jayne cobb | Shiny, let's be bad guys…

Jayne playing while on Haven in 'Serenity' - could this man possibly be any sexier?!? Who doesn't love a man that plays guitar?

Yes, the list of activities now making people “bad guys” in the eyes of the “law” grows more and more asinine each week, doesn’t it? The Department of Justice raid on guitar maker, Gibson Guitars, has raised more than a few eyebrows and, while there is a lot of speculation about it, the point remains that it seems to center around a foreign law and not even a law here in America. I cannot seem to completely pinpoint the problem that Gibson is supposedly guilty of doing; however, here is some of the information I’ve been able to gather:

DOJ raided Gibson in 2009, seizing products alleging they were made of illegally obtained wood; however, they were never formally charged and none of the products were returned. Gibson is currently suing to try and get the products back in their possession.
A few sources list the reason for this past week’s raid and seizure as being wood from India not being the correct size allowed for export.
A few other sources list the reason for this past week’s raid and seizure as being wood with “not enough Indian content”, meaning it was supposed to be finished by Indian workers before being shipped for export.
There are others that also make the statement that this is a partisan bully tactic because Gibson is a supporter of the GOP and their competitor, using the same material and not being targeted by DOJ, is a DNC supporter.

I’ve tried searching DOJ’s website to find more information as, at this point, the cause for the raid is purely speculative. However, I couldn’t find anything. Perhaps my research skills are not up to par today after a late night of writing and staying in contact with Twitter friends in Delaware and New Jersey as Hurricane Irene slammed into them. Or perhaps there isn’t anything for DOJ to announce? At this point, I don’t know which is more accurate. I do have my own thoughts and opinions and since this is a blog I’m free to write whatever I want, so here it is.

Click picture for article from 'The Wall Street Journal"

One of the things that bothers me the most is the appearance that the US government is trying to enforce laws from another country. Gibson denies the allegations that the wood was obtained illegally and that they get the wood from a certified company to ensure that no environmental or international laws are broken in obtaining the wood. If this is the case, then it sounds to me as if the Indian government should be looking at this certified company and/or the Indian exporter instead of US taxpayer money being used to go after Gibson. I also take issue with the idea of some international law that forbids American workers refining a raw wood product in favor of keeping more jobs abroad, but hey, that’s just me! *rolls eyes*

Something else that bothers me is that this has raised another big issue – the Lacey Act. This is an idea that someone came up with and a bunch of other someones thought it was a great idea and made it law. Basically, nowadays, if you cannot prove that your piano’s ivory keys, or your guitar’s ebony, ivory, and/or rosewood parts predate their export/import restrictions – you are screwed! Your instrument will be confiscated and you will be fined! So that antique piano? Don’t take it with you if you move out of the country until you have replaced those ivory keys with plastic ones! Musicians far and wide are now even choosing to LEAVE THEIR ACOUSTIC GUITARS BEHIND when touring internationally! Why? Because even if they do not know there is some regulated material on it somewhere, anywhere, they will still be held accountable and lose the guitar (or whatever instrument) and be fined. I wonder what happens with the replaced and confiscated parts? It’s not like you can toss those parts back into nature and a new forest and group of elephants and rhinos suddenly spring up from the ground.

Now, the last thing that irks me, and it’s minor – very petty really – but I’m voicing it anyway. It is this conflict about how musicians *must* not want to really conserve nature by still using these restricted plants in their instruments. I do see a bit of hypocrisy but to make such a big claim over *all* musicians and artists for wanting to 1) hang on to older instruments with now-banned materials and/or 2) for still using some of those materials when they are controlled, but still allowed to be used. The minor hypocrisy, of course, is that there are quite a few celebs that preach what they claim is conservation but don’t practice it themselves. So to those, yes, bug off… but to those that cherish their beloved instruments and do not preach the green gospel to the world, hang on to them dearly! It is quite clear that they will, at some point, disappear. I hope to continue to hear music from these amazing instruments for years to come…

By the way, there was mention by Lee Stranahan on his Twitter account about some sort of guitar contest in support of Gibson. I don’t know any details if this is going to happen but I will certainly post an update when I can find out! Sounds so freaking groovy and I hope that I can participate! 😉 Follow Lee on Twitter @Stranahan.