downloading is not a crime, it's charity

Really fucking cool. I've been wanting to send my favorite artists money for the tracks (rarities and bootlegs) that i've downloaded over the years, but this takes the cake.

See what happens when we act out of love and not fear?

Tiny Mix Tapes: "Wilco Fans Set up Online Charity Donation Center for Downloaders

It's no secret that A Ghost is Born, Wilco's upcoming release, has leaked all over the internet. According to the band's website, wilcoworld.net, the official release date is June 22nd, so the album has surfaced approximately three months in advance. Wilco has long been recognized as a band with very loyal followers, but this week three fans have acted upon an unprecedented idea with the permission of Wilco and its manager, Tony Margherita. In a continued demonstration of loyalty, Ronen Givony and Jeff Dashley, owner of the extensive Wilco lyric website bemydemon.org and co-owner of the Wilco message board viachicago.org, respectively, have set up a website for Wilco fans to make a 'down payment' for downloading A Ghost is Born before its actual release date.

Upon contacting the band's management, Givony and Dashley were encouraged to send the donations from fans to the charity of Wilco's choice, Medecins Sans Frontieres, also known as Doctors without Borders. Medecins Sans Fronteres is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing medical care to victims of war, disease, and natural/manmade disasters.

The benefits of this donation site are threefold, as Dashley sees it. Besides showing support for Wilco and providing support for these doctors who 'face hostile environments, the sick and the dying, day in and day out,' another objective of the project is 'to make a simple statement to the record companies that the fans aren't the problem.' Givony thinks that the bone-dry well of the music industry is due to the poor quality of mainstream music available in most media outlets: 'people (both the public and the critics) are just so goddamn fed up with being spoonfed nothing but mass-marketed and mediocre blather for years.' Givony and Dashley hope that this project will show the music industry that there's money to be had for "interesting artists" whose music is intelligent and genuine enough to earn respect and loyalty.

According to the donation site's statement, the money fans give represents "a show of thanks to the band for its continuing generosity and trust—on behalf of the fans of Wilco, and of real, original music everywhere." If you're interested in contributing "to the radio cure," you can donate as much or as little as you would like at www.justafan.org. There's also a link included to show how much money has been donated thus far. If this thing goes far enough, we may be lucky enough to see Wilco eventually performing at the Super Bowl. Then again, that's probably damn hard since Tweedy doesn't believe in touchdowns and is probably unwilling to reveal copious amounts of cleavage. Of course, a girl can dream."