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Flyer in Your City

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Help build our street presence. Download flyers and hit streets and concerts in your area.

Sticker CDs

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The major labels and the RIAA knew they'd be revealed on the internet. They didn't know we'd take the fight into record stores. See the photos and get stickers.

Tell 20,000 People

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Most people don't know what to think about music sharing. Write a letter to the editor and help shift the debate-- it takes about 2 mins.
First, enter your zip code:

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Flyer at Concerts

Sign up to flyer concerts and events in your area and get free DB stickers. Check out our targetted shows.

 
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Downhill Battle Store

Check out our t-shirts, stickers, and other goodness. Go to the store >>

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INTERVIEW

TV On the Radio

"Before CD-Rs and file sharing, think of how many mix tapes you made that no one is ever going to see a dollar on."

next interview >>-->:GO TO THE INTERVIEW SERIES:
 

Project Gallery

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Grey Tuesday

When the copyright cartel attacked the Grey Album (a critically acclaimed unauthorized remix), we organized "Grey Tuesday." For 24 hours, over 170 sites made the album available in protest, defying legal threats. Also see our more recent, 3 Notes and Runnin' project.

  • Grey Tuesday
  • Banned Music
  • FreeCulture.org
  • P2P Defense Fund
  • What a Crappy Present
  • iTunes iSbogus
  • More Projects
 
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Downhill Battle Labs

Our software development group makes free, open-source software for online organizing and strategic filesharing. We're just getting started but we have a talented lead developer and focused projects that will have an impact. Programmers wanted.

Crucial Readings

FROM DOWNHILL BATTLE

The Reasons

Why is it so important to break the major label monopoly? These are the reasons.

Rescuing Music Diversity

The drop in major label record sales isn't the cause of homogenization in mainstream music, it's the solution.

Civil Disobedience p2p

For decades, the major labels manipulated musicians and fans. Now millions of people refuse to support a corrupt industry.

Sony's Porn Hypocrisy

An attempt to smear p2p.

Press Release: Grey Tuesday

Announcing the protest.

2004 1st Quarter Report

Fighting music censorship.

2003 4th Quarter Report

A fast start for DHB.

FROM ELSEWHERE

The Problem with Music

Rock superproducer Steve Albini explains exploitative major label record contracts.

Share the Music

Kembrew Mcleod's NYTimes op-ed explains legalized filesharing with a flat-fee collective licensing system.

A Better Way Forward

A simple, practical way to compensate musicians and record labels for music sharing. Everyone should read this.

Micropayments Don't Work

99 cents per song won't last.

Free Culture

How copyright is stiffling culture.

Creative Commons Video

Creativity builds on the past.

The Tyranny of Copyright?

A movement to reform copyright.

 

Who's getting the job done

Activists and Non-Profits

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
ACLU for the internet. Canada has CIPIC.

Public Knowledge
Tech policy public interest group.

Free Press
The number one force in media reform.

Click the Vote
Electoral activism for P2P.

Prometheus Radio Project
Tireless low power radio (LPFM) advocates.

Copyright and Culture

Creative Commons
Using copyright to change copyright.

Freeculture.org
Student movement for free culture.

Illegal Art
Repository of artwork outlawed by copyright.

Copyfight
Absolute best copyright news / analysis.

Lawrence Lessig
Leading public intellectual for free culture.

Jessica Litman
Copyright intellectual and activist.

Key Technologies

Freenet
Anonymous filesharing, free speech.

CivicSpace
Dynamic websites for activists + NGOs.

Community Wireless Networks
A clear guide to public WiFi.

RIAA Radar
Tells you what music not to pay for.

BitTorrent
Distributed web-based p2p.

Torrent sites
What to do with Bittorrent

Torrentocracy
Torrents+RSS+Myth= Democratized TV.

MusicBrainz
Tags your mp3s, builds public metadata.

Music Projects and Organizations

Future of Music Coalition
Music policy coalition-builders.

Moses Avalon
Music industry gadfly and educator.

CD Baby
Innovative online CD / digital distribution.

Music for America
Politicizing young people through music.

The Pho List
A debate forum for digital music issues.

Finding New Music

Brainwashed
Independent music reviews.

Dusted Magazine
More music reviews.

Bleep.com
Gold standard of label-run music stores.

GarageBand.com
Smarter than A&R, uses Creative Commons.

PureVolume
Like the late mp3.com, but better.

hXcmp3.com
Punk / hardcore band space and mp3 host.

Sharing Music

p2pnet
Leading P2P news site.

Slyck.com
Another P2P news site.

Zeropaid
Filesharing news & software portal.

KCeasy
Great open-source Windows filesharing.

Acquisition
Flawless Mac p2p app. Also see Poisoned.

Mercora
p2p radio: free and fully authorized.

Soulseek
Best p2p for indy music (mac version).

RadioBlog
Flash music player and mp3 search spot.

 
Check out our t-shirts, stickers, and frisbees in the Postal Department.

Recruitment

There is a huge amount of work to be done, and we're just scratching the surface. Below are some specific skills we're looking for. You can also get involved with lots of other things, by signing up on our Get Involved page.

Web Backend We really need some pro-level web help to get a bunch of things running more smoothly around here. We especially need people that are strong in PHP to join our web team. We're now using Drupal (drupal.org), so if you have experience with that it would be extremely helpful.

Software Developers Software development--done strategically--is probably the most effective way to change culture in a positive direction right now. We're especially looking for Python help and Win32 and OS X specific help. Check out Downhill Battle Labs, Blog Torrent, and Participatory Culture Foundation. If you're interested in helping to manage some of these projects and get project websites up and running, please be in touch: labs|at|downhillbattle.org.

Plots and Plans

These are some ideas for creative music sharing that we'd love to see happen and get documented-- if you decide to do one, send us pictures!

Filesharing in a Tree A properly configured laptop with a WiFi router is a wireless repository for music, video, textbooks, whatever. Put it way up in a tree with a solar panel to make it darn hard to take down. Call the tree, "the music tree".

The Golden DVD You can fit about 100 albums, in MP3 format, on a single DVD. Make a DVD-R with your favorite 100 albums, and give it to everyone you know. Double layer = double the fun.

Party favors for birthdays Little kids really like pop music. For your child's next birthday party, try giving all the guests CD-Rs. It doesn't take much time at all, and your son or daughter can help you make the mix (so you don't pick anything "uncool").

Bring CDs to a library It sounds almost insane, but if the major labels could, they would probably try to ban libraries. Maybe you're upset that the major record labels are suing families. Or maybe you just got an iPod and you want to do something useful with all those CDs. Either way, bringing your CD collection down to the local library is easy, legal, and a genuinely nice thing to do.

Today's News
Anti-DRM Contest Winners
mary, October 20 4:08PM

Freeculture.org has announced the winners of their anti-DRM video contest. Check them out here.

Permanent Link | RSS | 1 Comment »
Girl Talk Persists
mary, October 10 6:20PM

Summer is over and Girl Talk’s NightRipper seems to be surviving the hype without the legal battles. For those who missed out on said hype, Pittsburgh’s Gregg Gillis (aka Girl Talk) blew the sample-based music scene wide open on May 9 with the release of his second full-length album, NightRipper. The album boldly samples over 160 artists (all thanked in the liner notes) without going through any of the legal channels, and Gillis’s label/ art collective, Illegal Art, has been poised to use the Fair Use portion of copyright law in their defense. Lucky for them, Gillis hasn’t even gotten a cease and desist. If there was ever a “Girl Tuesday” it’d most likely be a dance party, not a protest.

For those of you who haven’t heard Girl Talk’s latest album, NightRipper, here is a brief synopsis. Imagine yourself falling asleep in the middle of the dance floor, say in the crossover period between The Black Eyed Peas “My Humps” and Annie’s “Heartbeat”. Then imagine yourself dreaming in music, and forget about the experts who say it can’t be done. Picture your brain piecing together all the songs you listened to that day, from t

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