I caught up with him by phone yesterday. Here’s why he’s watching San Francisco (where he visits often) and the bus drama unfold with such interest.
48hills: So as an artists’ rights activist, what’s your concern about Google?
David Lowery: Well, it seems that everyone who fights against me either comes from Google or is funded by Google. They accept advertising and send people to sites that are infringing on artist copyrights. They seem to believe they’re above the law.
They’re building a barge offshore – nobody knows what they’re doing. And they’re using the city’s bus stops. I’ve seen traffic cops in San Francisco directing traffic around these buses while they block intersections and bus stops, and they never get ticketed. How many millions of dollars are we talking about?
It’s corruption, and the gentrification and housing issues are a result.
48hills: And are you finding they’re helping undermine your efforts in Washington?
DL: That’s par for the course at Google. They have so many lobbyists in Washington. It’s almost like the old tobacco companies that owned Congress. One of my most vocal opponents is Dave Allen, of the Marxist band Gang of Four. He’s been on the board of Cash Music, which gets support from Google. Public Knowledge is connected to Google. They’re funding ALEC now.
Oh, I forgot about Techdirt/Masnick. He was the first on my ass when I did “meet the new boss” at SF Music Tech Summit. Back then I was fairly conciliatory towards tech, simply trying to start a dialogue (after all I am tech, I was a programmer, helped start Athens angel fund, was on the board of advisors of Groupon, and currently am “artist advisor” and helped fund reverb.com) Masnick can’t even bring himself to criticize Google’s privacy policies. And in the Google Oracle suit was named a “Google shill.” Court’s words not mine.
I don’t know how so many progressives have fallen for this giant Kabuki by the tech companies. San Francisco has this great tradition of standing up to The Man. It’s just sad.
