Phil from Don't Disconnect Us sez, "Commissioned by UK ISP TalkTalk, we've been campaigning against the British Government's anti-filesharing proposals which form part of the Digital Economy Bill. In a nutshell the music industry has been lobbying the UK government saying that filesharing is killing the music industry. That's why we teamed up with Dan Bull, the musician behind Dear Lily and Dear Mandy, to create our very own music video. 'Home Taping is Killing Music' is a tongue-in-cheek video that features 80s legends Madonna, George Michael and Adam Ant (well, actually it's just a trio of look-alikes) lip-synching to the song Top of the Pops style."
This is some extremely funny stuff -- especially by the time we get to the grand finale and all the other industries at risk ("Home sleeping is killing hotels"). Taking the apocalyptic claims of the record industry about the net at face value is so short-sighted and short-memoried. These Chicken Littles have been telling us that the sky is falling and that they must must must have business-friendly laws and enforcement or the world will end since 1908, when the piano roll was invented. Every time, it just turned out that some of the old guard were going to lose out, and a new guard, who saw how to make a living in the new world, were going to come along to take their place.
Yet here we are in Britain, ready to establish a China-style Great Firewall to block sites the record industry doesn't like, ready to shut whole families off from the information society if one member is accused of copyright violations, ready to sacrifice national technological competitiveness to shore up the doddering relics who don't want to make way for the next generation of entrepreneurs and artists who thrive in a networked world. And the dumbest part is that there's no way it will actually reduce infringement: we're just going to further criminalize and alienate young fans and creators.
It's not too late: write to your MP and ask for a full debate on the Digital Economy Bill. The British record industry admits that its legislation will only pass because Parliament isn't holding a debate on it. Demand that your elected representative do her job!
Home Taping is Killing Music (Thanks, Phil!)
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23 Comments • Add a comment
That was way more good than it had any right to be.
Since when did we enter this bizarro universe where the rights of people who make cheesy pop music outweigh the rights of everybody else???
Brilliant! An absurd reaction to absurd ideas.
Also, did we just get Rickrolled around the 1:37 mark?
My MP seems to think the bill will fail.. At least that's what I think he's saying.
The Digital Economy Bill will be handled under the wash up procedures because there is certainly no time for it to go through the House of Commons before the house is dissolved. Accordingly it is open to my party to block various parts of it and I understand that very little of it indeed will ever see the light of day. I will make sure your profound concerns are passed on to my colleagues who will be dealing with this matter in the last few frenetic days of this parliament.
It's so catchy, I want it as a ringtone!!!
We need a downloadable and shareable mp3 ASAP. I know how to extract the mp3 from flash, but it would be better to have it done form the original record.
I want one of those "CHOOSE FILE" tshirts!
That was eightiestastic! Loved the lyrical homages.
For screencaps of video and audio: If you're on a Mac, use Snapz Pro X. On Windows, try CamStudio. Linux: I think either ScreenCam or XVidCap. I only have personal experience of Snapz.
Isn't this Dan Bull of "Dear Lily Allen" fame?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL9-esIM2CY
If so, BB should at least give him a name check.
That was great, until they added the line "Our popstars need to get paid so they can buy jet planes and kilograms of cocaine".
That's just a weak pirate's excuse to copy music: "Who cares, they're rich anyway". It is completely off-message, and it destroys this whole video's credibility.
Why do the anti-industry types always shoot themselves in the foot like this? If they want public support, they need to distance themselves from the "I have a right to steal it" crowd.
Actually, I suspect far more of the public is into the ""I have a right to steal it" mode than are into bashing labels out of ideological grounds. Totally ordinary non-geeky people like many of my relatives were heavy users of Napster ten years ago. They had zero interest in fighting the Man; they just wanted free stuff.
max_supernova: thanks for the concern trolling. FYI, nobody cares, drug consumption is just regular joke-fodder in the music biz.
Your elitism is duly noted, but completely useless: the DEB must not be approved as it is, that's the only thing that matters right now. If that requires dailymail-style jokes, then that's fine by me.
"Home cooking is killing take-away". Love it
Yeah, when I was a kid we all taped the top 40 and copied each others LPs, but no matter how hard we tried we still failed to kill the music industry. I blame them CDs - charging us again for music we'd already bought (or copied). Then they pull the same stunt with mp3's!
All this crying wolf isn't going to win anybody's sympathy.
I was reading the Wikipedia article on the RIAA and it said "The total retail value of recordings sold by members of the RIAA is reported to be $10.4 billion at the end of 2007..." I tried to find the reference on the RIAA's website but apparently they removed it. It made me wonder, so I went to the Wikipedia article "List of countries by GDP (nominal)" for 2008 and counted up from the country with the smallest economy until I reached a number just below $10.4 billion. Turns out the RIAA members make more in sales than the economies of 98 entire nations. Do they really expect me to believe they are living paycheck to paycheck and teetering on the verge of bankruptcy like their lobbyist keep saying?
I'm with Gilgongo (#7). After his last effort I'm quite appreciative of the work of the Dan Bull.
Shorter "Dear Lily": Intellectual property's a recent concept, so I don't think it's important, and anyway you've signed deals with corporations so that means anything I do with your work is justified.
Intellectual property is a recent concept? I guess all those laws countries have about patents and copyrites must have been talking about something else. I don't think this is about intellectual property at all. Once you put something out into a place where it can be copied it's fair use, as long as the copier isn't reselling it or passing it off as their creation.
While file sharing IS theft, I laugh my ass off at all the Hollywood and music industry types who are suddenly discovering this odd concept called "property rights" and why they might actually be a good thing.
John Lennon, 1971:
"Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world"
The music industry, 2010: "Yeah, just don't share OUR stuff!" Shoe, meet the other foot.
Making a copy is not theft. I didn't take anything from anybody. I made a copy.
If I wouldn't have bought it anyway (which is all of what I download), the biz doesn't even get so say I "stole" my money from them (which, of course, they never had).
Funny and insightful, yes, but more importantly, catchy as hell. Dear god, I've watched this four times today. And I don't even consider myself a synth fan (unless it involves Stephin Merrit, but then that man could break the Top 40 with a jawharp.) But this lad's got some flow, not to mention melody. Dan who? Bull? Whatever-- the boy's got my ears now.
Now just one more listen and I'll call it a night.
Copying is only stealing theoretical profits, the vast majority of which usually never makes it to the artists responsible for the content's creation.
Since we don't have any real profit research to prove an actual loss in profits-- much less precogs swimming in a giant glowing vat shreiking "SOMEONE JUST DOWNLOADED THE NEW BEYONCE SONG!"-- it's not a viable argument.
The only explanation is a better profit model which encourages sharing rather than glorifies propriety. This would make it far easier on the artists, harmonizing the dangers of No Money and Obscurity onto a one-front battle: share more and make more. (Which reminds me... I need to check on flattr's progress...)
Phil from Don't Disconnect Us here - Dan has kindly made the song available as a free MP3 download. Feel free to put it on your C90s ;-)
http://www.mediafire.com/?mjzd3jyrnwd
This has been a pop music controversy for awhile now: C30, C60, C90 GO!
Captcha: commercial moaning
The music industry, just like full price bookstores, video rental stores, land-line phone service providers, and newpapers, need to realize that times change, and while I'm sure all of these 'mega' industries would love to hold onto their profits, and monopoly type tactics, the internet has altered the playing field. These industries all, at sometime became greedy, and powerful to the point of irresponsibility, manipulation, control etc... with a snicker behind the back attitude towards anything that stood in their way or cried 'foul' and then came the web... and like spoiled brats that can no longer have their way, they are kicking and screaming to "Mum and Dad"..... (remember when they convinced us to buy CD players because a disc could hold twice as much music and would be 'so much cheaper' then a record?)... all I can say is..... Karma....
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