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[Michael]

Anyone else watching the train wreck that is this story?

http://www.anarcho-punk.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&p=61407&fb_source=message#p61397

I'm not sure what to think. I grew up listening to Crass in the early 80s, loved their music, what they seemed to stand for and their album pricing policy, but that was before the whole digital revolution. Should Crass's record label have asked for the APN archive to be taken down - one assumes to protect sales of the recent Crass re-issues? Does that mean Crass have sold out their anarchist ideals? Is Southern (the label) the same as Crass (the - now defunct - band)? And what about APN? Is it especially anarcho to simply assume you have the right to digitally distribute another band's music? And how did they end up judge and jury for the whole anarcho-punk movement (if there is such a thing anymore)

Crass have since disabled comments on their Facebook page, to avoid the kind of anarchist witch-hunt that has been directed their way in the last few weeks. Their critics are crying foul again - accusing them of gagging debate and censoring opposition. Not sure what to make of this either - it's unclear who runs the Crass facebook page, and unclear why self-styled anarchists (like Crass, their followers and their anarcho-purist critics) would be using Facebook in the first place.

From a personal perspective, Crass opened my mind to a whole host of new ideas about lifestyle, gender and politics. With hindsight their idealism seems a bit gauche and naive now, but that doesn't completely invalidate them or their body of work. It is what it stands for more broadly and more personally to me that still counts. So, them not wanting to give their music away free isn't hypocrisy or a failure to live up to anarchist ideals. I'm not sure what those are anyway. And if the folks from the band - or indeed the record label that has stuck with them - are getting some money off the back catalogue re-issues, then that is fine by me. We owe them that much, I reckon.

[jefflewis]

Hmm, interesting, I hadn't heard about any of this, I'll check out the link and try to figure out what's going on!
Thanks for the news!
An interesting topic...