Congress has cut federal funding for public media — a $3.4 million loss for LAist. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. Become a monthly member and sustain local journalism.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
The LAist Interview: Aram Sinnreich, Stand-Up Philosopher
In an environment so focused on creation of media content, there are also those who take a step back to critically evaluate it. Nor do we mean straight-up critics, but rather thinkers whose fields of knowledge are honed in the halls of the academy and other types of research institutions. Aram Sinnreich is a media analyst and Ph.D. candidate at the Annenberg School for Communication at USC. While not blogging his qualifying exams prep, reading up and lecturing on communications theory, social networking analysis, copyright law, and other media issues, he's generating his own content with his band, Dubistry.
Occupation:
Generally, I say "Stand-up Philosopher" because it's clever-adjacent and easier than explaining the whole truth. If you ask the IRS, they'll say I'm a media analyst, journalist, musician and doctoral candidate.
Support for LAist comes from
How long have you lived in Los Angeles?
Almost three years.
Where are you from?
Brooklyn, baby. Although I've lived in three boroughs, as well as
(gasp!) Jersey.
You've developed a unique niche of expertise in the world of digital music. So, readers wanna know: is it "wrong" to swap media files online? As a musician and communications theorist, what's your take on the ethics of the issue?
When I was a witness in this file-sharing court case once, record industry lawyers asked me the same thing. I told them I didn't think file sharing was immoral. They asked me what was immoral. I said "barbecuing infant children." Matt Oppenheimer of the RIAA responded: "that you could even conceive of that disgusts me." But at least now the Supreme Court knows where I stand on the divisive barbecuing-infant-children issue that's tearing our country apart.
Morality aside, there is the question of ethics - that is to say, "right" and "wrong" not in absolute terms, but within a social context. In my opinion, there is no ethical violation in file sharing. Markets, like governments, are ruled by implicit contracts between the people and the powers that be. The record industry violated their end of the contract for decades - illegally inflating the price of their products, failing to adequately compensate musicians, and leveraging their power to artificially limit the diversity of the music marketplace. Now that music listeners finally have a bit of leverage of their own, they are being called criminals and forced to pay absurd settlement charges or face the wrath of multinational media conglomerates. So who's the unethical party in this equation?
As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.
Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.
We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you.
No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, press freedom is at the core of keeping our nation free and fair. And as the landscape of free press changes, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust, but the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news from our community.
Please take action today to support your trusted source for local news with a donation that makes sense for your budget.
Thank you for your generous support and believing in independent news.
Chip in now to fund your local journalism
(
LAist
)
Trending on LAist
-
With less to prove than LA, the city is becoming a center of impressive culinary creativity. -
Nearly 470 sections of guardrailing were stolen in the last fiscal year in L.A. and Ventura counties.
-
Monarch butterflies are on a path to extinction, but there is a way to support them — and maybe see them in your own yard — by planting milkweed.
-
With California voters facing a decision on redistricting this November, Surf City is poised to join the brewing battle over Congressional voting districts.
-
The drug dealer, the last of five defendants to plead guilty to federal charges linked to the 'Friends' actor’s death, will face a maximum sentence of 65 years in prison.
-
The weather’s been a little different lately, with humidity, isolated rain and wind gusts throughout much of Southern California. What’s causing the late-summer bout of gray?
Best of LAist