IRMA and The Media Industries unwillingness to change…..

As it is evident to most people file sharing and illegal downloading are not going to go away. The only thing that can be done is to minimise it by providing an alternative service that can compete with it. However the media industry refuses to acknowledge this and try and develop a new business model to compete with it. One of the biggest displays of ignorance was IRMA forcing Eircom to block the Pirate Bay website. It is the most pointless thing I’d ever heard of and I am extremely annoyed at Eircom for allowing it to happen. I hope to address two points in this post the being why it was pointless for the IRMA to request a block on just the pirate bay. and the second is why I am so annoyed at Eircom for allowing it to happen.

The reason that this block is so pointless is the same way that the napster situation in the late nineties early noughties was. unless every ISP agrees to block every site suspected of facilitating copyright infringement then banning just one or a selection of these sites is pointless. People are just going to switch to another site or service. Listening to an interview with an IRMA representative on the radio a few weeks ago it came across to me as though he genuinely believed that illegal downloading by Eircom customers was genuinely going to be stopped by this ban.

I don’t think that these people realise how the internet works, it goes beyond one I.P address, URL or set of servers. The pirate bay could very easily just copy everything across to a new set of servers with a new name and then the IRMA would be back to square one. It really is mind boggling. Being a child of the internet generation so to speak I am amazed at the fear of change exhibited by the big media companies. Being honest I see record companies influence diluting in favour of artists direct marketing to fans through services such as MySpace, iTunes and Facebook. Record sales were falling before napster and any of this became a topical issue. There’s a lot that could be said about how the napster incident was handled on both sides and being honest I don’t know enough about the subject to comment one way or the other about what happened. iTunes was released a few months later which I suppose could be seen as a happy compromise. (I’m a fan of iTunes btw).

I suppose now would be a good time to move onto my second point. I can’t understand why Eircom would allow this to happen. As an ISP (Internet Service Provider) they shouldn’t be censoring anything. It is not the duty of the ISP to filter content. What’s worse about this is that it has set a precedent now in Irish law. It is a bad precedent since it was all decided before it went before the court. The fact that it was stated in the Judges comments at the end of the trial maybe a saving grace for ISP’s that do not back down from the record companies. UPC and Esat BT have stated that they will not follow in Eircom’s foot steps. There is no legal condition in this country to force ISP’s to monitor their customers usage of broadband services. What it really boils down to is that Eircom backed down when threatened with legal action. Hopefully UPC and Esat BT which are larger companies and owned in turn by bigger multinationals will not.

Published in: on October 7, 2009 at 3:16 pm Leave a Comment
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Published in: on September 10, 2009 at 12:27 am Enter your password to view comments

The Viacom/Youtube Fiasco

Some of you may have read about the court ruling in the US, that ruled that Google must hand over its entire user log to Viacom as part of a copyright infringement lawsuit Viacom have filed. The logs are massive, 4 TeraBytes (over 4000 GigaBytes) worth of users and their viewing history on YouTube. This has annoyed me for several reasons, firstly what has this to do with their current lawsuit? Secondly Are there any conditions attached to this data? and lastly and perphaps most importantly Is this not a blatant breach of people privacy rites and whatever personal (if any!) the United States provides for its citizens?

Some justification for my first point maybe that they are only going to use this information to find out how much of their copyrighted material is available in YouTube and how many times it has been viewed. But can a private company whose sole purpose is to make money and increase profits really just ignore all that information that can be used for Marketing? Imagine it, one of the biggest entertainment companies in the world with access to millions of peoples personal details and viewing preferences. We could see a wave of spam and targeted marketing that nobody signed up for. What’s more if there are no conditions attached to the data, what is to stop Viacom selling the lists to spammers. I don’t believe that this is simply about the court case and an attempt by Viacom to gain access to a huge bank of data that SHOULD be kept confidential by Google.

There are various news reports that are quoting the various laws that this ruling may be infringing on. I’ll link to these at the end of the post.

But more worrying to me is that in recent times the US has become hypocritical and seem to have reverted to the dreaded McCarthyism of the 50’s and the cold war. Recently I found out that the Irish government have given the US government to carry acts of rendition on IRISH citizens that they believe have broken US law and allow them to take them out of the country without going near a court or the Irish judicial system. Also the US government is negotiating with the EU to make this “privilege” Europe wide.

America is after doing a 180 on its views. After the long staunch against communism and steel resolve for the freedom of expression and speech. It seems that American citizens must now be careful about what they say and think in public. Michael Moore’s films while they should be viewed with a pinch of salt do present a somewhat accurate account of what has been happening in American politics and law making in recent years.

But alas Europe is not much better, given the blatant bitch slap given to democracy and due process recently with Ireland’s rejection of the Lisbon Treaty. As soon as that NO vote was announced the treaty should have been dead in the water and abandoned. But no, at the EU in Brussels other member states were encouraged to continue and ratify the treaty. The country has voted NO and that should be it there should be no re vote. There needs to be a new treaty drafted and explained to the people in clear terms not with that farce of a leaflet they sent out.

Democracy which has been around since Ancient Greece, comes from to words Demo and Crate which mean power to the people. This seems to be failing lately as governments try and place more and more restrictions on their peoples. The words of V from the movie V for Vendetta ring especially clear to me lately.

There are of course those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn’t there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who’s to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you’re looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn’t be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the <Insert Relevant Government here>

And to finish another quote from V,

“People should not be afraid of their governments, Governments Should be afraid of their people”

Links to reports on the YouTube ruling.

BBC Reports

EFF.org Report

Published in: on July 3, 2008 at 8:53 pm Comments (1)
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DAMN YOU LOGIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Does Destiny/Fate “exist”?

While I like the idea that there is a path layed out before me, bearing my life towards some sort of conclusion ( I’m hoping for a fireball in a very expensive car while being chased by Ninjas). The logical part of my brain which thankfully stays quiet most of the time won’t let this one lie. Although this may make sound like a schizophrenic its happens to be true, I have actually argued with myself over whether or not destiny/fate exists. And sadly the logical side has won…….for the time being

No point to this…just thought i should have something new Agey up……

Published in: on September 19, 2007 at 11:19 pm Leave a Comment

Music

While nearly everywhere you hear how Apple have revolutionised how music is listened to and collected. And yes this is true I’m going to make a presumption here that most people who are reading this have an i-pod/mp3 player (Including phones).

iTunes provides most of the music anyone could ever want and on the US version you are even able to buy tv shows for as little as $2. It truly has revolutionised the consumer side of the music industry, has it depreciated the actual music?

If you listen to the previous generation listening to music was a big thing. Putting on a record when the house was quiet. Just listening to the album. When was the last time anyone from the ipod generation just sat and listened to what was on his/her ipod without doing anything else. Probably never. I’m as guilty of this as anybody else, whether its at the gym, walking, car trips or just reading. The music seems to have slowly being degraded to nothing more than background noise.

The Ipod is not totally to blame, most people will say that they don’t have time to listen to music there lives are too busy. With work, socialising going to the gym etc. but those aren’t real reasons, just excuses to cover up the fact that music doesn’t have the same effect it used to.

Sadly Eminem was the last person to have any sort of impact with his music. Among the homosexual communtities of the US. But was it really? If you look back at rock stars, like Jimmy Page and the Sex Pistols their lives were controversy not just their two songs on one album and there were no attempts to apologise with public displays to try and quiet the masses. It was simply this is me…..accept it or F*&k off.

To a large degree thats what all artists should be like. Music isn’t a 9 to 5 job with stock options and a good basic salary. Its a life style, all the people who are in the music buisness are there because they love it.

To quote James Hetfield of Metallica at Download in Dublin in 2006
“This next song goes out to every band who had played here, because they bring a smile to you and make our hearts sing with music, which is why I’m here”

It seems a common miss perception that the music industry is a way to get rich quick. Theres a reason that its called the hardest industry in the world. Because there are no guarantees, if you are a quailified doctor you can pretty much be guarateed a job.

But for the music industry, you need to have talent, the look and an audience willing to pay to hear you. Even if you have all those there is no guaratees that you’ll even get to cut a record let alone have a house on cribs.

But is it worth it?

yes

Published in: on September 8, 2007 at 1:53 pm Leave a Comment

Why I now severly dislike the Sopranos

To start with i was never a fan of the soprano’s….in fact i’ve never watched an episode. But ever since the last one i find myselof cursing the show at least 4000 times a day (Exaggerated for dramatic effect)….Would you like to know why?

Well since you’re reading this I’m going to presume you do. I happen to be a huge music fan and what the soprano’s did is inexcusable in my eyes. They brought back a genre I’d hoped dead. 80’s Power-Ballad pop. Most people heard the first few seconds of Journey’s Don’t stop Believin’ wondering what the song was. Some “clever” DJ/researcher thought it would be a great laugh to play the song and tell everyone what it was from and who it was. Since then any request show has played it at least twice, plus the other DJ’s who just play it. (for reasons unknown)

Now I’m not a miserable old coot who resents popular culture or the retro side of things. And okay it has in some way relaunched Journey, they were top of the download charts on iTunes after the show.

What concerns me is that the whole 80’s power pop ballad genre could be resurrected. The flood gates could open to the proverbial uncle/dad’s embarrassing record collection. The airwaves will be jammed with Europe’s The Final Countdown, Van Halen’s Jump and who knows what else will come off the bargain shelf at HMV/Virgin.

One thing that is important to remember is that these songs were popular already…..and presumably there is a reason why they weren’t up until the Soprano’s played it.

Luckily for me since the summer is over, so are my radio listening days for a long time………

Hopefully

BTW this is just my opinion……

Published in: on at 12:41 pm Leave a Comment