We write a lot on this blog about the puzzling ability of those who are able to rationalize their acquisition of a creator’s work without permission or compensation. Some of those logic-twisting rationalizations are debunked in our piece, “Critiquing Copyright Canards.” We’re not the only ones who have observed this, and picked up on how silly the rationalizations are.

Let me introduce you to the “Stuff White People Like” blog by Christian Lander. I discovered him yesterday by coming across his book of the same name during some Christmas shopping. It makes for a good stocking-stuffer, and as a writer myself, I admire Mr. Lander’s recognition that even though he has posted his work online for free, his ownership of those words still enables him to compile them in a copyrighted book for sale.

I’d like to introduce you to #93 of stuff white people like: music piracy. You can read his full blog post here, but I’m going to include a teaser below:

White people have always been renowned for having ridiculously large music collections. So when file sharing gave white people a chance to acquire all the music they ever wanted, it felt as though it was an earned right and not a privilege.

When (not if) you see a white male with a full iPod, ask him if all of his music is legal. If he does not immediately launch into a diatribe about his right to pirate music, you might have to nudge him a bit by saying “do you think that’s right?” The response will be immediate and uniform.

Among the rationalizations Lander lists are: 1) Musicians only make money from touring and merchandise so piracy doesn’t hurt them. 2) Piracy sticks it to the man, evil corporations. 3) Their vast music collection makes them a music expert and allows them to promote bands to others.

This last point allows Lander to go off on an amusing side journey about the self-importance of vinyl record lovers as well as other tangents.

It’s a most amusing post on a most amusing blog. If there’s a criticism, it’s that I don’t think the goofy reationalizations he zings white people for regarding piracy are limited to one race, but who am I to question a social scientist like Lander? As he notes on his blog, “This is a scientific approach to highlight and explain stuff white people like. They are pretty predictable.”

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 30th, 2009 at 10:30 am by Patrick Ross and is filed under blogging, creators, p2p, piracy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.