Other artists supporting the project include Powderfinger, Silverchair, Jimmy Barnes, Operator Please, Gyroscope, Dawn Collective and punk band, Frenzal Rhomb.

Actually, to say that Frenzal Rhomb support the video is not exactly true. Their guitarist, Lindsay McDougall, is not a happy man this morning as he tears into the music industry, claiming he was “duped” into appearing in the video.

McDougall, who is also a presenter on radio station Triple J, told SMH that he was furious at being “lumped in with this witch hunt” and that he had been “completely taken out of context and defamed” by the Australian music industry. McDougall was told that the video was all about surviving as an Australian artist and no-one told him it was part of an anti-piracy drive.

He said: “I have never come out against Internet piracy and illegal downloading and I wouldn’t do that – I would never put my name to something that is against downloading and is against piracy and stuff, it’s something that I believe is a personal thing from artist to artist.”

McDougall goes on, stating: “I would never be part of this big record industry funded campaign to crush illegal downloads, I’m not like [Metallica drummer] Lars Ulrich. I think it’s bullshit, I think it’s record companies crying poor and I don’t agree with it.”

Echoing the words of many artists in recent times, McDougall decries the methods of the record labels, in that they are the ones making all the money and still complain about what they see as a lack of revenue, even though they failed to adapt to the digital age:

“I’m from a punk rock band, it’s all about getting your music out any way you can – you don’t make money from the record, the record companies make the money from the record. If they can’t make money these days because they haven’t come onside with the way the world is going, it’s their own problem.”

Sabiene Heindl, general manager at MIPI said they were very clear in indicating where the video originated and that it would be distributed to schools, but clearly McDougall is still concerned about his image being sullied by association.

“I don’t think i’m going to sue anyone but I would say that already this morning people’s opinion of me has been lowered,” he said. Not now you’ve set the record straight Mr McDougall.

Coincidentally, TorrentFreak has recently been in touch with a punk outfit who are embracing the power of the digital revolution and BitTorrent in particular. CEO Nick Vivid of MegaPlatinum.net said of their fledgling “Spread This!” BitTorrent network : “We are really enjoying the ability to embrace the punk aesthetics of ‘Do it yourself’ and ‘Call for Change’ – our aesthetics – with this system. There’s an amazing amount of chaos in the record industry. This total deconstruction of the system is exactly what helps us thrive. Our bands feed off of that energy, just as we do.”

Commenting on this situation, Nick told us: “It’s funny how organizations with intimidating names and non menacing acronyms will use deceptive means to warp the words and ruin the reputations of people like Lindsay McDougall – people who have a certain amount of credibility they’ve worked hard to get – in any way possible so that it fits their agenda. More sad proof that a large part of the music industry doesn’t care about the artists or the fans. It’s something else entirely they’re after. I’m surprised Australia let such propaganda in the schools. Microsoft recently proposed something similar in the USA. Thankfully enough people in our educational system saw the ridiculousness of the idea and squashed it.”

Stay tuned for an interview soon.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

The Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI) in conjunction with the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) have been pressurizing Australian Internet Service Providers to take action against those it accuses of infringing its copyrights.

They have informed ISPs that they require them to send warning notices to their customers informing them of their infringing behavior and warning of the likely consequences. They have also issued demands that ISPs disconnect their customers from the internet, should they be accused of sharing copyright works.

According to The Age, Sabiene Heindl – General Manager of MIPI – is signaling a new strategy after Australian ISPs dug their heels in and refused to co-operate with MIPI’s demands. The Internet Industry Association (IIA) wrote to MIPI and explained that they felt they weren’t responsible for the actions of its customers and should not be required to monitor them, effectively refusing to become the industry’s copyright police.

In a letter, the IIA suggested that copyright holders should look for their rights to be enforced by using the existing tools provided by the Australian courts and copyright law.

The IIA quite rightly believes that the labeling of someone as an infringer should only be done by the courts, not by an organization such as MIPI or AFACT, a point outlined in its letter: “The distinction between an infringer and an alleged infringer has been raised as an important legal standard which ought not be undermined by us.”

In response, Heindl explained: “We would hope that the ISPs and the record companies could come up with an alternative solution. That said, if that solution cannot be reached, and at this stage it’s because of the ISPs refusing to play ball, then we may have no alternative other than to take legal action.”

Originally created to curtail physical piracy, 2004 saw MIPI involved in high drama when it raided the offices and home addresses of people involved with Sharman Networks and Brilliant Digital Entertainment. Two universities and 4 ISPs were also raided during the search for evidence to support their case against KaZaA.

In 2005, MIPI was restructured to concentrate on educating the public about file-sharing, although this didn’t stop them raiding an ISP in their quest to get a BitTorrent hub shut down.

It’s likely that 2007/8 will see MIPI ‘educating’ file-sharers with the threat of lawsuits which are hugely expensive, have been tried extensively in the United States and generally, do not work.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

The Business Software Association, an international software body, claimed that in the year 2005 piracy in Australia cost them $361 million. The draft says these figures are “unverified and epistemologically unreliable.” It even goes so far as to call some of the stats used by copyright holders “absurd,” and adds that “of greatest concern is the potentially unqualified use of these statistics in courts of law.”

According to the draft, the RIAA’s Australian arm, the MIPI did not know how they calculated piracy stats, because the IPFI never told them. Strange? Maybe that’s just how things work with international organisations.

The reasoning behind the statements in the draft is that anti-piracy organisations calculate losses by counting each pirated good that is sold. They are making the assumption that each person who buys a pirated CD, for example, would have bought an original one instead. This cannot be backed up, as many of those people might not have been able to buy, or might not have bought the original CD.

The draft concluded with a statement asking for statistics that cannot be verified to be withdrawn. “Either these statistics must be withdrawn or the purveyors of these statistics must supply valid and transparent substantiation.”

The truth on the other hand: Why Most Artists Profit from Piracy!

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.