Archives|Downloads of the Dead are Not Dead Yet
Downloads of the Dead are Not Dead Yet
By JESSE FOX MAYSHARK DEC. 1, 2005
In the face of anger among its fans and divisions within the band itself, the Grateful Dead on Wednesday said it was reconsidering its decision to disallow downloads of the band's concert recordings from a large Internet archive.
With more than 4,200 signatures on an online petition calling for a boycott of Grateful Dead products -- from tie-dyed T-shirts to kitsch emblazoned with the band's dancing bear and skeleton icons -- the band's spokesman said the members were still working out an official position on the controversy.
"The band has not fully made up its mind," the spokesman, Dennis McNally, said. "Things have already changed, and God only knows if they'll change some more."
Phil Lesh, the band's bass player, posted a statement on his own Web site (phillesh.net) on Wednesday, saying he had not known that band representatives the week before Thanksgiving had asked the operators of the Live Music Archive (archive.org) to stop allowing downloads of Grateful Dead concerts. "I do feel that the music is the Grateful Dead's legacy and I hope that one way or another all of it is available for those who want it," he wrote.
John Perry Barlow, one of the band's lyricists, said he had had a "pretty heated discussion" on Tuesday with Bob Weir, the Dead guitarist and singer, over the extent of the restrictions.
Before the death of Jerry Garcia, a founding member, ended its active career a decade ago, the Grateful Dead had pioneered the practice of allowing fans to record and circulate tapes of its concerts. So its attempted restriction of digital file-sharing felt to many Deadheads like a betrayal.
The band asked the archive to completely remove copies of live recordings made directly from concert soundboards -- which are the legal property of the band but often leak into mass circulation -- and to make audience recordings available only for listening, not downloading.
The Live Music Archive is a free library of recordings, some made by fans at concerts and others by artists themselves. According to its written policies, recordings are posted only with the permission of the artists.
The move not only created an uproar among the band's devoted fans; it also exposed divisions among factions within its extended family, which have often disagreed over the band's business philosophy.
Perhaps no one was more conflicted than Mr. Barlow, a founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization that has fought multiple court cases in behalf of freedom of information on the Internet.
Mr. Barlow said he agreed that soundboard recordings should be restricted, but he said fans should continue to be free to circulate their own tapes, as they have for years.
Mr. Barlow said the blanket request to the Live Music Archive was driven by Mr. Weir and the band's drummers, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann. "It was almost as if they had just discovered it was happening, even though it's been online for at least three years," he said.
But there was also some question as to how explicit the band's permission had been in allowing files to be placed in the Live Music Archive to begin with. Mr. Barlow said the band had had a policy since 1997 that "we had no more problem with someone digital file sharing than we had with tape sharing." He said he had relayed that policy to operators of the archive when they contacted him.
"I said that, given that's our policy, I don't see a problem," Mr. Barlow said. But, he acknowledged, he had also feared that a request for explicit permission from the band's corporate entity might get snarled in band politics -- which seemed to be the case this week.
Steve Bernstein, the publisher of Relix magazine, which began in the 1970's as an outlet for Deadhead tape trading, said the split reflected the band's current position. Although the surviving members still sometimes play together as the Dead, he said, their most reliable income comes from new releases of old concert recordings. So their avid file-sharing fans are now also their competitors.
Mr. Barlow said the band's other primary lyricist, Robert Hunter, did not wish to get involved in the public debate but supported his position. But the lyricists are not full voting members of the band, and given the apparent 3-1 split among the four surviving performing members in favor of disallowing the downloads, Mr. Barlow said he was not sure how the issue would play out.
In the meantime, the online forums at the Live Music Archive had plenty of outrage, but also a little sympathy. "This action demonstrates a very great lack of generosity on their part, as well as fundamental marketing miscalculation," one person wrote, speculating that people who trade recordings are likely to find other sources rather than buy the band's official releases.
But some veteran tape traders urged consideration for the band and a return to the days of sending tapes and discs through the mail. "Thing is, for all these faux pas, GD are still megaparsecs beyond the best of the other rockers," one wrote.
A version of this article appears in print on December 1, 2005, on Page E00001 of the National edition with the headline: Downloads Of the Dead Are Not Dead Yet. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe