Illegal search… then seizure. Apparently, it’s illegal to search for links to MP3s (or at least the hoster was afraid to allow it).

Every now and then you just have to believe. There is no guarantee that a single penny of the nearly $5,000 donated to Patti’s Legal Fund will go to anything worthwhile, leave alone changing the way the music business operates.

But of all the reckless, wasteful things I plan to do today, giving her money seems like it’s got the best chance.

At least think about helping Virtual Turntable pass the $100 mark…. donate here.

I’ll tell you what: for the first two people to donate $25 through the VT link above, I will send a fourstones “It’s Just a Tonal Thing” Mug:

After you donate make sure to contact me so I know where to the send the mug.

After tens of thousands of lawsuits from the record industry, you may be surprised to know that none (as in: not one) has ever gone to court. Until now. (For reasons I don’t fully understand Ms. Santangelo is on her own without representation. Use the link above to put a few dollars to where your mouth is.)

Suing your customers is an interesting business model. As doctor Phil says “how’s that working for you?” [via]

Combine this with data that I just got from the Buckman’s the other day that December was amongst the best months Magnatune has ever had.

Pretty encouraging if you ask me.

People who read this web site should recognize all of Dark Lanternist compilation called “RIAA shooting itself in the foot and quickly reloading”

This is how the recording industry treats it’s customers. If you want to shoot yourself in the head then you should consider going into business with these guys and signing a contract with these psychopaths. Really, it’ll be ok, you’re special and they will recognize it and completely fuck your career.

This could be huge: Professor Lessig has announced that CC is working on project that would recover “lost” rights to artists who have previously signed them away. This quite an ambitious and important step for musicians who have made the career ending move of signing with a major label in the last 40 years.

if the creator wants, the system would then refer the case to a legal aid clinic or Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, so that with the help of a trained counselor, the creator could reclaim his or her rights. We’d offer this tool for free. And while, of course. we’d give creators the freedom to license any rights they recover under Creative Commons licenses, we wouldn’t require them to do so. Instead, our only purpose is to make the law simple so that it might work better for the people it was intended to benefit: Creators.

This is just smart.

And finally, I want to say that while I don’t think CC should be the very first place you drop a charity dime, if you are one of the people that posted one of the over 2,300 uploads to ccMixter or if you spent some time enjoying it you should definitely considering giving something back. If I understand it correctly, the IRS is looking at number of donors to CC this year as a means to determine their tax except status (I can’t find the link where I read that). So while the amount is, of course, important, just being counted as an active supporter of CC is important too.

Support ccMixter/Creative Commons Here.

Thanks.

(disclosure: I used to get paid from CC but I don’t any more. I may someday again. If your donation to them is contingent on me never doing that again I totally understand and I’ll try to accommodate.)

Today is Dean Gray Tuesday.

Trying to repeat Danger Mouse’s Grey Tuesday success, the guys that did the spectacularly huge Boulevard of Broken Songs released a whole album of Green Day mashups a month ago and promptly got a C&D from the Day’s record company.

Playing off Kanye West Party Ben claims to be “$600,000 in debt on this thing (or thereabouts).” Considering Danger Mouse has since moved on to (just last week) be nominated for a “Song of the Year” Grammy for his work with Gorillaz it’s not insignificant, if wholly intentional, irony when Ben says “so we better win that Grammy, or, um, else.”

By all rights I should have hosted this album but I let the participation deadline pass without even listening to the whole album. I could claim that I was entrenched in my own album release and site redesign of my two web sites. But I’d lying to myself even more than usual. I’m not in the mood to self-analyze my ambivalence but I do support the protest in spirit, if not in hosting practice.

Putting personal differences aside I think it’s important to continue to support Jason at Texfiles.

He’s got his tipjar out looking to fund his next project, a documentary about text based games. For $100 you can join THE GET LAMP ADVENTURER’S CLUB and “pre-order” the doc, get some credits and freebies when the production is done. I got my copy of his BBS documentary the day it came out but that’s not supposed to be the incentive to invest.

Having said that, the $100 door fee is a little steep… but I can understand the impatience involved in waiting for $5 donations to add up to significant impact in the production. Personally I wouldn’t hesitate if: 1) Jason promised to release the new production under CC and/or 2) he promised to use CC music (*cough*) in the new production. (As far as I know, there isn’t any CC music in the BBS doc uses 100% CC music.)

Tim Jarrett’s The Sony Boycott Blog has been kicking ass and taking names since the Sony CD virus story broke. It’s become a great resource for tracking that particular evil nonesense.

That cool breeze turned out to be a chill wind.

Here’s what the Internet will look like in 20 years: three companies will own the entire thing. I’m serious. We’re all going to look back at the days where a schmuck like me could run a site for $100 a year (for a 1gig, unlimited email, every scripting language I can dream of, etc.) and put anything I want on it… is coming to an end. As the New York cop said “Show’s over, keep moving.”

The Internet will be the home for very, very rich people. What costs $100 today will cost $10,000 maybe $100,000 maybe more in 20 years (in adjusted dollars).

And whatever is affordable will be sued into oblivion.

Users will be users and publishers will be anybody not you.

All under the very watchful eye of three companies. I don’t know which companies and it really doesn’t matter but Google will probably be one of them. Yea and fuck Google. Google is the new Disney. For a long time they will be the darling of this generation. Then this generation will grow up, move to Oregon watch their kids go to high school and while Google turns out the Web’s equivalent to “Herbie Gets Loaded” and say “man, these guys turned out to be evil after all.”

Getting on the Internet (as a user) will be easier and safer than ever. It will be exactly as pervasive as the integrated circuit is today. Each chip will require your online code which is emanating from a plastic card in your wallet. (This is how my computerized Prius starts today.)

The monthly fee to keep that card pumping out your login and password will be just enough for you to complain about — but not much more. Portions of that fee will go directly to the entertainment companies that were behind the SCOTUS Grokster decision today. Just like HBO. The Internet is the new HBO.

And getting your music and video played on HBO? Yea, well, not after today.