IN DUTCH

Another website learns a lesson:

"The record industry has welcomed a Dutch court ruling against a website that provided links to MP3 music files. The Zoekmp3.nl site, run by Techno Design, was shut down after the decision by the Dutch Court of Appeal. It ruled that the site was breaking the law by providing links to illegal MP3 files on the internet, even though it did not host the content itself.The music industry organisation, the IFPI, said the ruling was a boost to the global fight against piracy."

Any time, any blogger could end up in a jail cell. All this site is doing is pointing out that there is a downside to downloading. People who want to complain about this, can also complain about those public service ads against smoking or drinking or polluting the environment. People who drink should do it responsibly. So should bloggers.

The main reason a blogger can end up in a jail cell, is by posting dozens and dozens of obviously in-print and valuable albums and flaunting it with jeers and downright stupid remarks about loopholes in copying albums marked "all rights reserved."

Nobody wants to see whores and drug dealers on a street corner. What they do is not legal. Likewise, nobody in the music industry wants to see nose-thumbing thieves on very public areas of the Internet brag about stealing music. If whores, drug dealers and illegal music downloaders want to scurry into alleys or forums to get their fixes, at least the message is "yes, this is anti-social activity." If cops want to dirty themselves hunting, they can. If not, not.

No public Internet site should be promoting porn, drugs, bomb-making or illegal downloads of music or warez.


*****

"Thanks Bainwol for showing me the light." So ended a blog from somebody who had enough.

What he was referring to, was the basic flaw of blogging. You are dealing with strangers who won't be there when you need it. As a blogger, you get a "thank you" followed by "Give me MORE." That's not going to sustain you when you lose your job and you need real friends to talk to, and real people to help you.

That's what happened in this case. The blogger lost his job. He gave up his blog to look for work and he realized that what he had been doing was a waste of time.

When you lose your job you know what your blog friends do? They say "Too bad, hope things work out" and they go to a new blog to download their stuff. That's all.

I know this won't have any influence on the idiots who have no friends and no skills to get friends. They have said on their blogs that their wives and families are happy they are sitting in a room in front of a computer instead of bothering them!

One last thing. The light is gray. Some of you are GOOD bloggers. You know what "sharing" is, and you devote a small amount of time to your hobby. There are some justly praised bloggers who are doing no harm. Some stop because they get clueless and greedy comments from people demanding a better bit rate! Some of them stop because the hobby has just become a bore.

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Think Russia is totally lawless toward music piracy? Think again. Talk to Igor Pozhitkov, regional director of IFPI Moscow, part of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

Think that puretunes.com from Spain was immune from copyright law and the concept of "all rights reserved?" They thought so, too. They paid $10 million in fines. Look it up if you doubt it.

Why is it that nations that seem to be allowing piracy are not so bold anymore? Economic sanctions, for one. For another, they are beginning to see that it's better to carve a piece out of a pie than blow the pie up. Russian music fans were estimated to generate over $300 million in music sales. You can bet the Russian government would like a piece of that action, and they won't get it by agreeing with crackpot law "makers" who set up their own rules of "I do what I please and take all the profits."