isn’t that crazy, kind of like the police arresting you because you leave the door to your house open when you leave for vacation?

It’s not about music, boss. It is the medium – and the distribution channel for the medium. All this hullabaloo – it’s about recording piracy, isn’t it? Not music piracy. It’s about the ability to create infinite copies, infinite free copies of something on a medium which happens to be a steady source of income for a cartel of dinosaurs. And it’s the people eating that cake who don’t want any of the slices missing.

Stop saying music piracy all the time. We aren’t pirates. We aren’t tampering with any of the music to earn more money and we aren’t using others’ intellectual propery to make money for ourselves. We don’t make war on 12-year old girls, and even if we did, if we believed in what we were doing, we would not let them get away if they “confessed”, or “apologised” or paid us settlements. If it’s thievery the RIAA is talking about, I can see what they mean. The self-righteous indignation – it does not fool anyone. Your time, Middle-Man of Music, is over and done with. So begone.

A happy ending. Remember the Pope’s directive about Miserere Mei, Deus, and all that secrecy and grandstanding about ownership of that piece of music? In 1770, a fourteen year old boy heard the 13-minute piece. He heard it just once, and then he proceeded to write it down, step-by-step, from memory, and started performing it throughout Europe, putting a rather nasty hole in the Pope’s plans.

The boy’s name was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. To my knowledge, he was never called a pirate in his life.