And no, I will not follow your blog. Likewise, don't feel obliged to follow mine ^_^
The gunmen from Somalia aren't the only pirates in trouble. For the web savvy out there, the on-going trial of the owners of The Pirate Bay website is not news. After a 9 day trial under a judge with an alleged bias, they were fined the tune of 2.5 million GBP. Quite hard on the piracy thing these days, aren't they? And things were going quite well for the IFPI and the other plaintiffs in the suit until one of their own broke step. Advance Patrol, a latin hip hop group (they sound something like Shakira after a night of hash and gin) pulled out of the affair. What's more, they said they never wanted in in the first place. The IFPI apparently dragged them in claiming one of their albums was leaked and this was in their best interest...
AdPat didn't just leave the issue there. With all the vigor of their newfound love for copyleft (and maybe their hate for the impulsive IFPI?), they released their latest album, El Futuro on Pirate Bay. Apart from being a slap on the face of the prosecution, it also rose to the top of the downloads for the week and had about 500 active seeders (If you aren't familiar with the slangs of P2P file sharing, look it up. Or take my word, that's a huge number). Advance Patrol also issued a statement - clearly stating that they wanted music to be free, like it was meant to be; not bound by what they felt were the crushing restrictions of a copyright industry striving to save the wealth it had amassed.
Its not like I support illegal downloading or breaking of Intellectual Property Rights, but this move by the band has come as a big surprise. Naturally, I downloaded the album immediately. I can't say I enjoyed it; hip hop was never my style. But it was much more about supporting the movement than the music itself. If you have some time, download the album; run a search for Advance Patrol on thepiratebay.org. Can't help but appreciate the guys for what they've pulled. More on copyright and freedom when I get the time.
Oh, and about my previous post, I swear to the nearest polite god I'm not racist.
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Don't be mean ^_^;