The problem with BidoLito! is that I pick one up at the beginning of the month, then carry it around for three weeks before I get a proper chance to read it. I’m not very good at reading things when they’re on paper, they take up too much space for too long and end up getting left at home and just sit there while I read everything else on my phone. But it’s important to keep some remnants of physical media alive, especially on the altside since we’re the ones all rushing to the web because it’s cheaper. Some people prefer having a product to hold in their hands, so hat’s off to them.
But ANYWAY! They writ an article about Forest Swords who makes electronic music, lists himself as Dub/Grime/Soul. I’m not so good at the genre thing but it sounds about right. I just wanted to quote this paragraph because I like it. I’m all about the download era so it’s nice to see some people on my side of the equilibrium of understanding.
With the popularity of Forest Swords being a direct product of the download era of music, I am keen to get his thoughts on the issue, especially on the difficulty in artists making money these days. He states that developments have “levelled the playing field” somewhat, in that everyone can get their music out there and whilst he may not now be able to make amounts of money which he can live off through music, the converse of that issue is that he would never have been discovered in the first place without the internet. As he is looking to release a new album in the Spring, which he excitedly added he is “talking to some bigger labels” over, this issue is set to affect him yet again. And yet, there is no bitterness over it hurting his paycheque, as he confesses he understands both sides of the argument (I think that means he’s downloaded before…).
I run into this question a lot trying to tell people about my project. They say ‘How are you going to make money out of it?’ I have thought about how to make money out of it. Sort of, I am a netizen, I’ve grown up online. The general idea that I have is that if I can be awesome enough the internet will pay me. I’m sure it sounds stupid but it works! I just don’t see it particularly as a money-making venture. It’s not my first priority to make money, I’d rather just connect bands to fans and fans to bands. If money comes out of it then so be it. I’m not very good at explaining internet “philosophy” if you’d like to call it that, which you might think is really bad, you’d think that if I really want to get anywhere I should understand the basis of my own project. It’s not that I don’t understand it, I just have trouble explaining it, and the thing about explaining it into the future is even more difficult because it all depends so much on what other people want, and how they chose to operate in the digital arena.
The next page has an article about Payper Tiger Records. I’ll quote a few bits from it because a lot of people I speak to have never heard of the concepts or ideas I’m talking about, but there are plenty of other people out there doing it. I didn’t make up the entire thing myself, I just put together bits from other people around the net, building on the shoulders of giants, which is essentially what we all do. It’s called progress.
“The time we’re in now with people voicing their opinions and daring to stand up, things like Julian Lestrange’s [sic] WikiLeaks and the rioting in London over the government’s decisions, the next couple of years are going to be mad,” states Ash Hopkins. “People are finally beginning to realise that they need to take control of their own lives. It feels like for the past however many years, people have been neglecting the fact that you need to manage yourselves, not leaving it to someone else.” It’s this acknowledgement of self-management and the belief in a better place in which to exist, by Ash Hopkins and Rich Metcalf, that provides the foundation for their independent label PAYPER TIGER RECORDS.
We sat down with the founding force in a dimly lit corner of an open-fire-warmed pub, comforted by the idea of music without boardrooms, demographics and financial obligations. This label that comes from the bottom of hte heart. Step inside.
If people get self-organised and build their own communities then you can build your own world,” said Ash. Payper Tiger and these lofty views are not two separate things, they’re on and the same – Ash and Rich’s means of taking control of their lives and offering a choice to music fans in Liverpool, for now, and eventually elsewhere. This is an indie label with inspiring aspirations. “In the music industry there’s a lot of people who want to jump through hoops, so we just wanted to create something that was our own, where we had control over our own things,” they explain.
And lastly for a few lols The Stool Pigeon had a nice little summation of the recent debacle with ACS:Law and MediaCat.
Crossley Examination
Send me another letter and I will blow up your house.
Back to the dark side now and a story that has everything – a Bond-style villain, porn, cyber terrorsm and mass civil disobedience. I’m referring to the ACS:Law ‘speculative invoicing’ saga that ended recently with the boss of bent solicitors firm ACS:Law, Andrew Crossley, dropping all cases and fearing for his life.
In a nutshell, Crossley worked out that he could turn a juicy profit – perfectly legally – by demanding a settlement from people who had illegally downloaded copyrights material. Their other option? Court. Sensible businesses, like most records labels, gave up this method of achieving compensations for file-sharing ages ago – it doesn’t solve the grander issue of piracy, of course, and it’s terrible PR.
So, Crossley was mostly left with pornographers as clients, which turned out to be pretty good for business. A lot of people (about one in five, as it happens) will quickly write a cheque for £400 – whether they’re guilty of the claim or not – if it means they’ll never be sent another letter concerning Freddie’s British Granny Fuck (actual title!)
Many, however, won’t – including one man who emailed Crossley the following: “If you send me another fucking letter, I will rape your mum against the wall, and I will blow up your house and kill you all in a terrorist attack.”
And how do we know that message was sent? Because the pro-file-sharing Anonymous/4Chan “hacktivist” dudes smashed ACS:Law’s website to pieces – twice – then put a whole load of very private information online. In doing so, they created the greatest data protection leak in British internet history.
A story of our times, people! Read more on page 27!
Most people I’ve spoken to haven’t heard anything about this, so you can catch up on this absolute disgrace to law and ethics with the following articles.
Any articles here: http://arstechnica.com/search/#acs%3Alaw
But maybe especially this one: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/12/acs-law-takes-p2p-users-to-court-fails-miserably.ars
EFF has been involved in a string of mass sueings in the USA. Their legal team have had a number of cases overturned because the plaintiffs are mass filing for subpoenas for anonymous people with no knowledge of where these people live, therefore they don’t even know that they’re submitting their complaints to the right court. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/02/over-40-000-does-dismissed-copyright-troll-cases
http://www.technollama.co.uk/acslaw-when-bad-things-happen-to-bad-people
http://www.broadbandgenie.co.uk/news/20100925-acslaw-hit-by-email-leak
http://www.itpro.co.uk/630850/judge-rules-acs-law-cases-to-continue
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12253746
I think I’ll now go email this Forest Swords and Payper Tiger Records peoples just to tell them how awesome they are. *nod*
