Tool! or “How to Ruin a Perfectly Good New Album with Talk of Copyright Policy”

by on July 11, 2006 · 30 comments

Score one for David Levine’s argument that complimentary goods would allow producers of expressive works to profit without copyright, part of his broader response to the infamous “King Kong question.”

Yesterday, I got Tool’s new CD 10,000 Days.

Instead of a jewel case, it comes in a sort of book with stereoscopic lenses built into it. As you ROCK to the first new album from them in years, you look through the lenses at these interesting and bizarre pictures that so typify the Tool aesthetic.

Meaning: You downloading wussies, sitting in your dorm rooms listening to the Tool song that you downloaded, you have no idea what the total Tool experience is like. You can’t download the Tool experience. Smoke all you want of the skank-weed you bought from that hustler and listen to your downloaded Tool. You don’t rock out to Tool the way I rock out to Tool. If you want to do that, you have to buy the CD. Downloader.

Ahem. Sorry. A little over-excited about the new Tool CD.

But you get the point. Consciously or not, Tool has linked its digital good to a tangible one and helped to lock in sales.

The album is good. I mean, . . . it’s Tool!

SHARE: 30 comments

About Jim Harper

Jim Harper is the Director of Information Policy Studies at The Cato Institute, the Editor of Web-based privacy think-tank Privacilla.org, and the Webmaster of WashingtonWatch.com. A Poli Sci major at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Jim served as Editor-in-Chief of the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly in his final year at Hastings College of the Law. Prior to becoming a policy analyst and advocate, Jim served as counsel to committees in both the U.S. House and Senate. He avoids genuine life experience by watching lots and lots of reality TV.

Read more articles by Jim Harper.

  • http://www.MattDohm.info Matt

    Downloaders will soon be able to download all those images you see through stereoscopic lenses. Then all you have over them is lenses :-)

    let us all thank Alex Grey for putting together another wonderful album ensemble.

  • http://www.MattDohm.info Matt

    Downloaders will soon be able to download all those images you see through stereoscopic lenses. Then all you have over them is lenses :-)

    let us all thank Alex Grey for putting together another wonderful album ensemble.

  • Anonymous

    OOOH PICTURES! I must buy a product having the intent of listening to music so I can have pretty pictures! Pictures will satify my need for music!

    As the previous comment alluded to, those pictures will be in those albumart jpg files that are obtained through WinAMP when listening to the complete album in that program.

  • Anonymous

    Are you going to look at the pictures more than once? Still not worth it…

  • http://www.cato.org/people/harper.html Jim Harper

    I’ll wager that Anonymous and _ aren’t Tool fans, and probably never saw the video for Sober. Likely, they’re also unaware that the italicized text is overstatement, not genuine derision toward downloaders (other than them).

  • Anonymous

    OOOH PICTURES! I must buy a product having the intent of listening to music so I can have pretty pictures! Pictures will satify my need for music!

    As the previous comment alluded to, those pictures will be in those albumart jpg files that are obtained through WinAMP when listening to the complete album in that program.

  • Anonymous

    Are you going to look at the pictures more than once? Still not worth it…

  • http://www.cato.org/people/harper.html Jim Harper

    I’ll wager that Anonymous and _ aren’t Tool fans, and probably never saw the video for Sober. Likely, they’re also unaware that the italicized text is overstatement, not genuine derision toward downloaders (other than them).

  • Anonymous

    Album art, liner notes, etc. remain some of the only good and legitimate reasons why I will buy instead of download an album. I say, “thank you, Tool.”

  • eric

    Album art is too small, usually. (But I’m from the vinyl LP generation.)

    Liner notes are great, especially lyrics. (Except that sometimes bands do not include them.)

    I continue to buy CDs from artists I like, mainly for the superior sound quality — better than downloads, either legal or the copyright-infringed variety. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything by Tool. I’m not sure how I would become familiar with their ouevre except by downloading, or if I’m lucky the public library. That is how I discovered many artists which now populate my CD shelves.

  • Anonymous

    Album art, liner notes, etc. remain some of the only good and legitimate reasons why I will buy instead of download an album. I say, “thank you, Tool.”

  • eric

    Album art is too small, usually. (But I’m from the vinyl LP generation.)

    Liner notes are great, especially lyrics. (Except that sometimes bands do not include them.)

    I continue to buy CDs from artists I like, mainly for the superior sound quality — better than downloads, either legal or the copyright-infringed variety. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything by Tool. I’m not sure how I would become familiar with their ouevre except by downloading, or if I’m lucky the public library. That is how I discovered many artists which now populate my CD shelves.

  • joe

    Just so you know eric, music is no longer popular in the ripped variety, “lossless” is all thats out there theses days, it is bit for bit the exact same thing you are buying at the record store, not a compressed mp3.

    And Jim, if pictures is why you think you experience tool better than I you are an idiot. First off, as said, these pics will all be available for download in the form of a hi-res scan. And its all about the music anyway.

  • joe

    Just so you know eric,
    music is no longer popular in the ripped variety, “lossless” is all thats out there theses days,
    it is bit for bit the exact same thing you are buying at the record store, not a compressed mp3.

    And Jim, if pictures is why you think you experience tool better than I you are an idiot.
    First off, as said, these pics will all be available for download in the form of a hi-res scan.
    And its all about the music anyway.

  • Anonymous

    I didnt know you guys (eric and joe) had ears that were so sensitive to such high frequency musical sounds to tell the difference between lossless audio and VBR 192kbps (or 224kbps) MP3′s.

    I realized that after I finished reading that paragraph of italicized content…reading the final couple lines of the article. Mind I note the author says: “Ahem. Sorry. A little over-excited about the new Tool CD.”

    No Im not a Tool fan, but I don’t see why pictures or a music video would make buying this CD or any CD worthwhile. What is in there that is worthwhile? The booklet full of credits and lyrics? It can be found online. The plastic case? Can be purchased from your favorite computer store in bulk…$0.01 per case or something cheap. These pictures the author refers to? Available online, or will be. The music on the CD? Available online.

    The only reason why the MPAA isnt having as much of a piracy problem as the RIAA is because there isn’t much the RIAA can offer on a CD that is so unique in terms of experience. Going to a theater is a great experience you can’t replicate at home or anywhere other than a theater. The smell of popcorn, being in the presence of 10′s of other movie goers…etc. People will pay $10 for the experience of a theater. Similarly, you can’t replicate the experience of a live concert on a CD. People will pay the $50-$100 pricetag to goto a concert since it is unique. There is nothing unique about CD’s that warrant their purchase. PICTURES??? Yeah (sarcasm) thats unique…real unique.

  • Anonymous

    I didnt know you guys (eric and joe) had ears that were so sensitive to such high frequency musical sounds to tell the difference between lossless audio and VBR 192kbps (or 224kbps) MP3′s.


    I realized that after I finished reading that paragraph of italicized content…reading the final couple lines of the article. Mind I note the author says: “Ahem. Sorry. A little over-excited about the new Tool CD.”

    No Im not a Tool fan, but I don’t see why pictures or a music video would make buying this CD or any CD worthwhile.
    What is in there that is worthwhile?
    The booklet full of credits and lyrics? It can be found online.
    The plastic case? Can be purchased from your favorite computer store in bulk…$0.01 per case or something cheap.
    These pictures the author refers to? Available online, or will be.
    The music on the CD? Available online.


    The only reason why the MPAA isnt having as much of a piracy problem as the RIAA is because there isn’t much the RIAA can offer on a CD that is so unique in terms of experience. Going to a theater is a great experience you can’t replicate at home or anywhere other than a theater. The smell of popcorn, being in the presence of 10′s of other movie goers…etc. People will pay $10 for the experience of a theater.
    Similarly, you can’t replicate the experience of a live concert on a CD. People will pay the $50-$100 pricetag to goto a concert since it is unique. There is nothing unique about CD’s that warrant their purchase. PICTURES??? Yeah (sarcasm) thats unique…real unique.

  • http://www.cato.org/people/harper.html Jim Harper

    Joe, you’re right. I’m an idiot. For using hyperbole. But it’s fun. No matter.

    The point is: The buyer of the CD in the unique container/book has a marginally better experience of the artist than the downloader. Tool took as much care producing the packaging as it did the music. It’s an experience you can’t get by downloading – unless you have a very high quality printer, quality paper, and stereoscopic lenses lying around the house. (Which you don’t – and you would waste more than $15 worth of your time collecting such stuff.)

    Anyone here have a girlfriend? (Wrong crowd. ;-P) You get a different reaction when you give your girlfriend a gift by thrusting it into her hand and when you give it to her in a box with a pretty bow and tissue paper. Anonymous, when you pour sarcasm on 3D pictures of the band that come with the CD, you’re projecting your own disinterest in such things out to the entire market for music, which is error.

    We shouldn’t lose sight of the point. (And I know my provocative writing isn’t helpful – but it’s just so fun!) Tying a digital good to a tangible one is going to bring you paying customers for the digital good, a reason that copyright need not be at the center of the marketplace for expressive works. In this example, it’s not going to bring along Sarcastic Anonymous, but it’ll bring along me and Matt and the other Anonymous.

  • http://www.cato.org/people/harper.html Jim Harper

    Joe, you’re right. I’m an idiot. For using hyperbole. But it’s fun. No matter.


    The point is: The buyer of the CD in the unique container/book has a marginally better experience of the artist than the downloader. Tool took as much care producing the packaging as it did the music. It’s an experience you can’t get by downloading – unless you have a very high quality printer, quality paper, and stereoscopic lenses lying around the house. (Which you don’t – and you would waste more than $15 worth of your time collecting such stuff.)


    Anyone here have a girlfriend? (Wrong crowd. ;-P) You get a different reaction when you give your girlfriend a gift by thrusting it into her hand and when you give it to her in a box with a pretty bow and tissue paper. Anonymous, when you pour sarcasm on 3D pictures of the band that come with the CD, you’re projecting your own disinterest in such things out to the entire market for music, which is error.


    We shouldn’t lose sight of the point. (And I know my provocative writing isn’t helpful – but it’s just so fun!) Tying a digital good to a tangible one is going to bring you paying customers for the digital good, a reason that copyright need not be at the center of the marketplace for expressive works. In this example, it’s not going to bring along Sarcastic Anonymous, but it’ll bring along me and Matt and the other Anonymous.

  • IneptVagrant

    I may not be 100% OGT, but I’m farily sure Tool’s intention is that you enjoy the experience, regardless of what you consider – ‘the experience’.

  • IneptVagrant

    I may not be 100% OGT, but I’m farily sure Tool’s intention is that you enjoy the experience, regardless of what you consider – ‘the experience’.

  • Nikki

    my dad bought me the 10000 days CD for my b-day..along with many other things i didnt ask for. He asked me who my fave band was and i said i didnt really have one…but Tool was on the radio and i said i really liked Tool. So he went and bought me their CD. I guess he has no idea no one buys CDs anymore. anyway, i had downloaded their CD before my dad bought me a copy. I decided to compare them..and WOW! There was a HUGE difference. and i’m not just saying that. the pictures that came with it were ok..i meen they wernt like SUPER.

  • Nikki

    by the way..the date on this website is so wrong..i posted my last post at 10:30 and it says 1:26.

    or theres something wrong with my clock.

  • Nikki

    my dad bought me the 10000 days CD for my b-day..along with many other things i didnt ask for. He asked me who my fave band was and i said i didnt really have one…but Tool was on the radio and i said i really liked Tool. So he went and bought me their CD. I guess he has no idea no one buys CDs anymore. anyway, i had downloaded their CD before my dad bought me a copy. I decided to compare them..and WOW!
    There was a HUGE difference. and i’m not just saying that. the pictures that came with it were ok..i meen they wernt like SUPER.

  • Nikki

    by the way..the date on this website is so wrong..i posted my last post at 10:30 and it says 1:26.

    or theres something wrong with my clock.

  • Ashley

    I’m lazy and so this won’t be a long comment, but I remember watching Tool – Sober. The music Video was amazing. Morbid, dark, and dreary. What more could you want? The emotion is excellent.

    I also enjoy the song Stinkfist.

  • Ashley

    I’m lazy and so this won’t be a long comment, but I remember watching Tool – Sober. The music Video was amazing. Morbid, dark, and dreary. What more could you want? The emotion is excellent.

    I also enjoy the song Stinkfist.

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