Monday 9 November 2009

3 Strike Madness

I'm sure if you keep up with the news in any way you're heard of the new three strikes copyright law. This is where if you are caught filesharing (or rather if an IP address linked to you is accused of filesharing) you are given three two chances, then your bandwidth is capped, essentially cutting you off from any bandwidth intensive activities.
The first thing that springs to mind from that, assuming that it is in any way possible, is that this will not stop people file-sharing, as it will just take longer to download stuff. What it will hurt is streaming, video and audio on demand. That is the stuff that is generally legal, it's going to mean that if you get caught downloading music or TV, you then can't move to a legal alternative such as Spotify or SkyPlayer. This isn't just a problem for the ex-filesharers, its a problem for the companies trying to forge new business models, and as an extension, its bad for you, the people who want to use these new legal alternatives.
I shan't talk too much about how impossible it is to track down and prove that you have accurately tracked down someone who is in breach of copyright, because there are a million and one people better mentally equipped to talk about that, but I will talk about what really makes me angry which is a sentence completely ridiculous compared to the crime being committed.
Cutting off someone's internet because they download content illegally over the internet is like cutting off someone's electricity for the same reason. This becomes even more relevant when you consider that the Constitutional Council of France has recently referred to the internet as a fundamental human right.
To remove someone from the rest of the world for committing a crime is a bizarre punishment, The reason I suspect France considers the internet such an important utility in the modern world, is that it is difficult to do business without it these days. And is alienating people from the job market a good way to ensure that they pay for media?
Never mind all the evidence which shows that file-sharers are the entertainment industry's best customers. Or the fact that that the film industry had a record breaking year last year. Or the fact that an awful lot of filesharing happens because things are not available, not because the filesharers refuse to pay for them. Lets just scare everyone into behaving. They'll like that. That'll make them want to fork over your ridiculous prices. Fuck you Peter Mandelson. If there's a party with the balls to oppose this, I'll vote for them at the next election. Yes even if that party is the Conservatives.

Thursday 5 November 2009

It's Been a While

It's been a pretty long while since I wrote anything on this, which is a shame as I've been pretty super busy. Since I've last written I've gone back to uni for my final year which is getting pretty hectic now, but lots of exciting projects coming up. I've also gone back to work at Bucks Student Union as one of their in house engineers, which is pretty fun.
So far as projects go, I've got a big studio project coming up. My group is still going through the tail end of the A+R section of it, but I'm pretty enthused about working with Darwin and the Dinosaur. I got introduced to them by my good friend Sunny from In An Emergency Dial. They're basically pop-punk, but that I enjoy somehow. Anyone who's spoken to me about music for any length of time about music will know that I'm not a lover of most pop-punk, I guess I just don't get it, something to do with whiny American voices and simplistic song structures. Probably a direct result of me spending most of my late high school/college years listening almost exclusively to prog-rock.

But I love these guys, and I'm really enthusiastic about working with them, especially as they seem so dead on and professional. Anyway, go to their MySpace and check out the cheerfully titled "And Hope To Die" and I'll keep you all posted on how the recording goes.

I've got an excuse (as if I needed one) to re-do my website again, I'd link you to the old one but it's pretty god-awful, as I need to write an essay and a presentation on marketing something for my Applied Content Distribution class, I figure I may as well do it on the wishy washy topic of marketing myself as an audio engineer. So that should be coming along in the next few months as a hub for all of my online presence that's currently scattered all over the interwebs.

Work's going pretty great. Scott and I have now officially taken over as the in house audio engineers. It's lots of work, lots of fun, and I'm lots of grateful for this opportunity. We've already had some truly awesome bands, artists, and comedy come to the venue, including Lethal Bizzle, Dinosaur Pile Up, Bleach, The Pharaohs, Kid British, Little Boots, Pulled Apart By Horses, Chew Lips, Ou Est Le Swimming Pool, Master Shortie, Ebony Bones, King Blues and Flamboyant Bella to name but a few.

Last night was a fantastic night, unfortunately left virtually punterless due to Guy Fawkes night. The openers Wojtek Godzisz were awesome, totally the kind of music I've always been utterly in love with since high school. It was a mixture of grungy sounds and more progressive arrangements and they were an utter joy to work with. I'd never listened to them except for a brief checking out session before the gig, but I would thoroughly recommend people check them out if they come to a venue near you. The Bookhouse Boys headlined and were also pretty spectacular. I've always had a thing for trumpets and weird instruments, and this was my first encounter of an omnichord. There were two lead singers, a woman and a man, the man sounded an awful lot like Nick Cave, and the woman reminded me of Beth Gibbons (of Portishead fame). They sounded pretty spectacular and I would thoroughly advise anyone who is into that kind of americana/folk-rock to check them out.

Stuff has calmed down a lot now, schedule wise and I'm gonna keep updating my blog more often, at least weekly, at least until stuff gets hectic.