Langdell Still Claims Control Over The Word Edge; Sues EA For Mirror's Edge

Anti-Piracy Campaign Shows You 'Killing' Look Alike Pop Stars

from the that's-convincing dept

Tue, Jun 15th 2010 4:57pm — Mike Masnick

There have been some really ridiculous "anti-piracy" campaigns out there, but this one is really quite impressive. TorrentFreak has the details on a site, called FreemusicHK.com, that pretends to be a site for downloading unauthorized music. However, when you actually do go to download it, instead you get to play a little flash game where you get to "kill" look alike pop stars on the cover of their albums. Of course, the pop-stars aren't just lookalikes, but name-alikes, too. So, it's Any Winehouse, instead of Amy. It's Madownload, instead of Madonna. It's Biur, instead of Blur. Copy Play instead of ~~Cold Play~~ Moby's "Play" album... etc. If this really is some sort of anti-piracy campaign, they're doing it wrong. As multiple people are pointing out, they've made the whole thing so silly and ridiculous that's it's kind of fun to play. It's really quite incredible how tone deaf various "anti-piracy" campaigns have been to what consumers are actually thinking.

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Filed Under: anti-piracy, education campaign, propaganda

32 Comments

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Marcel de Jong (profile), 15 Jun 2010 @ 4:06pm

The problem is that the media companies don't seem to think that they are accountable to the customers, but only to their shareholders, who incidentally aren't the artists nor customers.
So they don't have to listen to the customers, in their (failed) logic.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Jun 2010 @ 5:09pm

"you get to play a little flash game where you get to "kill" look alike pop stars on the cover of their albums. Of course, the pop-stars aren't just lookalikes, but name-alikes, too."

Trademark infringement!
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Jun 2010 @ 5:09pm

Re:
The site is killing artists by infringing on their trademarks!!!
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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 15 Jun 2010 @ 5:16pm

Kill?
Did Fran Nevrkla design this game?
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Mayor Milobar (profile), 15 Jun 2010 @ 5:21pm

So let me get this straight...
They made a game that allows me to pretend to kill pop stars and it's supposed to show me why downloading music is wrong? So does that mean they are suggesting that illegally downloading her music is going to kill Amy Winehouse? I've never downloaded one of her songs before, but now I really want to.
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Jay (profile), 15 Jun 2010 @ 5:31pm

The link for the look alikes is a link to Robbie Earle being sacked about World Cup tickets...

Did someone sack the link?

Were any moose harmed?
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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 15 Jun 2010 @ 5:32pm

Re: So let me get this straight...
Killing pop stars gets you free music. What's so hard to understand?
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Jun 2010 @ 5:57pm

Re: Re: So let me get this straight...
Do we get more music if we make Headshots?
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Ccomp5950 (profile), 15 Jun 2010 @ 6:00pm

More and more the RIAA are starting to look like the terrorist organization known as PETA.

Wear fur? We throw paint or pig blood on you.

Copyright infringement is murder!

next we will see the RIAA stealing cars out of the drive ways of suspected copyright infringers.
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Hoeppner, 15 Jun 2010 @ 6:22pm

In before a tinfoil hat guy tries to convince everyone it's there to track IPs :D

The flash game doesn't play at all for me. Guess I'm .0something a version off for flash.
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NAMELESS ONE, 15 Jun 2010 @ 6:30pm

KILL eh?
so these artists are hooked upto massive electric shook beds and when i kill one it really dies

one can only hope the morons of the world realize that all you have to do is look what popular shows ALWAYS USE cops and fbi as heroes

im sick of that, its so far from the truth that its not funny any more.

and you do realize that tin foil hats actually enhance govt waves to your brain n thus control.....
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NAMELESS ONE, 15 Jun 2010 @ 6:31pm

P.S. stargate universe
I CHEERED when the politician bit it.....in first ep
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NAMELESS ONE, 15 Jun 2010 @ 6:33pm

@9
na it will be worse they will come and steal babies in middle of the night form suspected parents who are infringing

and maybe they will start just blowing up houses of infingers
cause they are terrorist plots against the motherland er hollywood er someone....
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Jun 2010 @ 6:39pm

I'd be willing to put money on this being a promotional gimmick for the magazine, rather than an actual anti-piracy campaign.

The idea of a *Chinese* music magazine starting an anti-piracy campaign in the first place is amusing enough as it is, but add on to that the fact that all the artists in that site are (supposed to be) western (white stripes, blur, gorillaz, madonna, amy winehouse etc...) sets off some weird signals in my head.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Jun 2010 @ 6:42pm

if it sounds too good to be true...
Does anyone think think it is that easy to get free music? No wonder phishing campaigns work so well.

This kind of stuff would not even be an issue if the music industry sold what people actually want to buy at a reasonable price.
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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 15 Jun 2010 @ 6:58pm

Re: Re: Re: So let me get this straight...
No, go for center of mass. Unless you like glam.
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Kevin (profile), 15 Jun 2010 @ 7:21pm

They should really make a game like this
I just killed a wanna be fake Madonna 5 times. The fact that they allow different weapons per star makes it even more entertaining.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Jun 2010 @ 7:22pm

Re: Re: Re: So let me get this straight...
They're heads are covered in plastic. Probably the bullet proof kind.

I'd say aim for the chests, but those are probably the silicone on the women will probably act as shielding.

Aiming for the stomach might work...but my aim isn't the greatest, and hitting things that thin has always been tough.

You know, this might be more difficult than I thought. We might need the big guns.
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Karl (profile), 15 Jun 2010 @ 7:23pm

Best game ever
"FINISH HIM!"
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Jun 2010 @ 7:37pm

Copy Play had more blood squirting after the guy fell.
I wonder what kind of viruses loaded on my computer while I played that flash game???????
Maybe TD and TF got played?
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AW, 15 Jun 2010 @ 8:01pm

Play is Moby's album not Cold Play...Moby would probably be pretty pissed to be used this way as he gave away music from his last album...Fact checking and the RIAA not so much.
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Brian (profile), 15 Jun 2010 @ 8:07pm

Re: if it sounds too good to be true...
What the hell are you talking about?!?! Giving customers what THEY want, nonsense! You sir are the downfall of the industry and your thoughts are currently costing them an estimated 342 TRILLION dollars a year! Music is all about the money and demanding that people pay you because you exist, nothing more. :D
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Pixelation, 15 Jun 2010 @ 9:28pm

RIAA lawyers
Perhaps the next version should have the RIAA lawyers. I might even pay to play that!
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Jun 2010 @ 10:32pm

Re: RIAA lawyers
That's Awesome!! if only I knew how to make flash games... lol
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Jun 2010 @ 12:59am

The site is awsome, The madonna one is classic
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Headbhang (profile), 16 Jun 2010 @ 1:28am

Copy Play != Coldplay
Dude, "Copy Play" does not refer to Coldplay. It refers to the album Play by Moby.
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PaulT (profile), 16 Jun 2010 @ 1:42am

Re: if it sounds too good to be true...
"Does anyone think think it is that easy to get free music?"

Actually, it is - fire up your Limewire clone or Pirate Bay-style website, search, click, download, listen. Thanks to regional restrictions, artificial scarcity and release windowing, it's often easier to get a free "pirate" copy than it is to download the real thing by paying for it.

"This kind of stuff would not even be an issue if the music industry sold what people actually want to buy at a reasonable price."

Indeed.
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Mike Masnick (profile), 16 Jun 2010 @ 2:40am

Re:
Play is Moby's album not Cold Play...Moby would probably be pretty pissed to be used this way as he gave away music from his last album...

Aha! Thanks. Updated the post.

Yeah, Moby probably would not be happy given his previous rants about the RIAA.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Jun 2010 @ 3:20am

The game sounds awesome!

Bono is in there?
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Sean T Henry (profile), 16 Jun 2010 @ 5:59am

Re:
It did not play for me at first but after letting it sit for a few minutes it loaded. I think that the server cant handle all the fun.
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Wolfy, 16 Jun 2010 @ 8:06am

In spite of the tremendous job this and other sites like it are doing, the mind-set of the adult population has already changed from "it's ok to share your album" to "you should go to prison for file sharing." Quite a leap.

We have a population in the US very conditioned to believe what they hear most repeated in the media. Since it's media companies that are pushing these restrictions, it was easy for them to accomplish the change in the mind-set.
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Technopolitical (profile), 17 Jun 2010 @ 3:42am

There have been some really ridiculous "anti-piracy" campaigns out there, but this one is really quite impressive.
MIKE :"There have been some really ridiculous "anti-piracy" campaigns out there, but this one is really quite impressive."

ME : glad your impressed. But on "copyrights and Artists" , you Mike ,, are also "bewildered" ,, "out of sync with society as a whole",, "strangely ignorant of human history and philosophy on the matter",,, and "just plain nuts! !!".
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