A recent story in the Daily Caller reported on some good open source analysis by a corporate ethics group that demonstrated Google’s funding of the “Center for Democracy and Technology”, a Washington, DC based lobby shop long associated with Google. The Daily Caller reports that: An influential tech industry watchdog group that has received millions […]
@TuneCore Asks Songwriters To Sign Up For Spotify Settlement Without Disclosing Terms
Are you fucking kidding me? A Survey Monkey form? If you are a Tunecore songwriter you recently got an email asking you to sign up for the NMPA/Harry Fox Agency/ Spotify settlement. Songwriters are directed to the above Survey Monkey form. This is it. No details. Nothing.Nada. In particular there is no mention of the possible statutory damages that songwriters are waiving by opting in to this.
So it’s your choice songwriters:
Sign up for a backroom deal cooked up between the NMPA, Harry Fox Agency and Spotify? Or wait for a FAIR and TRANSPARENT process supervised by a federal judge?
Wish all choices were this easy.
Astroturf “Fight For The Future” Received Almost 100K From Mysterious Company Based in Mini Industrial Park
Does your typical “grassroots” group get $96,000 dollars from a company with an address in a mini-industrial park in Michigan? I can’t imagine that a company based in such a location would have $96,000 a year to give to an anti-copyright group like Fight For The Future? (see more on Fight For The Future here, here, here and here).
But from the Federal 990 tax return for Fight For The Future:
A search of Michigan State business licensing records seems to indicate that this company is not registered in Michigan.
I’m not sure what this ultimately means, but here are some other businesses that list physical addresses as 2885 Sanford Ave SW Grandville, Michigan. I have no idea if they are related.
World Fertility Experts
Seems an odd location for this sort of business. Overseas fertility treatments.
Not in state business entity records
http://www.worldfertilityexperts.com/contact-us.php
Dev-Com
Vitamins, investment clubs and protein supplements?!? Those things really go together!
Below is the Manta listing. No other records could be located.
The Mesh Lawsuit Group
As far as I can tell there is no law firm or “lawsuit group” in the US. Michigan business entity records have nothing listed.
Flip it Friday
A $49.95 a month online curriculum for flipping houses.
My Fast Diploma
Not found in Michigan State business entity database.
GS Media
Looks to be a penny stock promoter. Again no business records in Michigan state database. They come up in this interesting article here
Global Gaming Network (GBGM): First the pump, now the big dump
Anti-Copyright “Fight For The Future” and their 1% Grassroots
Does this look like a grassroots organization to you? Pie chart from Fight For The Future’s 2015 financial documents.
At every turn “grassroots” Fight For The Future has been there to undermine artists’ copyright protections in ways that benefit major technology companies.
They famously organized a scripted automated dial-in that overwhelmed the US Congress phone systems during SOPA deliberations creating the impression that thousands of Americans were spontaneously calling in opposition to copyright protections for artists and rights holders. I’ve never understood why this scripted robotic dial in campaign was never investigated. (Read Chris Ruen’s excellent book Freeloading for more on the “spontaneous” corporate lobbyist led anti-SOPA uprising.)
Similarly they organized an automated dial in against the TPP apparently because it doesn’t weaken copyright enough! That’s right, FFTF thinks TPP doesn’t do enough to undermine US cultural exports! So while pretending to protect american jobs the “progressive” FFTF are actually hurting workers in the largely unionized cultural industries while benefiting anti-union libertarian leaning technology company! As Lenin might have called them they are “useful idiots.” But that’s not all Fight For The Future targeted eight Democratic Senators, and promised to oppose them in their next election. “Oh and just one last question… about that ‘no’ at Part IV item 3 on your federal 990 tax return…”
Before it was deactivated the link above allowed sharing of illegally uploaded video of King’s I Have a Dream speech across all social media.
On “Internet Freedom Day” they organized the worlds first anti-civil rights “civil disobedience” campaign directed at the Martin Luther King Estate by illegally copying and distributing Kings “I Have A Dream Speech” and encouraging thousands of others to “share” the video on digital platforms. I’m not a lawyer, but isn’t this criminal willful infringement under 17 U.S.C. § 506? Also how is it that a non-profit keeps it’s tax exempt status when it’s committing criminal acts?
And most recently they used an automated script to “comment bomb” the regulations.gov website in response to a request for comments from the copyright office in a review of the “Whack-a-Mole” DMCA takedown provisions. I believe their efforts were problematic, illegal or violated federal rules for non-profits. Possibly fraudulent as EXACTLY 86,000 of the responses are identical! A detailed explanation is provided here:
This is not a grassroots operation. This is a cynical astroturf lobbying organization.
Cal State Chico Students and @KCSCRadio Say #irespectmusic in a Big Way! — MUSIC • TECHNOLOGY • POLICY
Blake Morgan asked me to post his statement on these awesome students at Cal State Chico, the student run SOTA Productions and especially KCSC Radio with big congratulations on their campus #irespectmusic event campaigning for artist pay for radio play! An uplifting surprise before Blake’s panels at Canadian Music Week next week when he takes […]
German Pirate Party MEP Julia Reda Doesn’t Want to Pay for Diary of Anne Frank.
Diary
Demagogue much? German Pirate Party MEP Julia Reda complains she can’t read The Diary of Anne Frank It’s available on Amazon and iBooks for as little as $6.99. It’s also likely available in her local bookstore. So what she really means is she doesn’t want to pay for it!
Artists, authors and performers have long been familiar with the moral depravity and demagoguery of the Pirate Party, but it has probably never been that clear to the general public. Fortunately this recent series of tweets by Julia Reda (EU Member of Parliament for the German Pirate Party), her self identified “minion” Gilles Bordelais, and author John Degan make it quite easy to understand. ( UPDATE: John Degan has an excellent blog on this exchange here : Why I bought a book for a German Pirate)
The thing is Reda and Bordelais DO have access to The Diary of Anne Frank. What the German MEP Reda and her minion (his self applied moniker, not mine) are whinging about is that they don’t have FREE access to the book. Yes this highly paid Member of EU Parliament is balking at paying approximately $7 for a widely available eBook! But she doesn’t mention that. Why?
Clearly she intends for the general public to be left with the impression that the diary is not available because of “bad” copyright laws. This is pure demagoguery and if the EU parliament was an actual functioning and responsible governing body (instead of a bad parody of a student mock UN) she might actually be reprimanded for this nonsense.
Pirate Party MEP bravely fights the powerful and evil Anne Frank Foundation!
But the demagoguery and distortions are not the worst of it. When you consider the fact that her actions have the potential to undermine the revenues and hence the good work of the Anne Frank Foundation (supported by sales of The Diary of Anne Frank) you have to question her personal judgment and qualifications to represent Germany at the EU. Through the Anne Frank Foundation sales and licensing fees support a vast array of charities and social projects. Many of these entities are focused on anti-semitism, anti-racism, anti-fascism and encouraging Jewish-Palestinian dialogue. There is even a fund to pay for the medial expenses of those that risked their lives to protect Jews during WWII.
You can see more here.
And it pains me greatly to point out the painfully obvious but: You’d think a GERMAN sitting member of European parliament would have a little more sensitivity and think twice before using The Diary of Anne Frank and Anne Frank Foundation for a cheap political stunt. After all it was her countrymen that reduced the length of Anne Frank’s copyright (70 years plus life) by murdering her. This is not a cheap shot, because Reda and her fellow pirates are specifically arguing that it should be in the public domain based on the year of her death rather than the later death of her father (a co-author of the edited commercial work).
It makes me sick to my stomach to even have to explain this.
So my question to Julia Reda is this:
What’s more important?
- Scoring cheap political points while financially undermining a foundation that fights fascism, intolerance and anti-semitism?
- Or being a decent human being?
You can express your opinions to Julia Reda by tweeting at her here @Senficon (although she’s blocked many of us already)
email her here: julia.reda@europarl.europa.eu
or call her office: +32(0)2 28 45732
or mail her a copy of The Diary of Anne Frank here
European Parliament
Rue Wiertz
Altiero Spinelli 05F158
1047 Brussels
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Addendum on MLK’s “Dream” speech.
Evan Greer, Fight for the Future founder and Boston’s first anti-civil rights folksinger organized a civil disobedience campaign against the King family estate by encouraging people to violate Kings rights and post the I Have A Dream speech to YouTube and social media. Why? The answer my friend is blowing in the Center for Rights in Action Federal 990 tax forms.
It should be noted that this outrageous and tone deaf demagoguery is not just an EU Pirate Party problem. A US organization with similar views on copyright baited and harassed the family of Martin Luther King on the 50th anniversary of his “I Have A Dream Speech” Fight For The Future organized a “civil disobedience” campaign to post the King speech to YouTube and other social media sites against the wishes of the King estate. It’s time for these spiteful copyleft bullies to be called out.
You can write Fight For The Future here: press@fightforthefuture.org
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All screenshots.
Editor Note: “Plonk” is european for “I’m an arrogant Twat”
Drivers, Über Is Selling Your Job: Google, Über and Lyft Revolving Door Lobbyist Asks Feds for Driverless Cars — MUSIC • TECHNOLOGY • POLICY
As is well known, Über is as close to Google as 1 is to 2. So, if there’s any silver lining in the Über corporate power grab going on in Austin right now over a ballot measure to bring Über drivers in line with background checks on taxi drivers, it’s that all the world can see just how […]
Enter the DC Lobbyists as Austin Gets More Fleas from Uber
Uber’s attempt to enter the Austin market is becoming the proverbial cautionary tale for what can happen to an otherwise cool, live and let live city’s way of life when Silicon Valley’s tech bully boys descend on the town. And decide to spend whatever it takes to get their way.
Early voting begins today on a ballot initiative paid for by Uber and Lyft, and it’s becoming blatantly apparent that Lyft may have the wrong style mustache on their cars (h/t Mike Godwin). The ballot initiative would replace a duly enacted regulation of the Austin City Council to require fingerprinting of Uber and Lyft drivers with a new regulation drafted by the billion dollar corporations that would strike the fingerprinting requirement.
According to the Austin-American Statesman, taxi drivers, limo drivers and other public transportation operators also have to undergo fingerprint-based background checks.
What happens next will be very, very familiar…
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Coming Soon To Your City: Uber and Lyft Bring Silicon Valley Style Hardball Politics to Austin
Silicon Valley is the new “dark money” of local politics.
Americans are freedom loving people and nothing says freedom like getting away with it.
from Long Long Time by Guy Forsyth.
The list of outsider big money special interests that fared poorly after running into local Austin resident groups with staying power and grassroots clout is long and distinguished.
Even so, the radical change in Austin’s skyline bear mute witness to just how futile is resistance against determined multinationals. If you’ve ever experienced a Google Fiber rep trying to force his way into your back yard, you know what I’m talking about.
Uber and Lyft are using surge pricing of political influence to run headlong into this conflict as the brogrammers pour millions into a ballot measure to rewrite local laws to their benefit and finance the brinksmanship between the commoditizer and the commoditized that we are all too accustomed to.
But for once local elected officials are for…
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What YouTube Could Learn from Record Companies
Don’t forget that Google faces EU charge over Android ‘abuse of dominance’ http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36092441 Google doesn’t need any more bad publicity.
Peter Mensch gave voice to what many in the music business believe as reported by the BBC:
“YouTube, they’re the devil,” [Peter Mensch] told a BBC Radio 4 documentary on the music business. “We don’t get paid at all.”
He said the site’s business model, in which artists make money by placing ads around their music, was unsustainable.
“If someone doesn’t do something about YouTube, we’re screwed,” he said. “It’s over. Someone turn off the lights.”
YouTube’s reaction? It’s not them, it’s the labels, the “gatekeepers”. YouTube pays high royalties for music, it’s that it’s not getting to the artists because it’s being siphoned off by “gatekeepers”. According to YouTube’s Chief Business Officer–the Suit of Suits–Robert Kyncl:
“There are middle-men – whether it’s collection societies, publishers or labels – and what they do is they give advances and they want those recouped. So it’s really hard when there’s no…
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