mitchbainwol

The Fools

2009-04-01T12:37:00.000-07:00

It's April Fool's Day.

This is the perfect day to give you the "profile" of the average "got to post it all" blogger. You've wondered who would do such a thing...take every artist's box sets, discographies, brand new releases, and throw them all over a forum or blog.

The person is obviously somebody with no mind or feelings. The person is also a loser. Only a loser would do such a thing. A winner would have the money to buy the music. A winner would not have time to make up a moronic Halloween name and spends hours and hours "upping" files and monitoring comments and double-checking if any link was removed so it could be "re-upped" out of spite.

The fool who does this is rarely somebody with a family or friends. He looks to comments instead, where he's elevated into somebody important...the exact opposite of who he is in reality. In other words, the fool is both a loser and a loner.

Checking up on these fools, one also finds that they tend to be in the most obscure, God-forsaken armpits of the world. The most avid of them, the ones who post entire discographies of American black performers, or United Kingdom progressive rockers, are in some second rate country nobody cares about, with music nobody is interested in hearing. So they exploit the American and British artists instead, sometimes adopting the lingo of the countries they desperately wish they lived in.

Lastly, these fools have little education and no concept of what being a responsible adult is all about. In the countries that favor a Capitalist society and approve of copyright...America, the United Kingdom, Japan, etc., the idea is that you do a job and get paid for it. This is what makes the economy strong, and what makes people happy. Certainly, the artists who are being ripped off, are not happy about it, otherwise they'd leave joyous comments for the fools: "Thank you for giving away my entire discography..."

The sad thing about the fools...the anti-social loners and losers with those Halloween names that reference murderers, devils, demons, the lawless and the obscene...is that their greed and stupidity is killing off what they supposedly love the most: entertainment. There will be less and less of it. Every day is becoming April Fool's Day, just as, no coincidence, every day we read about economic collapse, bankruptcy, closed stores, and artists unable to get a deal or make a living.

Is this so surprising? The fools who pollute our water, infest our land, and start wars, are having their way, too. It's about ego, control, power, hate, greed, and being a selfish stupid fool.

SOUR KISS - HOORAY FOR SOMALI PIRATES

2008-12-11T18:52:00.000-08:00

Sour Kiss

It's been ten years since KISS has made an album. If you can't guess the reason, here's Gene Simmons, as reported by Billboard:

"The record industry is in such a mess. There is nothing in me that wants to go in there and do new music. How are you going to deliver it? How are you going to get paid for it if people can just get it for free?"

A lot of artists are disheartened and disgusted by the theft and disrespect that "fans" call "sharing."

3 Cheers for the Somali Pirates

Ahar, mateys, and all of the Pirate Bay fans, bloggers and anti-social forum members who hide behind Halloween names involving pirates, death, skulls and demons.
Give three cheers for your new heroes, the Somali Pirates.
During a 12 day streak, they hijacked 8 ships.
Why not? They are entitled to do what they do, because they're poor, and these ship owners are rich and can afford the million dollar extortion. No different from a blogger who can't afford every AC-DC album and knows that AC-DC and the RIAA, and the record label and the record store don't need the money. An economy run by paying for things? Crazy!
Just as a blogger gets a happy "thank you, keep up the good work" from somebody who downloaded stolen merchandise, villagers in Somalia grin and say "thank you, keep up the good work" to the pirates tossing spare change around.
If you believe in Internet piracy, then you must also support the Somali pirates.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said, ""Piracy is against everybody. Like terrorism, it is a disease that has to be eradicated." Really? Sounds like the RIAA talking. Bloggers know better. Just as Prince (of Minnesota) should never ask for a file deletion, Prince (of Saudi Arabia) should never complain about piracy either.
The pirates put it succinctly: "If you try to stop us, we'll make things worse." Perhaps that would be a "sharebee" fleet of many more boats with machine guns, and some helpful people to throw a few tear gas bombs as well, to let the people aboard the big pleasure ship or oil tanker know who's boss.
A news report: "United States naval officials said they fleets are spread too thin to deal with the pirate bands." As for the Brits, they won't go after the pirates because if they chase the pirates, "The pirates will go somewhere we are not," said Royal Navy Commodore Keith Winstanley"
Hooray, the pirates win!
Just like the happy Pirate Bay crowd, who made Tower and Virgin and HMV and Circuit City and the others shut down and go into bankruptcy, record companies cut back on employees and cut loose older artists, and many artists simply refuse to release new material just to entertain thieves, the Somali pirates are spiking oil prices higher, reducing tourist interest in cruises, and sending a message that mob rule and mindless selfishness is the way of life. Ahar, a hardy-har-har.
The bloggers who throw everything on the Internet don't have any answers for the toll they take. All they know is they get music for free and people are happy to get it. The pirates who are holding ships for ransom don't care about the havoc they cause, just as long as they get something for nothing and they get cheers from their friends and neighbors.
The Norwegian shipping line Odfjell, with 90 tankers, has resigned its employees to longer hours and longer time away from loved ones, and the possibility of layoffs and bankruptcy.
"We will no longer expose our crew to the risk of being hijacked and held for ransom by pirates in the Gulf of Aden," said Terje Storeng, Odfjell's president. It will take two extra weeks away from friends and family for a tanker to make the detour away from the Somali pirates. The cost is "between $20,000 and $30,000 a day," which will be passed on to the customer...or...the company will go out of business.
How many pirates does it take to ransom a tanker? Just a few speedboats. And how many blogs and forums does it take to kill the music industry? We've seen: not much more.
The music industry is in a massive slump. Lay-offs. Suicides. Depression. The answer is a strong economy, but that involves buying and selling...not "sharing" which is "stealing." The bloggers who give it all away, even if it's in print or easily available in a store, are just as savage as the Somali pirate who also think they are entitled to something for nothing, taking down giant shipping vessels with the same indifference as the people who walked past the Tower record stores that went dark and put thousands out of work and into despair.
The quality of your life and mine is eroding because of selfish, savage, stupid people who don't care about what's right or wrong.
The Somali Pirates are hearign "thanks, you're doing a great job..." from their villagers and friends. Just as someone who pirates an entire discography gets "thanks, you're doing a great job" from a forum member too selfish to care about law and morality.

Random Notes and...remember "Sharing?"

2008-09-26T14:43:00.000-07:00

"Sharing." That's an antique term, isn't it? You'll remember, a few years ago, when bloggers justified posting entire box sets, entire discographies, every new release, because it was all about "sharing." Kind, sweet, innocent, adorable "sharing."

Now all pretense has dropped, and most bloggers frankly demand PAYPAL donations. Blogs have sprung up that fester with porn ads and links. Thousands of people all have the same quick buck idea: build a blog, stock it with stolen merchandise, and make money off the Google ads and the donations. So much for "sharing." So much for real music fans who didn't just post an album and a link, or even a stolen "all music.com" review. Now it's organized crime. Not "sharing."

So many bloggers frankly, ironically, state, "If you don't donate, I can't "share" more music with you." Is that a music fan or some kind of sick pimp?

Here are some Random Notes from people who actually are in the music business, and don't simply "share" or steal and find some hypocritical way to justify it.

"For new bands, it's much more difficult to make a living, because when music is as cheap as water, only the department of water and power gets a check. The deals bands haveto sign these days — we thought we got fucked, but ourdeals now look like gems. Now, whether it's a major label or an indie label, bands have to sign away a third of their publishing, a third of the money they make on tour, a third of their merchandise, just to get their toe in the door to get a minimal recording budget. So that is certainly unhealthy."
TOM MORELLO, guitarist, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE

"Everyone's trying to put out a record WHILE THEY STILL CAN. Who knows if you still can put out fucking records a year or two from now? Is it going to be online only? Is it going to be singles?"
BOB MCLYNN, manager, FALL OUT BOY

"I'm used to releasing a record and selling 2 or 3 million. I don't want to sell 22,000 copies. The whole label structure is falling apart."
STEVE MILLER

"Music Should be Free!"

2008-08-12T08:34:00.001-07:00

You see this more and more. Some manifesto. Some brilliant philosophy. Some new "Internet thinking" from somebody who probably never graduated college.

The idea is that music is communication and we should all share each other's knowledge. Something like that. So, conveniently, any music, any movie, any new computer program, should be given away for the common good. Shared. Without permission.

How nice to see so many people embracing Communism. What else do you call a plan by which copyright is ignored, and human freedom disdained?

The people behind "Music should be free" are almost never musicians. The few musicians who believe this crackpot notion either are so rich they don't care anymore, or so unknown they'll do anything to get attention.

Here's a better idea, kiddies. "Health care should be free." "People should be free." Not so easy, is it? You'd rather sit around being so radical by stealing other people's property, than join the Peace Corps or volunteer your time to teach a child how to read, or to protest Darfur or the current conflict on the Russian border.

Some doctors with a conscience and a heart, donate their time to a free clinic. But nobody kidnaps doctors, forcing them to lose money treating the poor. Kidnapping, after all, is a crime Isn't it?

Yet the bloggers and forum dwellers and P2P fanatics who take without asking, or who post some ridiculous legalese remark like "File for promotional or review purposes only, remove from your computer in 24 hours" are arrogantly, childishly or maliciously making a decision they have no right to make.

None of these "music sharers" want somebody walking into their homes and making copies of their CDs, or dupicating their DVDs. The word "Library" or "Open, Come In, Copy Anything I Have" don't appear on their doors.

Yet they have nothing better to do than create a conspiracy to get everything free, and if they destroy the lives of musicians, store owners, and others, "so what."

Hitler had his "Mein Kampf." He thought he had a brilliant plan to decide who should be allowed to work and who should be denied rights. If you have the monumental stupidity or ego or cruelty to take without permission, and kill sales by giving away what is legally not yours to give away, then put a swastika on your blog, put up the SS symbols, or the skulls, or devil tattoos and the rest of it, because you are far from the truth, far from intelligent philosophy, and just a little Hitler.

When Bootlegging Isn't So Bad

2008-05-30T09:38:00.000-07:00

ESPN reporter Don Steinberg recently praised bootlegging:
http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/news/story?id=3390712

To put it briefly, he confessed to buying bootleg fights, and he mentioned forums where boxing matches are available for free download. He said: "...if you really need videos of Shane Mosley's greatest hits, what's a guy to do? There's no legal way to do it." He mentioned that HBO and the others don't normally put out boxing DVDs because the market is small, and the rights issues are complex. Then he said this:

"I'm not proud that I solicit products from the digital underground....I stopped downloading music illicitly years ago and began paying for it on iTunes and Amazon. Every week I ignore the guy I see selling bootleg DVDs of new movies."

That's the point. Bootlegging may not be such a crime if it's rare items and there's no demand, but it's a crime when it's easily available music or movies. Some radical jihadists in forums and in blogs are "proud" of what they do, rationalize by ragging on the RIAA or MPAA, and believe the anarchy of torrents and that "music should be free."

What is ethical, moral and legal, is to buy what is available to buy. It means being adult. It means saying what this reporter said, that you have no reason to be "proud" of stealing what you should buy. Buying helps the economy. It gives people jobs. It lets honest musicians, songwriters and store owners do what they want to do and should be able to do.

Why do the radical jihadists (who usually have no jobs, and are just as nasty, socially inept and malcontented as the religious fanatics are) use moron excuses like "music must be free" and "down with the RIAA." Down with the RIAA? And up with what? Microsoft? Yahoo? Google? Organizations far bigger and more sinister than the RIAA, run by billionaire fatcats who hoard their money and have created a creepy world called "Silicone Valley?"

By bootlegging and downloading, the radical jihadists are screwing musicians, store owners, songwriters, and yes, somewhat inept organizations like RIAA, BMI and ASCAP, but they are making billionaires out of fatcats at Microsoft, Rapidshare, Yahoo, Megaupload and Google and a few "genius" torrent owners and members of organized crime.

Maybe, just maybe, bootlegging old boxing telecasts isn't so bad. Same with scoring an ounce of pot, or needing a prostitute's services. Maybe friendly "sharing" on a small level isn't so bad either. But...

Distributing free music, warez and movies on mammoth blogs, in secret forums, and via torrents, in an organized conspiracy to not have to buy this easily available stuff...is no reason to be proud.

Let's Talk Turkey

2008-04-25T09:19:00.000-07:00

There are people in obscure countries like Turkey, in unpleasant places like Taiwan, or in second-rate nations like Sweden, who crow, "We have absolutely no copyright! Don't tell us what to do! We give away music! Ha ha!"

There are also parts of the world where female circumcision is legal, where prostitution is legal, where dangerous drugs are legal, where a "crime of passion" is legal, or where polluting the environment is legal. There are countries where killing endangered species is legal and the murder of dogs and cats is not a crime either. In fact, some countries think a cat or a dog, something you might cherish, is just a good meal.

The answer, at best, to backward countries and backward people is, "Keep it to yourself." If your country allows legal drugs, don't attempt to bring it into a country that is trying to stay clean. If you are a whore in Holland or Las Vegas, don't think you can set up shop elsewhere.

Respect others. If your country is against human rights and doesn't believe in copyright, don't use a file sharer service in a country that does believe in decency. Don't use a blog from a country that does believe in rights. Don't try to spread illegal files by beaming them to people in countries where it is illegal.

In other words, share only with your fellow Taiwanese, Turks or Swedes. And don't be surprised if the civilized world really doesn't want to visit your country or know from you. Places where human rights are not respected...from the Congo to North Korea and back, are loathed by modern, enlightened people everywhere.

And to indiscriminant bloggers and forum members and torrent lovers who want it all for free and don't give a damn who gets hurt...you know where you can go. Leave America. Leave the U.K. Leave France. Leave Germany. Go live in Turkey, or in Sweden where it is physically and morally dark most of the day. Go to Taiwan or one of the former U.S.S.R. republics where ethnic cleansing is praised and free speech denied.

What? You're not leaving the U.S. or the U.K. or France or Canada so soon? Then think about the laws and morality that made your country great. Think what you can do to make it greater, and what you can do to help the musicians, record stores, song writers and music-providers you claim to love.

Another Hang-Up

2008-03-28T13:05:00.000-07:00

Ringtone sales are falling. It peaked in 2006 and last year, there was a $90 million LOSS in sales. Why, do you suppose?

According to Richard Conlon, of BMI, "third-party software" can quickly and easily make ringtones...at little to no cost rather than the $2 or $3 a customer pays to purchase a ringtone from a wireless carrier.

Posting-whores in forums, and over-posting bloggers who offer discographies and all the new releases, blithely tell the music industry, "think up a new way to make money." Ringtone sales are falling because technology makes it easy to steal. If ringtones were ten cents, most would rather steal, just as they'd rather have the music free than even pay a "nice price" for a CD or the e-music budget rate for a downloaded album.

P2PP is the answer. Peer to Peer Pressure. When someone happily crows about "sharing" and offering up another dozen items with more to come, curb your enthusiasm, and let that person know that selfishness has a price of its own. It means less music produced, less old music re-issued with bonus tracks, less record stores to browse, and a lot of people unemployed or worse.

Human nature is that the same way we can't and won't stop buying SUV's, motor-boating over lakes and the animals living in them, or abusing the environment or being selfish in so many ways unless law enforcement and sensor devices and surveillance cameras deter us...some of us will never stop stealing music at a dangerously hurtful level. Short-sighted people. You'll answer for all of this with decreased quality of life, and your call for help will not find anyone on the line, no matter what catchy ringtone you stole.

STATS AND FACTS

2008-02-15T13:07:00.000-08:00

STATS AND FACTS

As this century began, the music industry was healthy and the #1 album of 2000, N'Sync's "No Strings Attached" sold 9.9 million copies.
But according to Rolling Stone (7-2-08) just two years later, the #1 album, "Eminem Show" sold only 7.6 million. Reason? To quote the newspaper: "As file sharing takes its toll on the biz, sales drop 17 percent." Yes. You heard right. FILE SHARING.
In 2007, the #1 album of the year was "Noel" by Josh Groban, and it only sold 3.6 million. Rolling Stone: "WORST YEAR YET."
Thanks to FILE SHARING, a star who beats all odds, and has a #1 album, will sell 60% LESS copies than before FILE SHARING began. Would you like to make 60% LESS money because of egotists, anarchists and selfish idiots?
Back in 2000, a hit album by Counting Crows or Green Day, or the "Lion King" soundtrack, charted 5 million copies sold.
But in 2007, the top albums of the year sold HALF that much because of FILE SHARING. Daughtry and Alicia Keys sold 2.5 million, and Fergie, Linkin Park, Taylor Swift and Kanye West averaged about 2 million.
According to Rolling Stone, "The labels' strategy of the last several years to emphasize digital downloads and ringtones seemed increasingly misguided in 2007, when growth of the formats finally began to level off...digital-single sales...make a fraction of the money for the labels."
There is a core of hateful bloggers and forum owners out there who have absolutely no answer for any of this, beyond, "Oh, man, music should be free" and "they should find some other way of making money, like selling t-shirts" and "blame the RIAA."
It's sad when some neurotic feels he must post albums every single day, and knows nothing about the music business, and has no solution to the abuse, and could care less about the people who lose their jobs.
When a blog is closed or a link is taken down because it HURTS the musicians, the record industry, the labels, the songwriters, and the store owners and Internet mail order firms that sell this stuff, the rally cry is, "RE-UP! DON'T LET THE BASTARDS WIN!"
Who, exactly, do you think the bastards really are?

Rape of the Virgins

2008-01-21T16:11:00.000-08:00

The Virgin megastore in Los Angeles shuts down this month. The one in Chicago just closed. So did the one in Salt Lake city. More are going to close, falling over like the Tower Records chain.

The compulsive bloggers will find a rationalization. They'll blame Virgin for not diversifying and selling books and DVDs as well as CDs. Oh. They did. Only people are now getting their books on bootleg PDF downloads, and their DVDs on bootleg avi and mpg downloads. Too bad.

The bloggers know no shame and they have every excuse. They "Share" (without asking permission). They are entitled to Google ad money for their hard work, but the artists don't deserve anything. Some openly declare they really don't give a damn about anything but themselves and how good they feel when they get compliments for "sharing."

If a blog is shut down they don't even take it as a sign that the artists are upset. They sneak to find a new host. If a file is removed they will impudently re-up, offended. If the law of their own country tells them NO, they will patronize some remote, communistic country where human rights are ignored. Anything to continue this sick compulsion to do what the artists don't want done: copying copyrighted work.

The result is people thrown out of work. Economies in trouble. Families ruined and uprooted. Artists unable to create or get new contracts. People forced to work for less, and at jobs they hate. All of it because bloggers have bad jobs, too much time, no creativity, and get their kicks by pretending to be in show biz in this most grotesque of ways. These illegal downloads are enabled by the Bill Gates-types of the world, much more evil and immoral than the RIAA or Warners or EMI. These illegal downloads are often found on sites that make money off the most despicable of porn ads aimed at anti-social people who don't understand what love is.

Sick people who adopt fake names that prove how moronic, evil and self-absorbed they are, make blogs filled with entire catalogs of stolen merchandise and crawl around forums desperate to put entire discographies out as part of some insane conspiracy. Why? Why not run a blog with your opinion, not what you steal? Why not offer one song on an album and not a 320 bit-rate copy of not just the entire album, but the artist's entire catalog? When did human beings lose all common sense and start acting so spiteful, so vicious, so cruel?

No doubt these bloggers also shrug about global warming, care not about abusing the planet, think only of themselves, and if artists get together to raise money to prevent murders in Africa...the album is upped for free just to get some Google ad money for the blogger, or a thank you. The bloggers have an answer for everything. If a virgin is raped, they smirk and say, "She asked for it."

Goodbye to the Virgin Megastores. You asked for it: you thought people might want to buy the work of artists who aim to entertain and enlighten...but this has become a world that fights fiercely for the "right" to steal. No reasoning with fanatics.

The Pack of Hyenas Kill and Maim

2008-01-17T08:25:00.000-08:00

The hardcore bloggers? They are like a pack of hyenas, loud, fierce, obnoxious, and able to gang up on the big hapless prey and bring it down, moaning, ripped to pieces, eaten alive.

The music industry is the hapless prey, plodding, often stupid, but essentially doing a good thing: bringing music to people, and giving a living to those who love music. The bloggers who post every single day and give away entire discographies? At first the excuse was "we are sharing," but they knew it was stealing. So now? Now the hyenas say, "We want it free, and we found a way to get it free. Go figure out some other way of making money."

These anarchists have all the sensitivity of a pack of hyenas. As long as their own jobs aren't lost, they can make any excuse for taking what they don't own and distributing it without consent. Let the record industry workers survive on minimum wage, and let the record store owner sell shoes instead. The music industry is being eaten alive.

Headline in fan-friendly Rolling Stone 24/1/08: "Key executives laid off...morale tanks." The firings "targeted some of the most experienced hitmakers in the business...Universal axed A&R ace Rob Stevenson whose signings included Fall Out Boy...Sony BMG followed suit, cutting more than a dozen in publicity, video and marketing departments. Columbia lost its head of rock promotion among others, and Epic suffered cuts across the board, slimming the label down to fewer than 80 employees...Geffen Records let go approximately twenty percent of its staff..."

"In December Warner stock was trading at its lowest price...EMI...has pledged to drastically downsize...5,000 music industry employees have lost their jobs" and that doesn't include people who depend on the industry such as record store owners or sound studios.

You can't stop a pack of hyenas or reason with them. We watch the music industry struggle and flounder and bleed to death.

Good bloggers ask for restraint. They post a few songs. They have no Google ads. They try to see things from the artist's point of view. They don't want the artist to pay more money to a Web Sheriff or secretary in order to get links removed.

Sadly, people need laws. Without a law, without a security guard, they give into their baser instincts and too many become hyenas. When there is a blackout, some people transform into hyenas and take the lack of security cameras or sensor devices as an excuse to steal. There is a blackout with the Internet, where people can move in the shadows. In the shadows they change from humans to hyenas.

News Report on EMI Cutting 2000 Jobs

2008-01-15T16:42:00.000-08:00

"EMI, the storied home to The Beatles and The Rolling Stones that was taken over by a private equity firm last year, announced Tuesday it would cut about a third of the company's jobs in a restructuring plan aimed at reassuring its restless artists, countering plummeting CD revenue and saving 200 million pounds ($400 million) a year...."

"There's No Hope In Sight"

2007-06-18T15:17:00.001-07:00

The headline on lucky page 13 of the June 28th issue of Rolling Stone says it all.

"SALES ARE TANKING, AND THERE'S NO HOPE IN SIGHT." Further down, you'll find two words that are very much a part of the problem: "widespread piracy."

The magazine reports that Warner Music will lay off 400 people, and 200 MILLION less albums were SOLD in the past year. Credit "widespread piracy" and people engaged in a conspiracy to make sure nobody has to pay for music anymore.

"About 2700 record stores have closed across the country," the magazine states, and since people instantly steal and download the latest hits, it doesn't matter how good the music is: "Just a few years ago, many industry executives thought their problems could be solved by bigger hits." No. The bigger the hit, the faster it's downloaded at the den of thieves' forums and at the piranha-like blogs where the frenzy to fill up hard drives is the name of the game.

Bloggers will tell you, if they dare to admit that what they do is stealing, or that it hurts the artists, that music should simply be considered a "promotional" item and the real money should get to artists via tours and merchandise.

This is like telling a doctor he should not charge for examinations, and just make money selling aspirin. It's like telling a truck driver he should drive for free, and enjoy the view.

The fact is, as Rolling Stone states, "to the dismay of some artists and managers, labels are insisting on deals in which the companies get a portion of touring, merchandising, and other non-recorded-music sources of income."

Ironically the magazine's main topic is Al Gore and global warming, which is another example of "There's no hope in sight," because the same obnoxious people who rationalize stealing music are the same ones who get into their SUV's and pollute the air, and the same ones who don't recycle, and the same ones too selfish to care about anything beyond their own wants.

The jihad against the music industry is going very well. The ones who feel it's their God-given right to copy copyrighted music are getting what they want. But so are the ones who feel it's their Allah-given right to decide on the rights of others. That's another jihad. For every blogger who won't listen to reason, there's also an oil executive, an SUV driver, a lawyer and a hedonist ready to use up the clean air, the clean water, and all resources without bothering to think of the consequences.

"How very fortune for you," Elvis Costello might sing, that you downloaded his whole catalog for free. Did I say free? Did you say free? There's a hidden cost involved. You've sold out the people you admire, you've sold out to greed, and worse, you've sold out yourself.

The Future: Heart Attack or Stroke

2007-06-18T15:07:00.000-07:00

Instead of slowing down, people in the rock industry will be burning out in their 50's and 60's. Illegal downloading will literally kill them.

"The record business is over," says Peter Paterno, an attorney for Metallica, Dr. Dre and others, "The labels have wonderful assets - they just can't make any money off them." That's because illegal downloaders are so happy to "share" boxed sets, entire discographies, and anything else intended to be sold, not stolen.

Performers who thought they could slow down...aging country singers, pop artists, and fragile rock stars who lived a fast lifestyle...will be playing county fairs in the heat of summer, 20 dates a month on the road in cruddy bars, and pushing themselves to the point of heart attack and stroke. They will be found dead in hotel rooms and bloggers will say "Here's the entire discography" by way of tribute.

Where Are the Second-Hand Mp3's?

2007-05-25T10:22:00.000-07:00

You buy music on iTunes and eMusic and Rhapsody and you can't re-sell it. If you buy a book, you can sell a used copy on Ebay or Amazon. But not the mp3 file that you own! Why can't you sell a "used" mp3 file on eBay? Because you can't.

If you want to shout "FIRE!" in a crowded movie house, you can't claim free speech. You'll be arrested for inciting a riot or disturbing the peace, or simply violating the theater's "Terms of Service."

The Internet hyenas who say "you can't stop us," (rage over their parents and teachers misdirected at the music and movie and wares industries) can incite other hyenas but they can't cite the law.

Defying the law won't change what's legal and what isn't. One can't sell second-hand mp3's on eBay for common sense reasons and legal reasons. It isn't "sharing." Yes some bloggers will say, "I have Paypal donations and Google ads because..." here comes the rationalization.... "I actually paid a few pennies for a legal download and I can't re-sell it to get my money back!"

Whining babies. How quickly these crying children turn into vengeful hyenas. Using their comic book names from the forums they love, they proclaim themselves to be evil geniuses and members of some alien death squad: "We can't be stopped!"

Great. And what is the end result, if you actually CAN'T be stopped? That there will be no new music because nobody can make a career out of it. All that you'll have is a bunch of amateurish idiots with myspace pages and Garage Band-generated junk. Nobody will have the money to hire the publicists, managers and roadies needed to tour.

And yet the clueless and ignorant hyenas who aren't in the music business and don't know what they are talking about, and rationalize and bellow, will insist they should be able to sell mp3 files on eBay, or give away files and get Paypal donations, and decide by mob rule that music should be free. What they do for a living, they should be paid for. But not anybody in a glamour industry that they are jealous of, and too stupid and talentless to be part of.

Norah Jones Slashed in Half

2007-04-25T09:49:00.000-07:00

"The decline of the music industry accelerated in the first quarter of 2007, as CD sales dropped twenty percent from the previous year."

That's the lead paragraph from Rolling Stone, a musician-friendly magazine that even reviews bootlegs and "leaked to the Internet" songs. The article continues: "In the first week of January, the Dreamgirls soundtrack topped the charts with just 66,000 sold - making it the lowest selling Number One album of the SoundScan era. Norah Jones' Not Too Late has sold just half of what her previous album sold in the same period...Already music stores like Virgin are cutting back on CDs and emphasizing DVDs and clothing. 'Music will gradually drop as a proportion of our pie,' says Simon right, CEO of Virgin Entertainment."

Bloomberg News adds: "U.S. album sales fell 17 percent in the first quarter, a faster pace than in all of last year, because of rising online piracy..."

Another report from Reuters adds "higher digital revenue failed to counter the decline in compact discs," which means that royalties for musicians are not only sinking lower all the time, but it's especially hurtful for those who aren't touring. Songwriters who depend on royalties entirely, and record stores struggling to stay in business, are also being hit hard. Several suicides have been linked directly to despair over business losses. When a 70 year-old songwriter who had a few hits finds himself unable to exist because he counted on his royalties to help him bridge the social security gap...there's no reason to stay alive. This, while some blogger posts his songs for free and gets a "thanks, you're doing a great job" in thatsall-important "comments" section.

People who don't feel compelled to protest high taxes, who don't go out and protest war, who don't go out and complain about the bureaucracy that raises prices on milk and postage, somehow think that their most radical and revolutionary activity is sitting on their bottoms and uploading music and blaming the RIAA.

It is clearly hurting musicians, record stores, and the music industry. No blogger has come up with a solution to the problem beyond "screw the RIAA" or "all musicians are rich."

It is clearly marked on all CDs, "all rights reserved" and concerts forbid people from bringing in recording equipment. The majority of musicians clearly want it this way.

Blogging by stealing whole albums is as far from the truth as it gets, and here's something more:

Illegal downloading is the opiate of the masses.

People who could really be doing something about corporate villainy, ecological disaster and fighting any cause from gun control to global warming, are spending their energy hiding links and re-upping files and acting like children.

You don't have enough music? There are children in the world who don't have enough to eat.

"I Wanted Someone In Jail"

2007-04-25T09:43:00.000-07:00

When Pete Wentz discovered that his album had been leaked, he did not say "thanks for sharing."

This is what he said: "When I started to get text messages about that, I felt the color come out of my face. I freaked out. I wanted someone in jail."

The artists want people to hear their albums as they intended, and they want to be paid.

Universal Music Wins A Round

2007-04-25T09:25:00.000-07:00

According to reporter Peter Lauria, "Universal Music Group won a key copyright decision against online community Bolt.com in a big win (for the music industry)...as part of the settlement, Bolt agreed to equip its Web site with filtering software," in what is considered a victory "against a user-generated content Web site. A month later, the label leveled similar charges against MySpace. The lawsuits accuse the Web sites of sharing, copying, reformatting, distributing and creating derivative versions of songs from Mariah Carey, The Killers, Bon Jovi and others."

The word "sharing" is prominent in this, because that's what so many thieves hide behind as an excuse. If it's done without permission, it's stealing.

DON HENLEY - AND ANGER

2007-04-12T09:55:00.000-07:00

"Piracy is perhaps the most emotionally gut-wrenching problem facing artists. Artists like the idea of a new and better business model for the industry, but they cannot accept a business model that uses their music without authority or compensation. Suing kids is not what artists want, but many of them feel betrayed by fans who claim to love artists but still want their music free.

The music industry must also take a large amount of blame for this piracy. Not only did the industry not address the issue sooner, it provided the P2P users with a convenient scapegoat. Many kids rationalize their P2P habit by pointing out that only record labels are hurt -- that the labels don't pay the artists anyway. This is clearly wrong, because artists are at the bottom of the food chain. They are the ones hit hardest when sales take a nosedive and when the labels cut back on promotion, on signing new artists and on keeping artists with potential. Artists are clearly affected, yet because many perceive the music business as being dominated by rich multinational corporations, the pain felt by the artist has no public face."

Virgin Killed, 1000 Employees Slashed

2007-02-22T09:39:00.000-08:00

While some bloggers boast of a thousand downloads a week, it was reported "that as many as 1,000 employees will be laid off" at EMI, where both the CEO and vice chairman also lost their jobs as well as the president of Capitol records. Virgin Records has been shut down.

"The music industry is in free-fall," says Adam Shore, who runs the label that features such stars as Bloc Party, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Black Lips, "We have the best release schedule we've ever had, but we're less sure than ever that people are going to buy our records," because "sharing" bloggers have decided to give it all away. These are the same bloggers who would scream "scab" if somebody offered to do their job for free.

Music sales are down 40% from what they were before the mp3 download era, which is the equivalent of seeing a huge chunk of the arctic turn to water.

In the meantime, blogs with massive amounts of stolen music proudly declare they will re-up if their links are removed, that everyone should spread links around as much as possible to defeat any attempt by musicians to control their music, and praise any bloggers or torrents that give away entire discographies of someone's work. There are blog sites and forums that leech everything they can find in order to promote themselves (and get banner ad money) and they receive lavish compliments for their "generosity."

Pirate Bay: Kill the Musicians

2007-02-22T09:23:00.000-08:00

You might remember the romantic image of pirates on the high seas. They boarded a ship, stole everything, murdered the crew and raped the women. What's not to admire?

Today we have "Pirate Bay," and other bit-torrent sites that enjoy raping musicians and watching people lose their jobs so they can own everything they want without paying for it. Best of all, they make money doing it.

Pirate Bay makes $75,000 a month in ad revenue. That means that while they bleed the music industry, reduce the royalties for the talented people who make music, and prevent so many artists from even getting a record deal, they profit.

This is like the anarchist who tells everyone the system sucks, while pocketing $75,000 for each lecture. It's like the communist leader who claims to be on the side of the worker while living in a palace and dining on caviar.

The rationale behind the action is a garble as insane as any madman ran from the Middle East: "To all intellectual property landlords: we are aware that Torrents might annoy you -- but contain your righteous indignation for a while, and think: we're only linking to torrents that already exist. Face it: your membrane has burst, and it wasn't us who burst it. Your precious bodily fluids are escaping."

Piratebay is saying that because they host a site where people upload illegal files, they can't be faulted, and that hard-working artists who created work and should be paid for it, should "contain" their "righteous indignation" while somebody else makes money off that work via banner ads, and while it's downloaded by people who would be very angry to take a pay cut because somebody thought THEIR work isn't worth the money they charge.

The Swedes who run Piratebay are delighted to be paid $75,000 a month for providing their service. They would feel more than "righteous indignation" if a hacker put their $75,000 a month in ad money into somebody else's Internet bank account. Then these pirates would weep like babies. They would ask for the law to protect them. They would say, "It isn't fair."

I ME MINE

2006-12-22T09:06:00.000-08:00

Years ago, George Harrison sang about the disgrace of "I Me Mine." He anticipated the "me" generation, soon represented by magazines like "SELF."

At allofMP3.com, where arrogant Russian thugs take all of Western music, their defense is "WE" as in "we should do what we want, and that means taking music without permission and selling it for their own profit.

Typical Russian immorality? Look at what American bloggers are doing, and those in the U.K., Germany, Holland or South America. In these countries copyright is clearly the law, but it's "I me Mine." The bloggers feel they have a right to take somebody's newest album, not even in stores, and give it away.

The RIAA has filed suit against the Russians demanding "$150,000 for each instance of copyright infringement." Joining with the RIAA, the U.S. Government and world leaders are threatening Russia's admittance to the World Trade Organization.

This is no longer about swapping a few tunes. It's about the wreckage of companies and the destruction of lives. People are on unemployment lines or taking part-time jobs because the royalties are gone, offices are letting workers go and sales are flat.

Every selfish ninny with an I-Me-Mine attitude and a "Donate to Paypal" banner on his blog is part of the problem.

Every childish conspirator who floods a forum with complete discographies of an artist's work is part of the problem.

Every smirking fool who writes "this album is out of print therefore copyright no longer exists" is part of the problem.

In U.S. District Court's description for allofMP3.com: "notorious online black market...poster child for Internet music piracy."

Other poster children include the bloggers who post dozens of downloads a day out of their I-ME-MINE desire to have attention at all costs to other people.

NO EXCUSE

2006-12-22T08:54:00.000-08:00

One of the best protest slogans is simple. It's used by PETA. They say "There is NO EXCUSE for wearing fur."

The downloading epidemic?

There is NO EXCUSE for the reckless downloading going on. 90% of what bloggers offer can easily be bought in a record store or on line, and cheap. Very, very little of what bloggers offer is truly so rare or so expensive, that an illegal download is a fair alternative.

One thing bloggers keep ignoring is what they do is absolutely illegal. It breaks the law.

It makes the Internet more lawless.

MOAS

2006-12-13T10:56:00.000-08:00

If you had a chance to come to one of the world's great cities, what would you do?

If you were a member of MOAS, you'd set your alarm clock for four in the morning, grab some spray paint, and spend hours blasting a wall, bus or train with the graffiti you call your TAG.

A week later, at the cost of thousands of dollars, the paint is removed. That doesn't stop the graffiti artist.

MOAS means "Monsters of Art, Scandanavia," a collection of fools who try to outdo each other in vandalism. They call what they do "art" the same way file download thieves call what they do "sharing."

Graffiti isn't art. Especially when it's done against somebody's will and using somebody else's property.

You ask: "Why be so stupid? Why waste your time? You could be earning money with a job, having a love life, or donating your time for any of 100 charities that need volunteers."

The same can be asked of the ferociously compulsive bloggers who think there is something heroic about taking hundreds of albums they don't own and distributing the music for their own glory.

There is no excuse to paint graffiti on somebody else's property. None.

There is no excuse for stealing somebody's music and sharing it against their wishes. None.

Graffiti artists and hardcore bloggers hate it when somebody "spoils the fun."

"Fun" is covering an entire train with paint? "Fun" is putting every album an artist did on a blog so that the artist loses royalties and a record store owner can't make a legal sale?

The world can use enthusiastic people to volunteer their time for a positive cause.

Instead it's spraying paint and stealing music.

"I painted a hundred walls and trains in the past year."

"I put hundreds of albums on my blog and each got downloaded a hundred times."

Lawsuit Invades MYSPACE

2006-12-06T16:23:00.000-08:00

Slowly, the wheels of copyright protection squash the obnoxious.

The most visible blogging on the Net is no, not at blogspot or myopera, but MYSPACE. That's why Universal Music fired a lawsuit their way claiming "the site routinely and knowingly allows users to upload and download copyrighted music and videos."

MYSPACE now has to spend a lot of money policing the site to mitigate damages, and worry if a judge grants Universal the requested $150,000 "per instance of infringement."

A MYSPACE rep insists, "We do not induce, encourage or condone copyright violation in any way," but that's not enough. Myspace, blogspot, myopera and all free Internet sites are now on notice to remove "terms of service" violations.

Various sites that imitate Rapidshare or Megaupload will also face huge penalties if they harbor illegal music files. Paypal is not exempt either, and will have to start removing accounts that are nothing but greedy bloggers demanding donations for the music they stole.

"Come and get me," cry the reckless bloggers, "you can't touch me, this is my space." The execs at MYSPACE know better. They are now working with a company called Gracenote to "identify and block copyrighted material," and develop software that will detect downloads and exactly who is responsible for them.

It's a shame that normal music lovers who want to share a song or two, or a favorite out of print album, are going to suffer because of a few selfish radicals who turn a blog or a forum into a smuggler's den.

MYSPACE and other websites and conduits for music sharing are not going to lose their shirts and go to jail because of some smug thugs who think they have a right to abuse the rights of others. Stealing and infringement are serious crimes.

When the RIAA can actually make money and collect punitive damages from some housewife who downloaded from Kazaa, and when Universal can get a fortune from a prosperous site like MySpace, the writing is on the wall. The writing in big letters is: Do Not Steal Music.

Mine: You Can't Take It

2006-11-06T12:47:00.000-08:00

Many have covered the hit song with the famous lyric, "For once I can say "This is mine you can't take it...'"

For the many who try to steal the song, "this is mine, you can't take it" means the file is deleted, and increasingly, the blog is deleted, too.

Recently visitors to various sites at wordpress, myopera and blogger have seen "violation of terms of service" where the free downloads once were or a 404 notice or a "banned user" logo.

"Mine, you can't take it," is what YouTube bloggers are discovering. Recently Comedy Central forced YouTube (owned by Google, which also owns Blogspot) to suspend offending members and remove copyrighted TV, movie and music clips.

I happen to enjoy YouTube. I like being able to find the best clips of some TV show or news show laid out for me to watch any time I want. I like being able to view music videos, too. But you know what? If it's not there for me, I understand why. It's the copyright owner trying to make a statement.

That statement is that if YouTube wants to make a name for itself and make ad money they should do it with licensed material.

Bloggers who want to make a name for themselves should do it by providing something of their own, and not by stealing from others.

"Mine, You Can't Take It." Shouldn't an adult be ashamed not to understand that simple five-word sentence?

God Damn The Blogger Man?

2006-11-06T09:40:00.000-08:00

A classic song damned "The Pusher" who led people to ruin. How about the whole-hog blogger who causes the destruction of record stores? Some reckless bloggers are doing to the music environment what gas-guzzling SUV-drivers are doing to the ozone level.

A blog or forum where rare needs are met probably does little harm. A blogger who posts out of print material might cause mininum damage.

But the massive level of blogging is beyond the bounds of what anyone could consider "comfortable." It's the difference between shoplifting and looting.

The next big holiday is Christmas. How ironic is it that bloggers are offering Christmas music? God says "Thou Shalt Not Steal" but bloggers think they are being noble by "sharing" albums that can be bought as gifts at any Best Buy or Target store.

Bloggers think they are saintly and good when they offer up Christmas albums that are copyrighted and marked "all rights reserved." Shouldn't these albums be sold on CD and decorated with red ribbons and given as gifts? As in, "I thought enough of this artist to BUY YOU THIS GIFT..."

If somebody can download every Johnny Mathis and Johnny Cash album of Christmas favorites, there will be no nicely wrapped CD under the tree. The record store owner will have a bad Christmas. Songwriters will get less royalties. The department store will shrink its space for records because they aren't selling. Who is the Scrooge? The RIAA for deleting the links, or the blogger who says "Merry Christmas, look what I've stolen for you..."

God damn. The Blogger feels he's performing an act of Christian "sharity."

How difficult is it to know right from wrong, and knowing this, resist temptation? Lord knows it is difficult.

"I think that we perhaps naively hoped that the Christian teens would have been taking the moral high road," says John W. Styll, president of the Gospel Music Association. "Among teens, they just don't see it as a moral issue. Ninety percent of them don't see illegal downloading as wrong. It may be illegal, but everyone is doing it." The number of self-avowed Good Christian teens pirating music on the Internet turns out to be the same as the headbangers, rappers and Marilyn Manson crowd.

The Gospel Music Association has mounted a campaign with this slogan: "Music Piracy: Millions of Wrongs Don't Make It Right."

Styll defends his words and adds more. "It's more than just illegal. It's immoral. It's breaking the laws of the land, and it's stealing from people, and you shouldn't do it," he says.

He must realize that part of the problem is that the parents are doing it, too. Some of the worst bloggers out there are old enough to have children and grandchildren, but they'd rather get a "thank you" from a downloader than a "bless you."

The L.A. Times recently reported that many a Christian teen, like "Matthew, a 13-year-old who attends Red Hill Lutheran Church" does not believe piracy is wrong: "No, because the artists are making billions of dollars anyways."

It is hard for children, and child-like adults, to know or to care about right or wrong. Whether it's keeping the planet free of pollution, or keeping the Internet free of corrosive and illegal activity, many are just too selfish to do the right thing. Many actually throw as much music as possible on a blog because they get higher traffic for a Google ad, or might make a few bucks with a Rapidshare or Megaupload reward plan, or a Paypal donation. They're selling out the musicians they love real cheap, but are too blind to see it that way.

Now, "let he who is without sin cast the first stone." I am not damning all bloggers or all people who download and upload. Not at all. Not everyone is near a library and not everyone has a lot of music-owning friends who will burn an extra CD. A little bit of "sharing" is not such a mortal sin.

Some Christians believe that offering up Christian music for free, or Christmas music, isn't such a sin because it's "spreading the word." This is nonsense as an excuse, but we all commit little sins, white lies and minor thefts. "We are all conflicted, it's true," says Styll, but he knows that paying for music is the best way to assure its future.

Styll's bottom line is this: "It's like stealing. You wouldn't walk into a Christian bookstore and steal a Bible off the shelf…. some fans say, 'This music is made to spread the Word, and I'm just helping.' Well, this is also about people's livelihoods."

The Towers Have Fallen

2006-10-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

More people may be jobless due to the collapse of Tower Records than the collapse of the WTC towers. Tower was a huge music chain. Over 200 stores and 6000 employees.
Over two years ago, February 2004, music attorney Jerry Reisman said that people "buying CDs are no longer shopping at Tower. They are taking the music online without having to pay for it." Tower filed for bankruptcy protection in a desperate attempt to pay off debts and stay in business. Internet piracy only got worse in the past two years, as more bloggers joined the cry of "let's kill the record stores!"

Yes, the problem was "especially the exploding popularity of downloading music for free from the Internet." If you think I'm slanting this story check:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/02/09/entertainment/main599008.shtml

From $1 billion in its heyday, to bankruptcy. For two agonizing years these burn victims struggled to keep Tower alive, while bloggers ignorant of the costs of buying merchandise, or paying employees and landords jeered, "we are vehemently opposed to being told what price to pay" and "record stores that go bankrupt get what they deserve!" Even when back-catalog CDs were often offered dirt cheap.

On Oct. 6, a U.S. federal bankruptcy judge officially ended, by liquidation, Tower Records. Across the world, record stores are closing, large and small, as endangered as wild tigers or the polar ice cap, the result of a cancer called greed and diseases of conceit and selfishness.

From sharing a few songs, it escalated to entire discographies and a bunch of drones compulsively throwing dozens of albums on the Net every day. Sharing? No, it became "let's get everything free and screw record stores." The thoughtless termites and leeches were too busy being parasites to care about the consequences or understand what they were destroying.

Can the Deaf Read English?

2006-09-08T15:21:00.000-07:00

In forums people post requests: "Anybody got..." and it's almost always a very in-print album, a new release, or even a mid-price item such as a back-catalog Bob Dylan or Tom Petty album already heavily discounted in any store and easy to find used!

This is obviously not about "sharing" at all. It's about never having to buy any album ever.

It is a CHEAP CONSPIRACY TO CHEAT MUSICIANS BY GIVING IT ALL AWAY FREE. No blogger who posts new albums, mid-price albums, or whole discographies can call it anything else.

Here is Steve Harley:

"You can't steal a live performance. If you go to see your favourite artists you buy a ticket, it can be £5 or £25 - but you pay for it. You can't steal a seat in a theatre. The reason you pay is because there are a lot of people working there that have to be paid - they've got kids to feed and bills to pay.

So don't steal the records either. It's not just the people on the road that matter most to me, because I spend so much of my time playing live shows. If there's half a million people plus who work in the music industry in Europe - their jobs are at stake. No money into the record companies - no money to produce records with. No engineers, no tape ops, studios out of work, studios close down - end of the music world as we know it.

And the end of the possibility for young people to come in to it and be creative. They'll be no money to support them, to sponsor them - the money won't be available.

We have to pay for our pleasures in life."

Repeat that last line:

WE HAVE TO PAY FOR OUR PLEASURES IN LIFE.

Not something a cheap and selfish blogger wants to read. Or maybe, the blogger just can't read.

Steve is quoted on this website:
http://www.pro-music.org/artistsspeak/printed.htm

My guess is part of the problem is that the bloggers truly can't read or understand English! All of the worst offenders are from foreign countries and can barely write a coherent sentence.

How do you support music? YOU BUY IT.

YOU GET 30 SECONDS

2006-08-16T09:31:00.000-07:00

Google now has a search feature for rock videos. You can check out a favorite artist and watch thirty seconds of a rock video. Then you're told: "The download is $1.99."

They aren't giving it away. They gave you enough so you could check the quality and make a decision on whether to buy it.

If you don't think it's worth it, or if you don't have the money,don't buy it.

Same thing at amazon.com or iTunes. You can hear a 30 second sample. Like it? BUY it. That's how the artists and their partners make money. It's a business.

30 seconds is all most artists want to give away free.

The BPI Makes it a BLOGGER PUNISHING INTERNET

2006-07-11T12:10:00.000-07:00

While most Bloggers whine and bitch about the RIAA, among many other organizations battling against clueless, lawless "sharing" is BPI.

That's the British Phonographic Industry, and in a July 2006 report published by the BBC, they outlined new ways of going after "illegal filesharing" and that includes having Internet providers "pull the plug on these people" who create forums and websites designed for illegal downloads.

Peter Jamieson, BPI chairman said, "it is unacceptable for ISPs to turn a blind eye to industrial-scale copyright infringement" and it's time "to deal with a greater volume of cases more quickly and efficiently."

Some bloggers are like radical and extremist religious groups. They think they have a right and a privilege to do illegal things and infringe on the rights of others. Two words: THEY DON'T.

IN DUTCH

2006-06-06T12:28:00.000-07:00

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.

----

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."

The Big Question

2006-05-24T11:48:00.000-07:00

Mindlessly copying "ALL RIGHTS RESERVED" albums as fast as they can is what ruins it for all bloggers. Nobody knows who The Beatles are? Somebody has to put up every single one of their albums on a message board? That's not a share. That's a robbery. That's being too cheap and nasty to buy what can be bought.

The true music lover has one simple rule: "Would the person I'm talking about approve of what I posted?"

The Bottom Line is the Law

2006-04-12T14:54:00.000-07:00

The bottom line is this: an artist created a song. Copyrighted. It was manufactured by a company. All Rights Reserved.

Anyone who is offended by a blogger posting that work should do something about it.

1. Leave comments. Let the blogger know when something is not cool. Some of you have taken a protest to the street? Donated to a "radical" charity that fights injustice in any way they can? It's a little too easy to call someone a "fink" for being disgusted by a blogger abusing and using a performer's work for selfish reasons.

2. Report the link and file a complaint. Internet websites, especially Blogspot (owned by Google), Google itself, Ebay, Yahoo, Lycos, etc., have "Terms of Service" clauses and know that being on the Internet doesn't mean being above the law.

3. If you aren't the copyright owner, contact the record label, the star's website, or an organization such as RIAA. They may remove the link, or, if the blogger is truly evil, make sure the entire blog is taken down. At blogger, complaints go to:

Blogger Legal Support, DMCA complaints
1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy
Mountain View, CA 94043

Everyone from Eminem to Brian Wilson is against the lawless "sharing" of whole in print albums by the hundred on reckless blogs. The information is here:

www.musicunited.org/3_artists.html

The www.riaa.com site has similar remarks to make.

Bloggers should not expect artists or their employees to go through all the time and effort of politely contacting the blog, "proving" they are indeed the party being abused, and then gently request the item be removed. They also shouldn't have the nerve to deprive others of royalties and earnings and then ask for Paypal donations. They should BE the fans they pretend to be and blog responsibly.

That means to encourage people to buy the music. If the item is out of print, maybe the right thing to do is check if the album is an easy find at record stores or eBay or GEMM, and ask that fans support those in the record industry who have made it their job and their pleasure to rescue old vinyl from the trash, clean it, file it, and offer it at a fair market price.

Sharing music responsibly is the same as drinking responsibly. Otherwise you hurt innocent people.