MeVsWorld

The Pirate Bay are currently being sued for 1.6 Million Euros by the Ifpi.

The pirate bay have never hosted or distributed copyright material and this has been the main reason for legal complications in the many futile attempts by industry representatives to have the site shut down; they instead provide links to user submitted torrent files which are essentially road maps that can be used to locate the source of a particular file. This action marks just one of many increasingly desperate attempts to win a case and create presidence so that the way can be cleared for similar action; but at what cost is this legal precedence going to come if successful?

One particulaly unpleasant potentual side effect can be seen in the ongoing Shareaza saga. The full story can be read here on Shareaza’s official site, however the short version is as follows:-

2002 - Shareaza software designed and build by a sole developer as a file sharing, file management and media player tool with many completely legal uses.

2007 - Summer - A trusted Shareaza end user who was looking after the domain name www.shareaza.com was threatened with a $2.5 million lawsuit and was forced to give up the domain name.

2007 - Christmas - Shareaza.com went live with a fake version of the program claiming to be 100% legal. This software contains spy-ware. The  website also activated a pop up in official Shareaza software prompting an upgrade to the fake - potentially harmful version.

And finally - In January 2008, active iMesh representations were changed from “MusicLab LLC” to an off-shore “Discordia Ltd.,” followed by three distressing actions:
1. Their website was changed to original but deceptively similar graphics to their site, labelled “official” but with less incriminating text.
2. Their lawyer sent a threatening letter to Shareaza’s community forum admin, on grounds of a new user’s post that had previously been deleted. (It remains the sole communication received.)
3. And their lawyer filed for the “Shareaza” trademark in the US.

OK: Big problem with this - If these actions are allowed to succeed precedence will be set and it will be possible for large companies to destroy any free / user maintained product that threatens its commercial counterpart. Microsoft will be able to destroy open source office applications by simply challenging a non profit group of users and volunteers for the trademark rights. The recording industry will be able to destroy unsigned bands and musicians giving away music that may detract attentions from one if its profit generating artists.

The possibilities are endless and extremely frightening so if you like home grown applications / underground indi music, and solutions to problems not available in main stream applications be afraid!

And I have no idea where figures are coming from. The 1.6 Million Euros claim by Ifpi is interesting because falling music sales are pretty much in-line with retail slumps globally. I personally don’t believe there is any way for the music industry to prove that file-sharing detracts from sales. I can however think of a few scenarios in which industry generated red tape detracts from sales; a few quick ones…

1) I want to download an album from iTunes, put it on my memory stick and plug it into the USB port of my car stereo. I can’t!
2) I suddenly have the urge to watch a film that has just been released in DVD. I want to download this film. I can’t, simply because I do not live in the USA.
3) I want to watch TV episodes of my favorite show online - I can’t because again, I am in the wrong country.

I am willing to pay for all these things, they are not available PURELY because of red tape and licencing issues. Would you drive to a store or simply fire up a point to point application and grab what you want that way?

The frustration of not being allowed to access certain things others can does also create a level of bad feeling towards publishers and media creators, making it easier for the end user to steal.

From another point of view, figures claiming to represent loss to the industry do not reflect the viral marketing benefits p2p sharing has on the very industry that is fighting to shut it down. I know of a good number of people who have downloaded or been sent part of an album from a band they had never heard of, only to discover they love the music and want to own every album available.

Of course with no way to trace these figures the industry will sweep this side of the argument under the carpet, but everyone with a little understanding of marketing will know that this will no doubt account for a significant percentage of legal sales.

Too often in the last few years have large companies been able to push smaller players out of the way with no opposition, inflict unfair practices on end users and increase their market share with actions that could possibly be proven legal (by anyone with enough money to fight them) and I fear it is a trend set to become far worse if these smaller actions are allowed to go un-challenged.

Reading this Motley Fool Article entitled 5 tips for struggling 1st time buyers got me thinking.

As has been pointed out, 4 out of the 5 tips rely on parents help in some way or another. Looking with a cold eye on the situation it is now almost impossible for a couple (let alone an individual) on an average income to buy a property.

A default notice was wrongly places on my credit file in 2007, this prevented me from taking advantage of HSBC’s 100% graduate mortgage… It took me a year of fighting to have this removed, and now that it is, no ones lending anyway.

I speak to many people of previous generations who tell tales of buying land in their ideal spot, building their home, or buying a place at auction for £10,000 which is now worth £300,000. Will we ever see that sort of growth in our lifetime? Not within a time-frame of 20 years as some people previously have.

So is this unfair? well… economies are all essentially lots of sets balances, one imbalance starts chain reactions creating both positive and negative outcomes, depending on who you are and what situation you are in. There will never be an economic state that suits everyone so in that sense, this is just a transitory period on the way to a greater balance.

Could policy makers make live easier for 1st time buyers, desperately wanting to get on the housing ladder? Yes - planning policies which don’t require large sums of bribe cash would be nice. mortgages made available for 1st time buyers who want to convert derelict houses, barns, churches etc…. (my parents were allowed one of these with no problem but I am not). Why should these opportunities be reserved exclusively for cash rich developers and builders when they could go towards solving a problem.

Discrimination - yes, even though I can prove a substantial income for years, I cannot get the best rates beacause of my self employed status. Also the fact any company can place what they want on your credit file with no accountability or penalty if this is done incorrectly or wrecklassly is wrong. Credit referencing needs a complete overhaul.

The only thing I should have to do to secure a mortgage is prove my income and the ability to maintain that income to a human, not a computer! What I buy with this money is my business and my risk!

OK… Watching violent porn / extreme porn is something a lot of people do - while I personally find the idea of watching a film which portrays (with consenting, professional actors of course) a rape distasteful to the point of mild nausea, I understand that some otherwise well adjusted people want to watch this sort of thing played out once in a while.

Will this turn them into a rapist? NO, NO, no, no, no!!!

OK, people capable of torture, murder and other monstrous violent sexual acts have to be very deeply disturbed - this mental damage goes far beyond what exposure to film and video games can do! This is deep rooted sickness and the craving for pornography, films, video games is side effect not cause.

I’ve had a video involving a golden lab doing something unmentionable to a blond girl placed on my PC to play on every boot up (this was a college prank)

Of course as soon as I worked out how to stop it from happening I did, it was a good prank because it was days before I rebooted after that person had tinkered with my startup.ini file.

The residuals of this video (even after deleting) may still exist on an old hard disk I have on a shelf somewhere, the chances are slim, but it is possible none the less - does that make me a sex offender?

While I’m looking through torrent sites, underground hacking sites (I’m allowed to do this out of my own interest and curiosity … or am I?) some of the most disgusting pop-ups appear on these sites - have some of them downloaded into cache? probably - will this make me a criminal from next week? - If you have EVER seen anything like this, even as a joke or accident or as an unwanted pop-up you could be charged and placed on the sex offenders list, even if you deleted the files etc etc!

We have had violent media in one way or another for many generations, when I was young was keen on shooting Germans in the game Wolfenstein 3D, since then I have visited Germany several times and never felt any inclination to go on a killing rampage!

We need to look at the deeper problems, which of course the government will not do as it will cost too much money with too little press coverage, this is the only reason for the bill - maximum exposure, they are being seen (by idiots) to be doing something about a problem.

In reality this is one more step towards communism in the UK. Freedom of speech is very much a thing of the past, and now there are several websites which the french, Irish, Germans, Americans etc. can visit but we in the UK cannot under law! Where I don’t have any problem with the specific nature of this particular move, I have a big problem for the prescience it sets - is this the start of further censorship in the UK?

Will imported films and TV shows now be vetted for any language and content that could in the governments eyes cause individuals to go out and commit crime?

Read the article on the BBC website here

To add to this it was this story that sparked off these legislation, a horrible affair it is, although I must say - if the Internet had not existed - this individual would still be capable of this - as I said before to be capable of such things you have to have damage beyond that which exposure to media can cause.

Its taxed when you earn it, its taxed when you spend it, its taxed when you save it, its taxed when you die, its taxed when its inherited, its taxed when they spend it…..

If the government were a private company taking a subscription for services provided I think we would all expect a greater degree of transparency.

We all see waste and total incompetence at our expense every day and we sit back and accept that this is “just the way things are”.

An attitude en mass such as this will literally bring this country to its knees. I want to see more fuel strikes, more demonstrations, more voices heard… Its about time they worked for us again!

Powell’s “Rivers of blood” speech has popped up in the media a lot of late, and I don’t think anyone who refers to it has the faintest idea what they are talking about, especially some loudmouth idiot on questiontime the other day.

They take snippets out of context and wave them around as if it were hate speech whereas in reality Powell’s warnings were based on hard evidence, numbers and a genuine concern for his constituency rather than intolerances of any kind.

Instead of taking time to understand the issues that so concerned Powell and looking at the relevence of his warnings to present social situations, people are homing in on statements within the speech with no regard for historical context and jumping to stupid conclusions.

As we all know – language was different 40 years ago; what some of our grandparents would consider a perfectly acceptable statement could be considered by many today as offensive for one reason or another, the same is true in the reverse.

The quote “In this country in 15 or 20 years time the black man will have the whip hand over the white man.” Was referenced by Powell as something one of his constituents said to him.

While this statement may sound offensive and even racist to many today, we have to look at these things in historical context. This was an strong, but more acceptable statement in the 1960s.

Powel was merely pointing out that ordinary British citizens were afraid that they would become minorities in their own country and to dwell on individual statements out of context is a bad thing to do when trying to understand anyone’s argument.

It’s very difficult for us living in such a diverse community to imagine what it must have been like to become alien in the place we have lived al our lives and we cannot blame people who were scared for their fears and concerns. For many it felt like invasion to them. Are they racist for feeling like this? No!

Powell was not against cultural integration and immigration, he was also not a racist! What he was concerned about was the economic and social consequences of miss-management of immigration.

He thought that it was unfair to offer the same housing benefits to new immigrants that had not contributed to the British economy as residents who had contributed all their lives, he went on to warn that this policy would cause an economic strain on the country, not to mention ill feeling which could fuel racial tensions; these points were based on numbers and factual observations alone and were nothing to do with racial hatred or prejudice.

Powell also recognised an evolving set of double standards that arguably has grown to become a bigger social problem, he spoke of an elderly war widow who had been abused both verbally and physically by new immigrants and as a result did not want to take any in as lodgers. Of course this is understandable, considering her age and the drastic changes she has had to endure; however the council at the time offered no protection and even called her racist.

Of course people who have worked for 40 - 50 years for their country, have lost loved ones to wars which were fought to ensure long term prosperity and independence of the UK will feel threatened and upset when faced with a situation like this in their old age.

Would the same issues have arisen if immigration been dealt with differently, regulating numbers and housing to promote complete integration with British society within a sensable time frame?

Powell warned that a substantial proportion of new immigrants did not want to integrate with British society and that this would lead to problems. I must admit that I find it hard to accept that there are whole communities in my native country that despise our history and way of life.

If I wished to visit or live in another country I would certainly not be welcome if I hated the people, culture and way of life and was vocal about this fact.

Of course cultural diversity is a great asset to any community, but government management of immigration from the 60s right up until the present day has done more to promote separation and tension than it has to encourage integration this can only lead to the alienation of native English.

It must be a dream scenario for an incompetent government for a seriously miss-managed situation, where billions of tax payers money has literally been wasted to be a taboo subject.

There is a great hesitance to speak out on these subjects for fear of being branded ignorant, intolerant and racist, Powell found this out when he was swiftly removed from the shadow cabinet shortly after this speech.

Most discussion I have seen broadcast on these subjects has been mainly ill informed opinionated drivel, however ignorance with a loud voice is a very dangerous thing.

Perception is high among native British that they will be in the physical and political minority within their life times, there are substantial groups of immigrants living in the UK that despise the native British way of life, granted the individuals who wish to attack it are in the minority but the very fact that they are there at all can be attributed to government policy.

Had we listened to Mr Powell and regulated immigration promoting full integration the breeding ground for tension and hatred would have barely existed.

We have a social situation today of anarchy, segregation, racial tension and hatred as well as 100s of cases of alleged double standards on all levels from benefits to justice.

All this provides fierce fuel to extreme right wing groups such as the BNP and increases tensions further, but is any of this the fault of a particular ethnic group. I believe not.

Of course people will feel hard done by if they see newcomers to their country getting more benefits than they do.

Of course people will be upset when they feel unwelcome and alien in a place they have lived since child-hood, we cannot brand people racist for feeling this, nor can we blame any particular group if people immigrants or not.

People will be upset if they believe crimes against minorities receive greater police attention than crimes against native Brits, even if this isn’t the case. One has to ask, where this perception comes from though.

Government mistakes over the course of decades (not only on issues of immigration) has provided us with social, political and economic problems today that are so deeply rooted they are unsolvable; is this merely a transitional period, or has all hope for a functional and harmonious society been lost forever. Who knows if balance will ever be restored.

“And so what have we learned through this ordeal? The internet went away… it came back, but for how long we do not know.

We cannot take the internet for granted any longer, we as a country must stop over logging .. on. We must use the internet only when we need it.

It’s easy for us to think we can just use up all the Internet that we want, but if we don’t treat the internet with the RESPECT… that its deservers, it could one day be gone for ever. So let us learn to live with the internet, not for it.

No more browsing for no apparent reason, no more mindlessly surfing on our laptops while watching television … and finally; we must learn to only use the internet for porn twice a day… max!”
Randy Marsh, South Park 1206

No TV show has ever had me researching a particular political situation, looking into a social issue, or discovering something new to me more than SouthPark. I discovered a love for Kansas, I became a pastafarian and I became armed with all kinds of facts about Scientology and Mormons all because of this show!

The fact that its always topical, frequently outspoken, and constantly challenging political and social policies that aught to be challenged is not only a stimuli for conversation but also an important tool for social awareness. Political satire, apart from being entertaining has always been important, in parodying people and situations a truth can be told in a way that no other medium can.

Southpark studios - official home page for South Park - Episodes watchable online in the UK soon (we hope). (the rant about red tape and licencing complexities preventing things like BBCi player and iTunes working internationally will no doubt come soon)

Think of a traditional business like a butchers shop. The butcher offers a service to customers, employs people locally, uses local (hopefully) produce. This forms a kind of economic wheel which creates a cycle, through which flows an exchange of goods, funds and benefits. In modern society these wheels interlock in a complex web of flowing assets, funds, benefits, human resources and services and as they all interlink within one countries economy, that economy is stable.

Important parts of these cycles are major service providers. Companies that most of us need to use every day such as banks, telephone companies and energy suppliers.

So what happens when earnings from people in the UK, a part of this flow that needs to go full cycle, go into the banking system, or go towards paying utility bills, but the human resources required to provide customer service, billing and even internal processes like payroll and technical support, become outsourced to different countries. Several things get put out of balance, we have a large company, responsible for a big chunk of national economic turnover not putting what it should back in to the economy by means of contracts to other UK companies and of course employment.

Worse still when a large company closes down part of its operation in the UK to out source it to another country which is completely separate from our economic system. This company is still turning over its same share within its marketplace, but putting a fraction of what it was back in. In a scenario such as this resulting job losses put further strain on national economy by means of the extra load on the benefits systems, even if that just means that 20% of staff made redundant claim job seekers allowance for 2 weeks to bridge a gap, this still represents a large figure in real terms.

I have not even begun to mention customer service issues when it comes to language barriers but I know that anyone that has experienced this 1st hand will have a greater understanding of this than I could convey with text alone. Suffice to say, I know that if I get put through to my Banks overseas call centre it will take around about 20% - 40% longer to complete my call and the tasks required than if I get through to the now diminished Swansea UK centre.

Most months of late I have been reading about processes being outsourced, it is an unprecedented trend, fuelled by high speed Internet connectivity and the availability of cheap global bandwidth so it is difficult to say where it will leave us, I hope that consumer pressure will continue to help curb this trend, this is certainly starting to happen from a customer service point of view with companies advertising only UK call centres as a unique selling point, however for less publicised industries such as TV production, outsourcing of specific processes is less obvious.

For example I read a while back about a major UK children’s TV production company moving its stop frame animation to Eastern Europe…. Problems with this;

1) the creative work force are still here in the UK and ether have to move to a different company to do the same job or re-train. If they move to a different company and the reason for the outsourcing is partly to do with government policies then this may happen again, it they re-train then this could also put a strain on public money.
2) let’s say the program in question airs on the BBC. The licence money coming 100% from UK residents, the majority of this being earned in the UK… that cycle I was talking about is broken.

I believe this leads to economic destabilisation, there is of course an argument for a global economy, these cycles spanning the world instead of just one country - and this of course has always happened but primarily with imports and exports.

What goes out of one pond must come in again and if it goes in to someone else’s pond theirs gets full while ours becomes empty.

So summers coming, or thats what the calander says although I’m still convinced we had our summer here in the UK about 2 weeks ago on a thursday. Did you enjoy it?

This is a fave of mine, not only beacause its looks straddle the line between funny and obscene in a most satisfying fassion, but also because, joking aside it is one of the best tasting roast chickens I have ever tasted.

OK, this is really simple. Grab a chicken, clean it and remove giblets etc. Get a can of beer - any will do. Drink a 1/4 of the can and replace with dried herbs, garlic powder, salt, pepper and - I sometimes put it a little BBQ sauce. Its entirely up to you.

Smear the skin with olive oil, rosmary and salt, plug the neck with a carrot or potato and you are almost ready.

Now, slide the can up the chicken’s cavity and stand it on its legs as it shows in the picture. This is the position that you roast the bird in, which when I open my BBQ usually causes conversation.

Your smoker should have already been prepared and should be at roasting temp (refer to your smokers instructions - all should have instructions for roasting chickens but as a general rule, keep the BBQ at around 170(c) and roast for an hour, checking regularly. Be sure to use a meat thermometer and check properly to ensure the chicken is cooked properly all the way through. I like to use a little hickory wood on the charcoal to add flavour.

What do you get, a gorgeous smoky crisp skin, and meat that literally melts in your mouth, full of flavour. The beer with the herbs and species steams the bird from the inside - infusing the flavour while the smoker flavours and crisps up the skin.

For me this is an out door dish, I know some people do this in the oven, but I don’t think its the same. There are about a million variations, and more specific guides about for this as well so if you feel like it… hit google.

Well here is the very 1st post on MeVsWorld.co.uk.

As you can read if you can be bothered to in the about section, I’m a full time musician (composer / producer) working in the UK and I have a wide variaty of interests and ideas about various things from the best way to insert a beer can up a chicken in order to obtain maximum yum factor to government miss management of public services with my hard earned cash!

It is these things and more I would like to rant about, even if no one reads and since it would be a little unprofessional doing this on my official composing website I set this website up as an outlet for these things.

Of course I hope to see a few hits / comments good, bad and ugly and links etc appear so if you do come join in.

That’s all for now - find me on www.goodsounds.co.uk