Archive for the ‘Howard Jones’ Category

Fuck Chilling Effects

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

Before I rant, thank you to the many people who offered me copies of Peter Gabriel’s German records, I have them now so your work here is done…until I beg for something else.

Now, to the hate.

A few months ago I got my first DMCA notice for copyright violation. (you can read my initial response to that here). At first it wasn’t that big a deal to me, after all I know a blog like mine kind of skirts the edge of the law, and a copyright owner has every right to complain to me about the hosting of their music, they do own it after all.

But it’s not that simple. When I said that “I” got a DMCA notice that’s a bit inaccurate. Actually Blogger got the notice. They then removed the blog post in its entirety and let me know about it with the following message, dated March 17th, 2009:

Blogger has been notified, according to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), that certain content in your blog infringes upon the copyrights of others. The URL(s) of the allegedly infringing post(s) may be found at the end of this message.

The notice that we received from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and the record companies it represents, with any personally identifying information removed, will be posted online by a service called Chilling Effects at http://www.chillingeffects.org

. We do this in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Please note that it may take Chilling Effects up to several weeks to post the notice online at the link provided.

The IFPI is a trade association that represents over 1,400 major and independent record companies in the US and internationally who create, manufacture and distribute sound recordings (the “IFPI Represented Companies”).

The DMCA is a United States copyright law that provides guidelines for online service provider liability in case of copyright infringement. We are in the process of removing from our servers the links that allegedly infringe upon the copyrights of others. If we did not do so, we would be subject to a claim of copyright infringement, regardless of its merits. See http://www.educause.edu/Browse/645?PARENT_ID=254 for more information about the DMCA, and see http://www.google.com/dmca.html for the process that Blogger requires in order to make a DMCA complaint.

Blogger can reinstate these posts upon receipt of a counter notification pursuant to sections 512(g)(2) and 3) of the DMCA. For more information about the requirements of a counter notification and a link to a sample counter notification, see http://www.google.com/dmca.html#counter.

Please note that repeated violations to our Terms of Service may result in further remedial action taken against your Blogger account. If you have legal questions about this notification, you should retain your own legal counsel. If you have any other questions about this notification, please let us know.

Sincerely,

The Blogger Team

Affected URLs:

http://lostturntable.blogspot.com/2009/03/they-call-it-winwood-weird-soundtrack.html

Okay a few passages to note there.

1. They have the DMCA notice, they recieved it. However, they won’t give it to me. Instead they handed it off to a site called Chilling Effects, which is an independent site dedicated to provided help regarding DMCA notices and copyright law. Why they are more justified to recieve a legal notice regarding ME than I am I fail to see.

2. Blogger does not challenge any DMCA notice, so the notice could be entirely without merit but they’ll remove it anyway.

3. At not point do they mention WHAT I put up that violated the DMCA. The post in question had several songs from several different artists, who did I piss off? Why? I have no idea.

As I said before, this was originally sent to me on March 17, at which point I was told that Chilling Effects would post the notice on their site in “several weeks.” Well, fuck all that never happened. It’s been three full months now and I have yet to see my DMCA notice on their shitty joke of a goddamn site. I emailed the people at blogger and Chilling Effects four times to find out why and I didn’t even get a response.

Chilling Effects claims to be a resource to help people fight copyright abuse. That’s fucking bullshit. They’re a fucking joke. The site was founded by lawyers and legal experts (so they claim) so they should know that an important aspect in any legal matter is timeliness, and waiting more than three months to post a legal file ISN’T FUCKING TIMELY.

It’s bullshit. A complete crock. A joke of a site run by a piss stain of a group that doesn’t know what the fuck it’s doing. And the fact that they somehow have more of a right to a legal document related to MY blog is bullshit.

Now I understand that techincally this isn’t MY blog. It’s on Blogger’s servers and they are legally responsible. However, since I am in control of the content that is put on their servers, you think they’d want me to know what I did wrong so I might not do it again. Why does Chilling Effects get this information and not me? That’s fucked up. Who the fuck made Chlling Effects the guardians of all DMCA notices and legal resources?

The thing that pisses me off the most about all this bullshit is that no one, not a single person from Google, Blogger or Chilling Effects ever bothered to respond to the multiple emails I sent asking for more information. I emailed every support, question, news and help email address at Chilling Effects and I got nothing. I even emailed Wendy Seltzer, the woman “in charge” of the organization, and I got nothing.

How do I even know I got a DMCA notice if I’m not even allowed to fucking read it!

Fuck Chilling Effects.

Big Audio Dynamite
Free (Club Mix)
Free (Film Version)
The Bottom Line (Film & Club Version)
Punk ass bitches….anyways, “Free” is another great track by B.A.D. and the last one to feature the group’s original line-up. This song originally appeared on the soundtrack to the film “Flashback” and many of the odd movie samples in the song are from that movie. The Club Mix has one of those annoying false fade-out endings, that’s not my fault. “The Bottom Line” originally appeared on This Is Big Audio Dnyamite, but not in this extended form. These are all from a 12” single.

Iggy Pop
Motor Inn (Felix Da Housecat’s High Octane Mix)
Okay, this song is…um…something. I think I like it, I kind of go back and forth on it. Iggy Pop’s rambling about his “brown girl’s” titties is just embarrassing and the occasional yelping by Peaches is a bit unneccesary, but then again so is this entire electro remix which I got from a 12” single.

Eurythmics
Love Is a Stranger (Obsession Mix)

Another quick disclaimer; this is an odd mix that puts Lennox’s vocals in the back, instead focusing on the beat and electronic effects. This is not a fault of mine, if you wanna hear Annie’s beautiful voice more then buy Sweet Dreams, which is where the original version of this song is from. This remix is from a 12” single.

Howard Jones
Things Can Only Get Better (Extended Version)
I mentioned that I wanted this remix a while ago and two people offered it to me. I never took them up on the offer and bought the 12” single myself. I’m like that.