Online Piracy vs. censorship

[David Schwab]

Great lecture! I had no idea where that beat came from.

This is ironic. My son was listening to something the last night that had one of those Drum and Bass/Jungle break beats in it. That made me think of this demo track I recorded in 1997:

Song2

Does the drum loop sound familiar? It was one of the first total computer based recordings I had done using DECK II on my PowerMac. All the instruments are real except the drum loop. I got it from a sample CD.

It was also used in the video game Bomberman Hero. Except it's not a ample from the actual recording.

Radial from Bomberman Hero

[David Schwab]

Actually, it's about control. Production costs have fallen so drastically that any small group of capable people can produce and distribute an album/video/movie/book independently without using MPAA/RIAA/big publishing. Historically used to overcharging for product and seeing their entitlement threatened, they want to put barriers in place to maintain their oligopoly.

When you understand that total cost of production for an music CD is under $10,000 when you buy off-the-shelf hardware, perform in the garage, record in the adjacent bathroom, and mix down at leisure in the office or on a coffee table, then you understand that you don't need Sony. This describes Jennifer Batten's 2002 Momentum CD as best I can remember.

SOPA and PIP are the ragings of giants as they wither into irrelevance.

Add to that overcharging for product and not paying the artist.

Oh I'm aware of the situation. You don't need record labels anymore. I have a whole recording studio right here in the corner of my living room along with this iMac I'm typing on. I can sit here and produce professional recordings all by myself. If I wanted to I could sell the tracks online, or even have them pressed into CDs.

The example I posted above is a bit crude sounding, but it was done 15 years ago and with the built in audio interface on the Mac clone I was using at the time. Now I have a digital audio mixer right here, so from the moment I plug into the mixer the entire audio stream is digital all the way to mixdown. To do that 15-20 years ago was a more expensive and complicated proposition.

I'd also like to add that I am the holder of about a dozen music copyrights from various bands I had been in the last 30 years.

[big_teee]

Some sites go Dark tonight in protest.
T
**Change that to be today.

[Steve Conner]

How did the Amen break get into this?!

When I was producing electronic music, it had already been so heavily used that it was cliched and I avoided it like the plague. I wonder if the drummer who played it ever saw any royalties.

You can download more of the popular jungle breaks here. Jungle Breaks: D'n'B/Jungle Breaks Load into your sampler, speed up a bit and relive the 90s.

[Mike Sulzer]

Look for the motivations

For example, under SOPA, it would be illegal for search sights to even list links to sites that the Attorney General declared to be in violation of SOPA. The apparent motivations for this are commercial --prevent piracy by restricting knowledge about these sites, certainly a first amendment violation-- but the practical implications are fundamental. It is very much as if a law had been passed in the 1950's banning the listing of books about Marxism in library catalogs because of some supposed copyright conflict. It is a short distance from commercial to political because large companies exert a huge influence in government. One will find that the sites of dissident groups in foreign countries are seen in the US only if the US government supports these groups. Remember, the difference between terrorist and freedom fighter can be very much in the eye of the beholder in some cases.

If the AG declares a site in violation of SOPA, who would have the right to fight that? I believe that it is the site itself only. Very few sites in foreign countries, banned for political reasons, are going to be able to do that. Remember how the legal issue of "standing" is used. For example, efforts to fight government monitoring of communication by US citizens are hampered by the fact that no one can show that they are harmed, primarily because all consequences of such monitoring are secret for national security reasons.

How long do you think it will be before a supposed copyright violation in a news story by that well known Arab news agency results in it being banned in the US? You may disagree with its editorial positions, but should it be banned?

[David Schwab]

How did the Amen break get into this?!

Probably because recently laws were past so if you use even a few seconds of a song you have to pay royalties.

The people behind this SOPA and PIPA thing are the same people complaining about sampling. Interestingly, 2011 marked a highest point in music sales since the late 60s! So the whole argument about them loosing money to piracy is not true.

When I was producing electronic music, it had already been so heavily used that it was cliched and I avoided it like the plague.

Amen to that! lol Yeah, it's still being used too. Maybe it's a nostalgia thing now? There are clichés in every genre of music.

I wonder if the drummer who played it ever saw any royalties.

No he didn't and neither did the song writer. The song writer has stated that he thinks it's plagiarism, but he also thinks sampling should not be stopped.

[J M Fahey]

As a parallel example, and very much related in its meaning, Nazi Germany was a full member of Interpol (late 30´s, before WW2 started), it was a sovereign Country with duly elected Government, after all.
Not only that, but the "head office" location was rotative (as today is the European Parliament head and in similar International Organizations) and for some time it was in (then Nazi) Austria.
All Gestapo had to do to find exiled dissidents or "State Enemies" outside its own Countries was to pin some "regular" crime accusation (theft/check forgery/whatever) on their heads and use the full Interpol resources to hunt them all over the World.
Scary.
It happens even today: just remember Wikileak's founder accusation of "sex with a sleepy partner" to justify his extradition to a Country which in due time will extradite him to USA (which English Law does not allow).

So, compared to this, pinning a "copyrights violation" to a site, even if still unproven, will kill them.
Best case , they would have to fight in Court the Industry Monsters: impossible !!!!

[big_teee]

If you are against this regulation, you can contact your Congressman.
Here's a link to sign a petition against the new laws trying to be passed.
https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/
T

**
You can sign the petition, and all that is required is your email address, and your Zip code.

[David King]

I got to say I was a little surprised to see Senator Leahy (D-VT) as a chief sponsor in the Senate. He's a pretty smart fellow generally and not one to fall for evil plots by dastardly mega business but we can surmise that our entertainment industry has been lobbying hard all around on this.
The senate's bill ain't going nowhere because of a filibuster by Wyden (D-OR) and Obama swears he's going to veto anything that hits his desk if it doesn't pass the smell test.

[big_teee]

Just Saw this.
PIPA support collapses, with 13 new Senators opposed
T

[David Schwab]

Hmmmm. Thought I posted this last night.

This is funny.

Lamar Smith: SOPA Author, Copyright Violator - New York News - Runnin' Scared

[Mark Hammer]

At least part of the problem with this sort of legislation is that there are a great many people with very different sorts of vested interest in it, and they are all forced through the same internet meatgrinder. What a designer wants out of it is different in many ways than what a book publisher, or a film studio, or a recording act, or a scholarly writer, wants out of it.

If you ask me, it's a pretty tall order to try and come up with something that works equally well for all of them.

[Ward]

I can't see any of that pic in the background image. No freakin way. Have a look.

[Jason Hitsquad]

GoDaddy reversed its public support of SOPA only after 31000 domains fled it, but the policy defects are unchanged.

GoDaddy's practice is to delist any domain at the first complaint, irrespective of the complaint's merit, and without notifying the domain owner.

That is to say that what SOPA would codify in bad law is already common business practice: no due process and no recourse.

Bon appetit.

Their SOPA support was the last straw for me - they deleted a friend of mine's domain after someone else used his site to link to copyright violating material, then Bob Parsons proudly posted a video of himself killing an elephant, then SOPA. I moved to namecheap instead.

I think the best was to stop pirates - who have stolen content from my site - is for business and government to cooperate in cutting off their money supplies, not to censor them. If they have no financial incentive then they'll give up.

[David Schwab]

At least part of the problem with this sort of legislation is that there are a great many people with very different sorts of vested interest in it, and they are all forced through the same internet meatgrinder. What a designer wants out of it is different in many ways than what a book publisher, or a film studio, or a recording act, or a scholarly writer, wants out of it.

If you ask me, it's a pretty tall order to try and come up with something that works equally well for all of them.

The two main groups complaining are the MPAA, and the RIAA. Both of these organizations are corrupt and have been shown to be dishonest about many things.