Canadians Respond To Internet Spying Bill By 'Revealing All' To Politician Backing It

from the internet-memes-against-internet-regulation dept

We recently wrote about a new effort in Canada around "lawful access" (a nice way of saying internet spying by government). The really ridiculous part was that the Public Safety Minister pushing the bill, Vic Toews pulled out the ridiculous logical fallacy that anyone against the bill was "for child pornography." That, of course, is insane. But, because this is the internet, it responds as it does best, by creating a meme. Tons of people on Twitter are revealing all sorts of random information with Toews on Twitter using the hashtag #TellVicEverything. Apparently a bunch of people are leaving him voicemails as well. Watching the Twitter feed is fun, as you find out when people go to sleep, when they wake up and when they have trouble sleeping. Then there are some amusing confessional tweets, like the person who confesses using zucchini instead of meat in spaghetti sauce, or the person who admits to lying to a telemarketer when asked if he's "busy." Who knows if Toews will back down, but when you become a national joke, perhaps it's time to rethink your legislative strategy.

Filed Under: canada, legal access, monitoring, spying, vic toews

Record Labels: When You Make It Impossible For People To Pay You, You Drive Them To Unauthorized Versions

from the this-should-be-obvious dept

There are some things you would think would be obvious to record label execs, but often just don't seem to make it through their brains. For example, these days, if someone wants to buy your music, they should be able to. Making it impossible to buy music that is available elsewhere is a pretty sure way to drive people to unauthorized versions. Take the following story from Michael Brandvold, a music industry veteran, talking about the ridiculousness of not being able to buy a bunch of albums he wants to buy:

Consumers don’t understand or care about territories, regions, license agreements… the internet broke down those barriers, it is just the world now. The album has been released and I want to buy it. This is what every musician wants, someone who wants to by their music. I am surely not the only person who has encountered this problem, not the only person ready to buy some music, but is told you can’t, we don’t want your money. What do you think that sort of action results in? My guess is the fan then begins to look for any option to get the album, including illegal download. A quick jump to Google and you can locate a download. Hey record labels you are driving them to do it.

Problem is, the labels will never admit that their own actions resulted in unauthorized file sharing. No way, no how. To them file sharing is only the result of one thing and one thing only: failure to enforce copyright laws to as strict a level as possible.

Filed Under: copyright, legal access, music labels, piracy