Glamorous Piracy...

Today, news leaked that the entertainment industry no longer thinks the word 'pirate' is derogatory enough to label people who file share.

The comments come from Agnete Haaland, President of the International Actor's Federation:

"To me, piracy is something adventurous, it makes you think about Johnny Depp. We all want to be a bit like Johnny Depp. But we're talking about a criminal act. We're talking about making it impossible to make a living from what you do."

Part of me can't help but agree, If your issue is a load of teenagers and 20-something's copying your stuff for free, calling these people one of the coolest names ever isn't going to help you. the same applies to 'Ninjas' and 'Zombies'.

Ironically, it was the industry itself that first used the name 'pirate' to refer to a file-sharer, in law piracy refers to civil issues, not 'criminal acts', a quick scan of google images after typing 'music pirates' in shows how much people have liked the term. hell, this is one of the most iconic issues in the whole debate...

So, if piracy is no longer effective as a deterrent (because it never was), what words should the industry use to describe copyright infringement and the people who do it?

Here are some of my suggestions:

Ninjacy - although this might fall into the same trap.

Content Liberation

Freedom Rapists

Mass Murderers - it's only a few steps up from pirate.

Ex-Customers - it's funny coz it's true.

Shep.

My Youth in Music #1

So, I haven't updated this in a few weeks, and right now I can't sleep.

I'm actually listening to an album I haven't listened to in years, possibly for good reason.

So I figure, mainly to give me something to do, i'm gonna search for old albums I used to listen to constantly, including the one's I dumped in the switch to digital. and occasionally post about them on here, it'll give me something to do,

My history in music so to speak...

...Carry on reading at your own peril.

No.1

Limp Bizkit

Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavoured Water (2000).

Listen to it on Spotify here.

Ok, Ok. So Limp Bizkit are an appalling band, but hey, I was 13.

This is actually the first album I ever bought (OK, it wasn't legitimate, it cost me £2 of my hard earned pocket-money and was from some guy who copied albums from the internet; (My first ever music purchase was pirated, actually i'm quite proud of that)).

So, yeah this was my first foray into developing my own taste in music, it was commercial as hell, but it was (for me at the time) aggressive and anti-authoritarian and something I connected to, weirdly I don't think i'd even heard any of Limp Bizkits stuff before I got it.

Everybody has heard the albums two hit singles 'Rollin' and 'My Generation' (which are still played way too frequently at otherwise respectable rock clubs), yet the songs that I connected to the most were the albums most introspective songs (I guess I was a depressing soul way back then too) 'My Way', 'Take A Look Around' (which, I'll still admit is a damn good tune), 'It'll Be OK' and 'Boiler'.

Take A Look Around...

My Way... (Can't link the actual video from YouTube, but you can view it here)

Boiler...

As this was of only a few albums I had when I started reading the Harry Potter books I still connect the two in my mind, If I hear the album I think of the books, and if I read the books I think of the album.

Whether I like the band or not, this album made me like rock music, without it I could very easily be into dance or rap (both phases I went through later)

That's all I got on this album, hopefully the next album won't be quite so bad, but I suspect it will.

Shep.