Downhill Battle is a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

organization based in

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the list of United States cities by population, 113th most populous city in the United States. Named after Worcester ...

. It was founded by Nicholas Reville, Holmes Wilson, and Tiffiniy Cheng in August 2003. Downhill Battle is known for its argument that the four major

recording label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and t ...

s have an

oligopoly An oligopoly () is a market in which pricing control lies in the hands of a few sellers. As a result of their significant market power, firms in oligopolistic markets can influence prices through manipulating the supply function. Firms in ...

that is bad for both musicians and music culture. It also believes that

filesharing File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia (audio, images and video), documents or E-book, electronic books. Common methods of Computer data storage, storage, Data tran ...

can strengthen the role of

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small and medium-sized enterprise, small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels ...

s in the music industry, and they help produce software that helps independent artists and journalists reach a wider audience. The group supports what they call "

participatory culture Participatory culture, an opposing concept to consumer culture, is a culture in which private individuals (the public) do not act as consumers only, but also as contributors or producers (prosumers). The term is most often applied to the product ...

" where everyone is a part of creating and sharing art and music. Downhill Battle are also known for their projects such as

Grey Tuesday ''The Grey Album'' is a mashup album by Danger Mouse, released in 2004. It mixes an a cappella version of rapper Jay-Z's '' The Black Album'' with samples from the Beatles' self-titled ninth album, commonly known as "The White Album". ''The G ...

, Eyes on the Screen, Banned Music, Peer-to-Peer Legal Defense Fund, and more. Downhill Battle made ''

Spin Magazine ''Spin'' (stylized in all caps as ''SPIN'') is an American music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr. Now owned by Next Management Partners, the magazine is an online publication since it stopped issuing a print edition in 2012. ...

's'' Top 100 moments that rocked the world at #81 for the moment when Downhill Battle launched Grey Tuesday and the Grey Album went viral. The Downhill Battle team also founded the

Participatory Culture Foundation The Participatory Culture Foundation (PCF) is a non-profit organization based in Worcester, Massachusetts. Its primary project is a free and open-source software Internet television platform called Miro, formerly called the Democracy player. It ...

(PCF) and

Fight for the Future Fight for the Future (often abbreviated fightfortheftr or FFTF) is a nonprofit advocacy organization, advocacy group in the area of digital rights founded in 2011. The group aims to promote causes related to copyright legislation, as well as ...

, a freedom of speech and privacy advocacy organization. PCF also has a set of Participatory Politics projects, including a politics news site and a messageboard service that has been a gathering space for self-organizing. Downhillbattle.org was down for an extended period of time. It was reactivated on October 16, 2011.

Software

* Blog Torrent, a

BitTorrent client The following is a general comparison of Glossary of BitTorrent terms#Client, BitTorrent clients, which are computer programs designed for peer-to-peer file sharing using the BitTorrent, BitTorrent protocol. The BitTorrent protocol coordinates se ...

. * Local Ink, first public tool for sending letters to local papers by zipcode with a user interface. * Conversate, a pre-Facebook website for ad hoc sharing and discussion of links, media, email messages, anything, etc. with any grouping of friends and acquaintances.

References

External links

Official website

Grey Tuesday

Fort Culture
Advocacy groups in the United States File sharing Intellectual property activism Organizations established in 2003 {{nonprofit-org-stub