Personally (might get flamed for this one) if Hip-Hop fell off the planet tomorrow, I'd be cool with that, it's just not my thing. However, I can and do appreciate that most of the artists involved are genuinely talented (or I'd be making my dole that way too).

Hip-Hop was never, and still isn't taken seriously..enter making money. Ahha, now you're a legitimate business / art / whatever and litigation happy America jumps in.

This film looks promising, really does, give the preview a whirl and sound off :)

What promises to be a superb documentary on musical sampling, copyright law and their effects on creativity will see its official launch in January 2010. No harm in taking an early preview though.

Copyright Criminals: This Is a Sampling Sport is an upcoming documentary which examines the creative and commercial aspects of musical sampling, and I am personally really looking forward to this one.

A major component of the documentary is the effect copyright law has on creativity and, of course, how good old-fashioned greed and money come into play. If you happen to like hip-hop too, thats a real bonus, but not a necessity by any means.

The documentary will ask a critical question:

Is it possible to own a sound?

Copyright Criminals will have a general release in January 2010, but an early free preview is available if you’re near The Rotunda (40th and Walnut) in Philadelphia this upcoming Tuesday October 20th at 19:00.

Here we go again. When, in our country, I speak specifically of the US here, did "We the People" become "We the Corporation"?

As a young, aspiring classical musician, I was able to find work, though I can't and don't do that anymore and at the time, was terribly flattered to be considered semi-professional. It was great, I enjoyed it and seriously recommend anyone that can, take the chance and put yourself out there, it will change your life.

Stating that, I'm trying to defuse the usual arguments that crop up, that the authors of anything that criticizes the RIAA and MPAA are horrible artist hating morons that want something for nothing, before they begin here.

What I abhor, is the abuse by a very wealthy few (especially during our global recession, geesh) of frankly, anyone.

When the VCR first arrived on the scene, many, many attempts were made to block consumers from legally being able to record television broadcasts. Obviously, that didn't go over so well.

Last time I personally turned on the radio, I was still able to pop in a cassette tape and record broadcast. It becomes illegal to do so when you copy this to sell it, to make a profit off of someone else's hard work. That is a legitimate protection that artists need and are entitled to.

In the case of Jammie Thomas-Rasset, recently found guilty, by jury, of infringing the copyright of twenty-four songs over Kazaa (back when it wasn't a legal site) the RIAA apparently believes, and so does the jury, they are entitled to reparation to the tune of 80,000 US$ per song. I know commercial CD's have gotten a bit expensive, but I didn't realize they cost that much now.

A favorite phrase of indivuduals of an older generation, "What are they gonna do, they did away with debtor's prison?", comes to mind. The RIAA will never see that money, and don't tell me, or anyone else with half a brain, that this is to send a message to pirates that they can't get away with this kind of thing. What this decision, and in fact, all DRM legislation does, is encourage right-minded citizens to flaunt the law at every opportunity. I'm reminded of the period of "Prohibition" in the US, where eventually, a constitutional change came about, now you can drink all the alcohol your liver can stand.

Here is the RIAA reaction to the decision, and I get to copy it out of fair use, ain't it great.

RIAA REACTION:

“We appreciate the jury's service and that they take this as seriously as we do. We are pleased that the jury agreed with the evidence and found the defendant liable. Since day one, we have been willing to settle this case and we remain willing to do so.”

-- Cara Duckworth

Anyone who's read this for information besides a "Hottie of the Week" knows that the editor and occasional staff of SPVG are absolutely nutty about a lot of internet related policies that are trying to be pushed into the faces of consumers.

Chief among these is probably the issue of the consumers privacy, really, no other system in place within the United States can reveal so much about you as an individual, what you do in your home, etc. than a look at your IP address, your browsing records, the material cached on your laptop.

EFF, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, has launched a website to help those who do care about what happens to a companies Terms of Service after you digitally sign it - TOSBack.org.

Terms-Of-Service and other website policies form the foundation of your relationship with social networking sites, online businesses, and other Internet communities. But most people become aware of these terms only when there's a problem. TOSBack was created to help you monitor the policies for the websites you use everyday, and show how they change over time.

Bless La Quadrature du Net who posted this picture in response to the recent decision.

We reported on the Creation and Internet Bill being pushed into law by French legislators. The Creation and Internet Bill was being touted as the "Internet Three Strikes" Bill, and entertainment industry gestapo, like the RIAA were reportedly very happy and excitedly pushing this Bill forward as a victory for Digital Rights Management, copyright protection, and a failure for torrent sites, providers of torrents and other varieties of bootleg material available on Peer to Peer networks. Nevermind that there are legitimate, legal and honest uses for such sharing of files.

Following on the heels of the recent decision by Swedish courts against The Pirate Bay, things were looking pretty glum. Now, no one here, at SPVG is gonna be heard promoting, aggrandizing, or otherwise playing sides with people who illegally share files, so quit gearing up to take us on.

What you will hear us expound upon, sometimes at great length, is what the French government finally got into their heads: The Creation and Internet Bill was found un-Constitutional. WHOOHOOO!! Yay, so, there you have it folks. They tossed it out like yesterdays garbage, and it IS just that, garbage.

Today, the French Constitutional Council has ruled that the law, dubbed the The Creation and Internet bill is unconstitutional and violates the Declaration of 1789. The declaration says that all parties are innocent until proven guilty. The three strikes law would force customers to prove their own innocence.

Readers that have been with us awhile, will have noticed a new ad off to the right, highlighting your chance to join the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA).

You'll also notice in our Disclosure Policy that we list them as a member organization. The Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) is a 501(c)(4) non-profit membership organization established to serve the needs of those who play computer and video games.

Formed in 2006, the ECA is an advocacy organization for consumers of interactive entertainment. Gamers represent nearly fifty percent of the US population and spend $10 billion annually on gaming, yet as a group are continually overlooked by both politicians and the mainstream press. The mission of the ECA is to give game consumers a voice and to ensure that elected officials hear their concerns and appreciate the growing influence of the gamer demographic.

The organization, which is headquartered in Connecticut, focuses its advocacy efforts on consumer rights, anti-games legislation, and a host of other public policy concerns as well as providing substantial community, educational, and affinity benefits to its members—from discounts on subscriptions and game rentals and purchases to education, employment assistance, and insider access to industry news and events.

With our past articles on how legislation at home and abroad is influencing the games that you are able to play, how your privacy is tossed to the side by the DMCA, and how DRM can negatively effect the legitimate end-user, we're proud to promote the ECA and applaud it's efforts on the gamers behalf.

Check them out, show your support, and garner the benefits of being a member!

The Creation and Internet bill, which recently failed passage, has now passed.

Presumably, designed to protect the copyrights and property of French artists, say for instance, the wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy - Carla Bruni – who released her third album, 'Comme Si De Rien N'Etait' (translation: As if Nothing Had Happened) in July of '08. I don't really want to pick on the man's wife, I'm sure, though I've no first hand knowledge of this, that she's a nice person, certainly more talented musically than I, and sure as hell knows how to marry to further her own agenda, very smart.

(I believe in stating facts and then letting people make up their own minds, so here they are: The French government gave copies of the album to 14, 000 marketing ambassadors overseas. The French treasury purchased the albums along with wine and cheese vouchers as part of the 1 million pounds campaign to promote Gallic culture overseas - my own government is certainly not free from criticism, but France passed this law.)

Back to the legislation, a new state agency will send warning emails followed by a letter to illegal file sharers. If caught downloading a third time, a user’s internet connection will be severed. Good thing I don't live in France probably, I'd hate to have to defend myself as if I were presumed guilty. How are these "illegal downloads" going to be identified? If the file I download is corrupt, or contains a virus or trojan, is this same government agency going to fly to the defense of the French citizen and track down the naughty person who put it there? How many of this "new state agency" are going to surf the internet while at their state sponsored job and be pinged for illegal downloading, since so much of that happens in the workplace?

Many times, I feel compelled to go back to my tried and true statement, legislation can not keep track of, or even begin to hope to keep up with advances in computer technology. The flavor of the day has been for a long time, "torrents", torrent this, torrent that, and a good number of computer users would probably be hard pressed to tell you what a torrent actually is. Next week, month, year...it won't be a torrent that is under fire from legislators, it will be something else, suitably named a "thingamawhoziewhatsit". If we start breaking up data into slugs (not packets) and when able to be tracked, they're called thingamawhoziewhatsit's, legislation will all have to be rewritten to ban these horrible abuses of technological power called, not torrents, but thingamawhoziewhatsit's.

Thank all the powers that be and anyone else I can think of, that I do NOT reside in France. How, are they going to accomplish this, which, according to the majority of French ISP's is going to cost millions of Euros annually to even begin to enforce? Simple answer, the legislation is going to fail, in gamer parlance, "epically". France Digital Copyright legislation pwned by ignorance, that'll be the new headline, and like the French First Ladies third album, it will be "As If Nothing Had Happened".

Darn France for putting me in the same boat as a Socialist Parliamentarian, namely Patrick Bloche, who said the bill was "dangerous, useless, inefficient, and very risky for us citizens". Oh well, he's right.