Avast! It’s Talk Like A Pirate Day! September 19, 2006
Yes, that very special day is upon us once again, International Talk Like A Pirate Day! This is the one day of the year that you can sound sane while making comments like:
“Arrrr, that be my mp3 now, ye scally wag, Ye’ll ne’er get me buried booty!“
“Avast! ye filthy bilge rat. That be my intellectual proparrrrty ya have tharrr“
and
“Aye, who needs t’ pillage and plunder when ya can sue land lubbers by the tens o’ thousands? Aye, me parrot concurs.“
These are dangerous times. Having the skills necessary to communicate with pirates is critical but there are some very good resources to help you learn. Happy TLAP Day!
Steal This Film August 29, 2006
In 2006, a group of friends decided to make a film about file sharing that they would recognize, and they did just that! In part 1 of this series Stockholm, Summer 2006 (link to torrent) the film documents the raid on the popular torrent sharing web site Pirate Bay. The MPAA somehow got the US to pressure the Swedish government with trade sanctions if the Swedes didn’t break their own laws in the process of taking the site down (BB post with more).
From the site,
“We wanted to make a film that would explore this huge popular movement in a way that excited us, engaged us, and most importantly, focused on what we know to be the positive and optimistic vision many file sharers and artists (they are often one) have for the future of creativity”
One of my favorite parts of the video is a clip with actor Richard Dreyfuss who says (time index ~23:25)
“I think that the laws going to be re-writen as the technology insists that it is. It’s not a question of right or wrong anymore. People will do what they want to do in order to get what they want….whats the line about.. ‘behind every great fortune lies a great crime’. So, the guy’s who started this business cheated somebody to get there and so now they are being cheated perhaps.“
This really is a fantastic documentary and a slice of our digital culture. Go steal it and see for your self!
Free Download 8, Don’t Download This Song! August 22, 2006
Weird Al has released a song about file sharing entitled “Don’t Download this song” (thanks BoingBoing!). You can download it from his MySpace page or from www.dontdownloadthissong.comtracks/DDTS.mp3 when the server recovers from the millions of pirates trying to download it.
The lyrics are a hoot,
“You don’t want to mess with the RI-double-A
They’ll sue you if you burn that CDR
It doesn’t matter if you’re a grandma
Or a seven year old girl
They’ll treat you like
the evil hard-bitten criminal you are…”
and
“…don’t download this song
or you’ll burn in hell
(and you deserve it)…”
It’s good to see artist’s standing up for what they believe in.
We aren’t all pirates? July 10, 2006
Then why do we all get treated like pirates? IPac has a post on the LA Times article “We aren’t all pirates” that talks about the entertainment industry’s efforts to keep their dusty old business model afloat in the new world of the Internet, and computers, and all those filthy pirates.
From the IPac post,
“The Hollywood cartels want complete control over every and all digital device that is capable of playing back media in any form. PERFORM would cripple satellite radio and Internet radio. SIRA would also cripple Internet radio. The Broadcast Flag would cripple HDTV. The Audio Flag would cripple digital radio. And IPPA (DMCA 2.0) would throw every file trader in jail for 10 years.”
