. . . just links from HayYoo.com and DanKostecki.com
Blackbeard, the world’s most famous pirate, lost his flagship in 1718 when the ship ran aground on a sandbar in North Carolina. But in 1996, the wreck of the Queen Anne’s Revenge was rediscovered, and archaeologists began excavating the ship. Since then, the excavation project has revealed that the ship contained many medical instruments of the day, hinting that Blackbeard put great effort into keeping his crew healthy.
Rejoice, brothers! File sharing is now an official religion in Sweden. For real. It took two years, but it’s done: it’s called the Missionary Church of Kopimism and has Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V as its sacred symbols. Founded in 2010 by philosophy student Isak Gerson, the 3,000-member Missionary Church of Kopimism was created to avoid legal persecution.
Apparently, when confronted with changing business models that make your old model less reliable, different people act in different ways. An anonymous reader points us to the news that the singer of the band , has decided to take a religious view on the matter and has declared that file sharers are going to hell. His view of the religion of music economics is apparently that it’s okay to download if you’re poor, but if you can afford to pay, it’s a sin to download and share. He then goes on to thank his record label — whom he refers to as his “paymaster” — and suggest that the band is “lucky.” While I’m sure luck plays a part in all of it, perhaps not damning people to hell for just listening to your music would be a good start.
He notes that the band has a dedicated bunch of fans, which is great, but shouldn’t they be focusing on giving them real reasons to buy, rather than invoking threats of brimstone and hellfire to guilt people into buying? It really comes down to a simple equation. You can make people feel good about buying something, or you can focus on making them feel bad if they don’t buy. I tend to think that, in this day and age, the former is much better than the latter. Why worry about those who are downloading, when you can focus on providing good value and a good experience for those who want to support you?
If you doubt that America has the finest lawyers that money can buy,
this TechDirt report may change your mind.
Ah, pre-crime. THREsq has a worrisome story of a couple of recent lawsuits by concert producers pre-suing potential bootleggers claiming trademark infringement. Yes, they’re claiming trademark infringement for something that hasn’t happened yet, and simply listing out hundreds of John Doe and Jane Does who can later be filled in. As a part of this, they’re getting law enforcement involved by using the lawsuit to ask the court to order US Marshalls, local and state police and even off-duty officers to go ahead and seize and impound the bootlegged material.
September 19th falls on a Friday this year, so folks are making plans for an extended “Talk Like A Pirate” weekend.
