In the 1980s, songwriter, artist and cultural critic
Momus recorded a number of albums for the legendary indie label Creation Records, combining influences as diverse as Jacques Brel, Serge Gainsbourg, Pet Shop Boys-style synthpop and Balearic acid-house. These have largely languished in Sony Music's vaults over the past few years, occasionally fetching hefty prices on eBay. Now, Momus has taken the step to commit auto-piracy and release his Creation albums online, for free; over December, he will post MP3s of all six albums to
his LiveJournal blog, each with freshly written liner notes. The first one, 1987's
The Poison Boyfriend, is
here.
[more inside]
posted by acb
on Dec 9, 2008 -
15 comments
Does copyright extend to the bit encoding sequences used in P2P applications? A case is made for the myriad paths bit encoding can take in the formation of MP3 files, the argument being therefore that said bit encoding sequences used in the formation of MP3 files are exempt from copyright law. Furthermore an application is offered to demonstrate the point.
But isn't bit encoding just another 'language' like French, German, Spanish and therefore a copyrightable adjunct to the authors/copyright owners work? (Even if there are myriad dialects.)
posted by Muirwylde
on Mar 27, 2006 -
57 comments
Russian prosecutors have apparently
decided not to take any action against
Allofmp3.com (previously discussed
here) , a Russian website which offers copyrighted mp3's for sale.
The Moscow prosecutors reason is that Russian copyright laws only apply to physical media such as CD's tapes etc., not to digital media. If this decision is upeld, will it open the floodgates for others to start openly selling copyrighted material?
posted by bap98189
on Mar 8, 2005 -
25 comments
Finally, a Fair Fight with Big Music From a Business Week Online column...
"Telecom giant Verizon is battling the industry's bid to make it name a file-sharing subscriber. It's also defending your right to privacy. On July 24, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) made an unprecedented request of Verizon Communications (VZ). The music industry's trade association served the telecom with a subpoena, seeking the identity of a Verizon subscriber who had allegedly illegally traded digital songs by artists including Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, and "boy band" N'Sync. The RIAA didn't specify why it wanted to know who the user was or what it would do with the information."
posted by fpatrick
on Sep 12, 2002 -
22 comments
Dear Mr. Ashcroft: People who download copyrighted music files deserve jail time, and you should start prosecuting them.
Signed: Joe Biden, John Conyers, Dianne Feinstein...
posted by xowie
on Aug 10, 2002 -
54 comments
Did you hear Michael Greene's speech at the Grammys? At first it seemed like it was going to be just yet another recording industry weasel with an obligatory goatee congratulating himself on stage. But it quickly turned into a lesson on the harms of the illegal Internet downloads. "This illegal file-sharing and ripping of music files is pervasive, out of control and oh so criminal. Many of the nominees here tonight, especially the new, less-established artists, are in immediate danger of being marginalized out of our business. Ripping is stealing their livelihood one digital file at a time, leaving their musical dreams haplessly snared in this World Wide Web of theft and indifference," says Greene. Was this appeal-cum-address effective or appropriate? Were you more sympathetic to the RIAA or artists afterwards?
posted by emptyage
on Feb 27, 2002 -
78 comments
Copy protection for CDs does not have future says
Philips. Philips spokesperson Klaus Petri, speaking to Reuters, says its company counts on the fact that the refusal of consumers will convince the music industry to step back from copy-protected CD's. Petri said that Philips could sue the manufacturers of CD's with copy protection (as managers of the world-wide CD patents), because they would not correspond to the standards. "those are silver disks with music on them, but which do not resemble CD's". [via
Neowin.net]
posted by riffola
on Jan 9, 2002 -
16 comments
The War Against MP3? Hilary Rosen, everyone's favourite defender of record company hegemony, outlines her new strategy ("Help me help you.") in an email leaked to
FuckedCompany. Interestingly, it's aimed at beating the dastardly hackers at their own game, with tactics such as "Spoofing and/or interdiction methods for existing peer to peers". Signs of desparation on the part of the RIAA, or should people be making the most of the second-generation Napster clones while they have a chance?
posted by holgate
on Oct 3, 2001 -
34 comments
Anti-rip CD system bypassed. heh. nice try, boyos. i've never understood how people can believe something digitized can possibly be protected in such a manner as to be foolproof. what one process can scramble, another can undo. [via
/.]
posted by fuzzygeek
on Aug 1, 2001 -
5 comments
Ok... let me get this straight.
copyright.net has turned loose a tapeworm, called CopyrightAgent, that
crawls around on your computer without your permission, looking for copyrighted MP3 files. If it find them, it reports back your IP address, and they have Napster block you, if you're a Napster user. Otherwise, they contact your ISP, and have *them* block you under the DMCA.
And the first
I heard about this was a Knight-Ridder wire story in
my local paper?? Why the hell hasn't the Internet reacted by burning these people's offices (or uplink :-) to the ground?
posted by baylink
on Mar 3, 2001 -
20 comments
Napster takes first steps in trying to appease the RIAA, and specifically BMG. To me this approach is the stupidest thing Napster could have done. Who would want to pay a membership fee to use Napster if one can't even burn the files onto a cd?
posted by JFunk2800
on Feb 21, 2001 -
1 comment
Well now if I'd known
this I never would've signed up with them last summer. My three months are up anyway. Bad move,
emusic.
posted by aflakete
on Nov 22, 2000 -
8 comments
Do Leahy and Hatch actually read their email? Odds are you might get read by one of their assistants, but still I recommend you send a message in your own words as opposed to what mp3.com recommends. Whether you want changes to copyright legislation or not, let your voice be heard. It's just a click away. Also,
MP3 Goes To Washington contains some enlightening and thought-provoking material.
posted by ZachsMind
on Jul 14, 2000 -
3 comments
Love unloads This is one of the more comprehensive and insightful takes on the RIAA vs. Napster vs. Record Companies that I've heard. It's long and rambling, but it makes a lot of sense to me.
posted by y6y6y6
on Jun 14, 2000 -
35 comments