napster

HOT MONT WRITINGS REVEAL A

PREMONITION OF "NAPSTER"

-12-18-00

Hot Mont's prophetic views on the current "Napster" situation come rolling through history not unlike a time-warped locomotive plowing down a modern interstate, and even though a lot of the modern buzz words were not available in 1976, the message is all too clear. Years before another prophetic fellow named Frank Zappa predicted and supported it , "sharing files on the internet" was foreseen by Mont.

A few quotes from the "One World Dis-Order" book (published 1976) by Montifold P. Hotenpantz (pen name for Hot Mont ) seem to sum it up almost too well:

"In the not too distant future, the music consumer will be able to purchase recordings which will be absolutely as good as the original master recordings, and more dangerously for the industry, consumers will be able to make perfect duplications of them."

"This will lead to a piracy the likes of which have never been seen. With today's mass production 8-track & cassette technology, pirate rack- jobbers in gas stations ,etc. have a multi-copied , aurally-muddled product to peddle which is massively inferior to the major label product. Imagine the day when all copies are of equivalent quality to the original masters."

"Let's now take another technological leap to the point where all music is digitally stored in a central access station where all customers tie into a main station from their "home subscription music center" (via satellite or other means). They then , for a monthly fee , have access to any music or movies that they wish to have transmitted to their car or home. Sounds great. Everybody still gets paid. Believe it or not, I predict this to be the dominant form of entertainment transfer by early in the next century. No more records to warp and scratch , just great sound."

"But what about the piracy at this level? Who will stop other unscrupulous operators (possibly from burgeoning now-developing areas of the world ) from developing a system of their own …one that doesn't pay the writers , the artists , the producers ..but keeps all the profits for itself? And, since: #1:The entire globe will be interconnected by this time , and #2: There will be no physical product to be shipped , there will be no stopping the downward rolling snowball. This will become an international matter never to be resolved, not to mention the thousands of manufacturing, trucking and retailing employees who will become jobless as the demand for actual "records" (or whatever delivery format replaces records) is gone"

"Once the industry has reached that state of dissolution, other even more daring "sub-companies" will spring up. Why not music and film "sharing societies" where the effortless and instant transfer of "data"

already easily technically available is done by individual users ; where any member of this "society"or "club" can sift through and copy albums, etc. from any other members library of music and other entertainment , information, etc. ..all through a satellite link."

"Although parts of this revolution will be good and positive (the flow of information is good) , the damage to the "machinery" which actually made the piracy possible will be unrepairable ; the companies with giant research budgets will begin to fold, consequently new technological advances will decline. Somewhat like cutting the cord off of your own hedge clippers while clipping your hedges, only unfixable!)".

-printed from "One World Dis-Order"

That to me is an amazing few paragraphs from a man we all have come to admire so much, he only missed on one small detail: we ended up stupidly using slow analog copper phone lines instead of fast satellite telecommunication. But that's a forgivable missed detail , and had we followed suit with Mont's premonition, we'd all be moving about the internet a lot faster today anyway..and pirating even more music!.

-12-18-00 Arthur "Artie" Martin / Rolling RockMagazine.