I have recently read an article discussing the imminent release of a new recording effort by Trent Reznor under the auspices of NIN. Those individuals whos taste include this genre of music indicate to me that Mr. Reznor is a pioneer in his field. I have attended one of his performances in the past, and I can comment with confidence that Mr. Reznor and his team are adept entertainers.
Mr. Reznor's recent attempts to adapt his business to the changing market is what is most interesting to me. Again commenting on a field of knowledge I am only vaguely acquainted with, it appears that this man may in fact be a pioneer in the field of Intellectual Property rights. Perhaps there is a better word, and for lack of education in the field I cannot make my point more succinctly, however I believe that the idea of individual property is largely a fiction of society to protect the interests of those values with which the society is built upon. The concept of real property ownership supports the notion of a government accountable to the people via a capability of independence and sovereignty in those individuals. Firearms ownership supports the former in all counts, and the first order right of self defense. By first order I mean to imply that the right of property exists for the purpose of involvment in society, whereas the right of self defense exists as a right of individuals for no other reason than that of their existance.
Having said that much, a soceity that respects individual property supports many other forms of arrangements that other systems do not; this is inherently democratic and comforable to the nature of independent citizens. Where a system such as ours allows Mr Reznor to do with his property as he wants, he may share ownership as in socialist or communal systems, or he may not. That property ownership in our system is individual does not mean it is restricted to only that. If the devout Marxist desires to open a factory to employ himself and other like minded workers, sharing the ownership of the machinery and the profits amongst them, I know of no law which make this impossible. The inverse cannot be said of the Marxist system.
The point of my long winded discourse is to point out that Mr. Reznor, and other like minded artists seem to be putting their money where other people's mouths are. They are adapting their concept of ownership to a changing market. I wouldn't have it any other way.
