Random noise, incoherent thoughts, whatever.
Rockstar Games, a controversial video games developer behind the Grand Theft Auto series of games, has teamed up with Timbaland to produce music for their upcoming PlayStation Portable game, Beaterator.
How cool is that!?
I wonder if Timbaland is going to use music he stole from others in this game?
-TPP
Popular gadget blog Gizmodo has declared March 2007 as the Boycott RIAA month.
Their article titled Gizmodo’s Anti-RIAA Manifesto explaining the reasons for the boycott is an excellent summary of all things wrong with the RIAA.
-TPP
The New York Times has an excellent 6-page article about the arrest of DJ Drama earlier in the year.
I’ve written about DJ Drama’s arrest before:
RIAA bites the hand that feeds it
-TPP
When Janne Suni (aka Tempest) composed his Acidjazzed Evening song for Assembly 2000, one of the largest demo scene gatherings in the world, he probably didn’t think his contest winning tune would make even bigger news in 2006.
It appears Timbaland, a rather successful hip hop/rnb producer, thought Janne’s tune was kinda good as well, as he’s “borrowed” the melody and 16 bars of a Commodore 64 version of Janne’s tune in, at least, two songs that he’s produced.
Another demo scene composer, Glenn Rune Gallefoss (aka GRG) produced a Commodore 64 (Janne’s was made on an Amiga computer) version of Janne’s tune after the contest with permission from Janne. This is the version of the tune that’s blatantly copied into Timbaland’s songs. One of the songs, “Do It” by Nelly Furtado, is included in Nelly Furtado’s latest album that has sold 2.5M copies. The copyright belongs to Janne and Glenn.
Follow the original article to find out more about this blatant copyright violation by a RIAA recording artist. Not a word from Timbaland or his record label about this issue during the four months since the issue was uncovered.
Update 3/14/2007: Timbaland has since commented on his theft. An MTV reporter asks him about it at the end of an interview about other unrelated stuff, and Timbaland has the gall to completely dismiss the whole thing and make it sound like some sort of an ego trip thing:
“It makes me laugh,” he said. “The part I don’t understand, the dude is trying to act like I went to his house and took it from his computer. I don’t know him from a can of paint. I’m 15 years deep. That’s how you attack a king? You attack moi? Come on, man. You got to come correct. You the laughing stock. People are like, ‘You can’t be serious.’ “
He’s also calling the accusations “foolish”. Looks like all the fame and fortune has thoroughly gone to his head. Hypocrite thief. You got caught fair and square and your posturing and ego stroking is not gonna change that. Do the right thing and pay up, thief.
-TPP
In a very strange move RIAA has sent their stormtroopers to visit DJ Drama, a popular hip hop DJ specializing in producing mixtapes.
Mixtapes have been instrumental in promoting up and coming rap artists for decades. In fact, all the rap legends made their start in the business using mixtapes.
DJ Drama has been arrested and faces RICO charges in Atlanta, GA.
RIAA’s cluelessness is truly astounding. Here they have someone who’s promoting music of RIAA’s member organizations’ artists essentially for free, and they still attack him.
-TPP
RIAA sues allofmp3.com for copyright infraction in New York. They are going for the maximum penalty afforded by the law…$150K per infraction. That comes to $1.65 trillion USD.
How they can sue a Moscow based company in New York escapes me, but I’m sure the RIAA lawyers found a loophole to exploit.
The $1.65 trillion USD claim just illustrates very poignantly how ridiculous the laws governing copyright violations are.
-TPP
Visa has stopped processing credit card payments for allofmp3.com.
Looks like the US is pulling no punches trying to get the site shut down.
-TPP
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has released a statement regarding RIAA’s audio broadcast flag demands.
The statement feels like a smackdown. It’s like an adult putting down a petulant child in front of all his classmates.
It hasn’t been a good week for RIAA. First they got spanked by every civil liberties / free speech advocacy organization in the country, and now they’re getting chewed on by an organization they NEED as a partner to get the boneheaded audio broadcast flag into tomorrow’s radios.
-TPP
It looks like RIAA’s war on soccer moms is all based on bluffing.
Debbie Foster from Oklahoma basically asked RIAA to present their evidence against her. For whatever reason RIAA failed to do so and Ms. Foster filed a motion for summary judgment in her favor and the judge did so.
It looks like RIAA is using the US courts to intimidate and blackmail people. They certainly don’t seem to have any evidence against these people that would withstand even the most elementary legal challenge. How hard would it have been for RIAA to answer the request for evidence if they did have it?
-TPP
Valence Media, the parent company which owns TorrentSpy.com, has sued MPAA claiming they hired someone for $15,000 USD to hack into TorrentSpy.com servers and steal confidential information about TorrentSpy.com. Financial records, internal Email correspondence and IT infrastructure documents are among the information Valence Media claims to have been stolen.
What I don’t understand is why Valence Media is going about this with a civil suit. Unauthorized computer access and industrial espionage are criminal offenses.
MPAA, meet kettle. It’s black alright.
-TPP
