In defense of illegal downloading
Not that I am a super fan of the law but when its reasonable to comply and it doesn’t piss me off, I follow the law. I’m more a fan of the laws of the common good than of corporate necessity but I’d be a liar if I said that I was still the rampant disregarder of laws I was in the past. But some laws, some rules are just retarded. More to the point, some laws regarding the web, international trade, and music just need to rammed up the ass of whatever greedy fucking suit thought of them. Case and point, the new Dizzee rascal cd.
OK, so I’m on the xl recording e-mail list, it’s the British based company that has Dizzee, and rjd2 signed and used to have M.I.A as well. Any way, they send me an e-mail saying the new dizzee is out. Well, you all know how I feel about Diz right? So I take some old cds that I’ve ripped already and sold them back to my favorite cd reseller. Easy as this sounds I have to go to Berkeley, which I really can’t stand and deal with the cd buying guy who is lamenting the passing of his chosen career field. Word to the retailers of the world, don’t bitch about how no one is buying cds anymore to someone in the cd shop. Just not cool. Anyway, I do the quick scan and I’m all “what the hell?” I talk with the people who work there and everyone’s all “Sorry homes, ain’t no Dizzee rascal out today.” Fuck, I’m thinking. My damn anglophillic nature has gotten the best of my yet again (I could go so into that right now, but this ain’t that kind of site. Suffice to say, British chicks are hot and I’m a moron.)
No drama I’m thinking. It’s a UK release but I get UK shit all the time. I mean haven’t I been following this entire season of Doctor Who? And they don’t even broadcast over here? But see I’m still trying to be legal about it. So I go corporate and hit up ITunes UK. Sure enough they have it. You can hear the clips and everything. Cost 79 pence to download each track. Figure, I’ll take a hit on the conversion but screw it, anything for Dizzee. So I clock to download an d the bastards transfer me to the U.S. ITunes store, where its not available. What the hell?
The truth of it is, some bomb ass Uk grimster is going to put that album up for downloading sometime today or tomorrow and depending on how I feel, I will download that shit. But this is one of cases where it’s the RIAA’s fault, or whoever the hell else is responsible for making sure tariffs are paid. The days of multiple release dates are over people. The days of DRM are fast approaching their end as well. If its gonna blow, let it blow. I’m from New York. Back in the day some Nigerians would have already burned the Dizzee cd and be selling it, complete with cover and endnotes, on 125th st. for five dollars. What the hell makes people think that we don’t all have a little Nigerian in us? Shit, if I didn’t love Dizzee so much I’d be bootlegging my main main’s bread and butter. But its not the artist fault. It’s the RIAA and all the rest of those corporate cock suckers. So fuck them up their commercial little asses. This rant has been brought to you by my reading of Lawrence Lessig’s The future of ideas, Free Culture, and Code 2.0 in the span of nine days while not sleeping and on 1000 mgs of 5-htp a day. Yeah, its’ that kind of week. Next on the literature parade is the complete (or as complete as I was able to find on Amazon) science fiction catalog of Samuel Delany while on an unconfirmed amounts of Provigil. Yeah, I’m on some Doctor Strange sort of vibe.
OK, so I’m on the xl recording e-mail list, it’s the British based company that has Dizzee, and rjd2 signed and used to have M.I.A as well. Any way, they send me an e-mail saying the new dizzee is out. Well, you all know how I feel about Diz right? So I take some old cds that I’ve ripped already and sold them back to my favorite cd reseller. Easy as this sounds I have to go to Berkeley, which I really can’t stand and deal with the cd buying guy who is lamenting the passing of his chosen career field. Word to the retailers of the world, don’t bitch about how no one is buying cds anymore to someone in the cd shop. Just not cool. Anyway, I do the quick scan and I’m all “what the hell?” I talk with the people who work there and everyone’s all “Sorry homes, ain’t no Dizzee rascal out today.” Fuck, I’m thinking. My damn anglophillic nature has gotten the best of my yet again (I could go so into that right now, but this ain’t that kind of site. Suffice to say, British chicks are hot and I’m a moron.)
No drama I’m thinking. It’s a UK release but I get UK shit all the time. I mean haven’t I been following this entire season of Doctor Who? And they don’t even broadcast over here? But see I’m still trying to be legal about it. So I go corporate and hit up ITunes UK. Sure enough they have it. You can hear the clips and everything. Cost 79 pence to download each track. Figure, I’ll take a hit on the conversion but screw it, anything for Dizzee. So I clock to download an d the bastards transfer me to the U.S. ITunes store, where its not available. What the hell?
The truth of it is, some bomb ass Uk grimster is going to put that album up for downloading sometime today or tomorrow and depending on how I feel, I will download that shit. But this is one of cases where it’s the RIAA’s fault, or whoever the hell else is responsible for making sure tariffs are paid. The days of multiple release dates are over people. The days of DRM are fast approaching their end as well. If its gonna blow, let it blow. I’m from New York. Back in the day some Nigerians would have already burned the Dizzee cd and be selling it, complete with cover and endnotes, on 125th st. for five dollars. What the hell makes people think that we don’t all have a little Nigerian in us? Shit, if I didn’t love Dizzee so much I’d be bootlegging my main main’s bread and butter. But its not the artist fault. It’s the RIAA and all the rest of those corporate cock suckers. So fuck them up their commercial little asses. This rant has been brought to you by my reading of Lawrence Lessig’s The future of ideas, Free Culture, and Code 2.0 in the span of nine days while not sleeping and on 1000 mgs of 5-htp a day. Yeah, its’ that kind of week. Next on the literature parade is the complete (or as complete as I was able to find on Amazon) science fiction catalog of Samuel Delany while on an unconfirmed amounts of Provigil. Yeah, I’m on some Doctor Strange sort of vibe.
posted by afrogeek at 9:21 PM
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