Grab the Coffee!

Probably the biggest story of the week is the UK has ordered it’s ISP’s to block access to The Pirate Bay, the BBC reports:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17894176

You may recall that The Pirate Bay lost their final appeal back in February and are headed to jail, Time reports:
http://techland.time.com/2012/02/01/pirate-bay-founders-lose-supreme-court-appeal-going-to-jail/

Here is an insightful editorial from the Boston Phoenix on the new music “Super PAC” model and asks some very interesting questions about Amanda Palmer’s record Kickstarter campaign while giving a shout out to David Lowery’s, “New Boss / Old Boss”. Highly Recommended Reading.
http://blog.thephoenix.com/BLOGS/onthedownload/archive/2012/05/03/the-problem-with-the-future-of-music-amanda-palmer-and-the-rise-of-the-music-biz-super-pac.aspx

Digital Rights Corp will track and remove your titles from Torrent File Sharing sites, Contact them from more info:
http://digitalrightscorp.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=74&Itemid=466

Remix without Romance How Free Culture Get’s It Wrong, from Copyhype:
http://www.copyhype.com/2012/04/remix-without-romance-what-free-culture-gets-wrong/

Hypebot reports that Reddit is attempting to “Crowdsource” a hit song… isn’t that what labels have been doing for decades? Bookmark this one…
http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2012/04/redditors-seek-to-create-a-top-10-pop-hit.html#comment-6a00d83451b36c69e2016765e67f23970b

Tech contradicts itself (again), “Freemium” no longer viable, must give away valued content, HypeBot reports:
http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2012/04/the-problem-with-false-content.html

There was a major dust up this week as Prof. Jonathan Taplin of the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab challenged the tech establishment on artists rights. The tech community’s hatred of artists seems to have come to boiling point. The situation is both disappointing and disrespectful, Fast Company and Tech Dirt report:
http://www.fastcompany.com/1834866/the-bands-ex-tour-manager-blasts-reddit-founder-alexis-ohanian-kim-dotcom-the-kickstarter-be
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120423/01452218599/bands-ex-manager-accuses-reddit-profiting-piracy-debate-with-co-founder.shtml

More evidence that Touring is NOT the solution for musicians in the digital age, Digital Music News reports:
http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2012/120504easier#fq6yeUXeS0y6-QMrtd6f1Q

Google is watching you, believe it. While Google is spending record amounts of money lobbying, and trying to convince you that the protection of artists rights is a “censorship” issue, they continue to challenge the law by invading your privacy, Ars Technica reports:
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2012/05/google-may-face-massive-fine-from-ftc-for-bypassing-safari-privacy-controls.ars