what happens if SOPA passes?

and yes, the UK government signed up for it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement

ACTA is pretty scary

the ability to demand that ISPs shutdown websites for distributing software that can be used to play DRM protected media is almost cartoonishly villainous. that's like closing a hardware store because they sell stuff that can be used for burglary.

Except those tools can be used for many other purposes, most of the DRM breaking software I've seen is useless for anything else.

well I was thinking more about software that can play loads of different codecs, like VLC

eeyowch, i guess Holy Warbles was shut down by blogger. that blog basically just shared out of print world records from the 50s-60s, afaik.

wow. didn't occur to me, but as the tail gets longer and EVERYTHING is ascribed market value, companies are going to be aiming at more artistically minded and obscure bloggers who are doing good work. If spotify had any sense, they'd snap these guys up to become in-house content aggregator/editors

huh? when everything is ascribed market value obscure artistically minded bloggers will receive paychecks of 4 cents once a year.

eeyowch, i guess Holy Warbles was shut down by blogger. that blog basically just shared out of print world records from the 50s-60s, afaik.

― tylerw, Friday, January 27, 2012 11:31 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah, it's personal now IMO.

and seriously the amount of cash i've spent on records and artists i learned about through holy warbles and similar blogs blows my mind.

although ironically very little or none of that cash is going to major labels.

so it doesn't really hurt them or help one war or another. which is why i'm kind of o_O that it was taken down.

one waY or another

freudian slip? up against the wall mofos.

yeah i'd say that the main effect the rise of mp3 blogs had on my listening is opening my ears to a ridiculous amount of "world" music that i had no idea even existed five/six years ago. and i've spent a pretty penny on that stuff since.

Yeah internet music investigation led me directly to dub and roots and subsequent purchases of this music -- probably never would have gotten into to it through friends/recommendations.

But I assume the RIAJ (lol) doesn't have any beef with me so that's not really relevant, unfortunately.

haha I just looked up the RIAJ and its real but its for Japan not Jamaica. booo!

I'm fairly certain that RIAA genuienly believe that downloading any music at all robs them of sales. As if you weren't able to download Iranian pop from the 70s, you'd simply have no other choice but to stroll down to Best Buy and spend all of your money on major label stuff.

pretty good writeup of sopa / indie labels at pfork: http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/8763-shades-of-gray-anti-piracy-legislation-and-independent-labels/

i'd be interested to know what kind of traffic a site like holy warbles gets (got), how many actual albums were downloaded etc. over at my site, it's a surprise if a bootleg i post gets more than a 100 downloads (and that's kind of what I'm comfortable with). are some of these mp3 blogs sharing ultra-rare stuff really seeing tons of visitors? it's a pretty niche audience.

and seriously the amount of cash i've spent on records and artists i learned about through holy warbles and similar blogs blows my mind.

although ironically very little or none of that cash is going to major labels.

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Friday, January 27, 2012 8:57 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this first point gets made a lot, the second point not as much, but to the major labels they are both exactly the same point and it's why they are fighting

the majors work not by providing variety but by locking down the monoculture. they make more money by selling 1 to 50 million copies of one album than by selling 200 to 10,000 copies of 5000 records. when one record gets really big, that's when the deals for lunch boxes and vitamin water take off. the internet proliferates individual tastes to such a point that it becomes impossible to keep those other profit margins going. a blog posting high quality fringe music like holy warbles is the enemy; it's lost money.

so those billboard charts showing how the top selling albums sell a tenth of what they used to -- they aren't showing overall sales, which I know are also down, but it's not the fearsome case the MPAA / RIAA is making to senators. the fight is for something more important than sales, it is for control over our tastes

the fight is for something more important than sales, it is for control over our tastes

― Milton Parker, Friday, January 27, 2012 4:56 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^^this is basically the argument i was trying to make upthread about hollywood blockbusters. yeah sure most ppl want to see Things Exploding II, but some people want to see fringe (and inexpensive to produce) films that, within the current distribution system, would not even make it to theaters.

question for lawyers/ppl that know: how does copyright law apply to used media? if i buy an old record at a garage sale, none of that is going to the artist or the label. is that ok simply because whoever sold it is now bereft of the record? what if they had made a cassette copy (for "personal use")?

i'd be interested to know what kind of traffic a site like holy warbles gets (got), how many actual albums were downloaded etc. over at my site, it's a surprise if a bootleg i post gets more than a 100 downloads (and that's kind of what I'm comfortable with). are some of these mp3 blogs sharing ultra-rare stuff really seeing tons of visitors? it's a pretty niche audience.

― tylerw, Friday, January 27, 2012 2:55 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

my blog also deals in oop/obscure music and my top DL is almost 1000, but that's over years of time.

gbx: you're pretty much buying a licence to the music, and if you sell it you're selling the licence. That's consistent across most developed countries I think.

tbh i think i've proceeded on the fantasy that all the blogs/torrent sites offering FREE! COPIES! OF! NEW! ADELE! ALBUM! were going to get shut down, but the parts of the interwebs that helped me access, say, congolese music from the 1950s or some obscure soviet silent film with custom subtitles would be left alone. but that's probably a fantasy. and i guess it just points up my shortsightedness that this stuff is only now starting to anger me. interwebs RIP 2012?

i mean some of those torrent sites have been incredibly professionally helpful to me.

Why are you downloading Congolese music? You should be at Best Buy, they have a World Music section you know.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519%2BJcgNEvL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

music from all over the world!

ha i actually went into a best buy a few weeks ago to get an ethernet cable and wandered over to the "music section" (i use that term lightly, it was slightly smaller than my bedroom). they had a few racks of "rock/pop" and about half a rack of "other," which included maybe 20-30 "world music" CDs, all of them atrocious. very dispiriting. the dvd/blu-ray section was still reasonably robust.

by "reasonably robust" i mean: they had a bunch of criterions, at least. so you can buy seijun suzuki at a best buy, for now anyway.

i think they have this one

http://image.lyricspond.com/image/a/artist-andrea-bocelli/album-the-best-of-andrea-bocelli-vivere/cd-cover.jpg

that's some well-groomed stubble.

http://i.imgur.com/YderI.jpg

xxxposts Best Buy's selection was never the best, but they've thinned it out over the last few years to where it's extremely streamlined and contains fewer releases by fewer artists. in most cases, they carry just the last 1-2 releases by an artist.

they care more about sales to digital products (legit ones like Napster etc)

when I worked there, their rap section was way better, unfortunately at a time when I was in my rap-rockism phase :/

Yeah, what I do kind of miss about some of the Best Buys is that it seemed like store to store there was a noticeable difference in who was doing the buying/ordering. I mean, I used to work near a Best Buy that always carried a pretty impressive selection of metal for a big-box chain store, you could reliably find anything on Relapse, Candlelight, Peaceville, Metal Blade, and not just the big profile releases. Of course, its now just like all the rest and an aisle and a half of top 40 and whatever the most recent release is and greatest hits collection for legacy artists.

in the mid-90s best buy had a music selection to rival any of the indie stores I went to. i can remember it being the only place i could find uncle tupelo's albums early albums circa 1994.

yeah, that's true -- one more reason it was dispiriting to see what was left of their music section.

in the 90s best buy used CDs as loss leaders and they were, for a time anyway, priced very cheap. i remember when those byrds reissues came out in 96/97 and i got them all for like $5.99-$6.99 ea.

some time around the turn of the century, the prices began to shoot back up.

in the mid-90s best buy had a music selection to rival any of the indie stores I went to.

^ this. I bought a bunch of Sun Ra CDs at Best Buy in 1995. These days, you're lucky to find an ineptly-chosen Coltrane compilation.

Jump Aboard the Jazz Train!
Music for Good Times by Classic Musician Jon Coltrain

best buy will not exist in 5 years fwiw

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/mega-man-the-bizarre-rise-and-sudden-downfall-of-kim-dotcom.ars

Woke up to a bunch of copyright infringement notices on my youtube account, for a pair of 30-second clips of super rare Japanese music videos I've never seen in full. I had to sit through a pretty condescending video called 'Copyright School' where this cartoon is filming a movie with his iphone, then filming his friend's band, then performing a cover song of his friend's band, all of which are no-nos.

I deleted all my videos that feature major label music, but I'm pretty nervous, cos I have a conceptual cover band and it looks like I might have to remove those videos too. I haven't taken them down yet because they really are vastly different from the original songs and I was under the impression cover recordings are still OK on youtube. Not the case anymore?

The shitty thing is all that rare Japanese stuff (live & promotional videos by Cornelius, Takako Minekawa, Pate, Kahimi Karie) is completely unavailable in any commercial form in the good old U.S.A. And of course I haven't made any money off it.

Wow, thats crazy Adam.

I guess a good tip for now is don't label anything "Space Shower TV".

I had to sit through a pretty condescending video called 'Copyright School' where this cartoon is filming a movie with his iphone, then filming his friend's band, then performing a cover song of his friend's band, all of which are no-nos.

wait, really? I mean I get the first one but the second two, huh? (I guess if the friend's band was signed to a major, but this is why majors suck)

pretty nuts about the youtube stuff, adam. is youtube changing its policy or do you think the copyright holder actually reported your videos? isn't that what has to happen for youtube to remove stuff, or am i mistaken.

Yeah it was probably the copyright holders, but now if I get a single notification my account will be removed completely. I'm not saying that stuff wasn't infringing, but yeah I guess I need to go to Best Buy and purchase those Cornelius World Tour 1995/Takako Minekawa Live at NHK 1997/rare Trattoria videos DVD compilations.

They didn't really mention major labels at all, but I think it's implied, cos they are the ones who would issue a takedown.

The Copyright School page had a test of 8 questions on the right that I had to answer correctly. One was "Which of the following is not covered by copyright law: Music, Films, People, TV shows"

Mostly I'm worried about my remixes and stuff. They went into Fair Use but at that point they put up this legal definition that was comically too big and confusing for the poor cartoon character that got his start by bootlegging theater movies.

it's crazy. if youtube took down everything that had copyright violations they'd have like 100 videos left.

all of those videos would be "Chocolate Rain" and "Charlie Bit My Finger"

the whole "copyright school" thing sounds like something from the Simpsons!