Now the band are back supporting a similar but completely altruistic model, this time for a DVD. In January 2010, Radiohead performed at the Haiti Relief concert at the Henry Ford theater in Los Angeles and the event was filmed and its audio recorded, not by the band or show organizers, but by their fans.

Understandably, that footage went on to be scattered far and wide but thanks to the work of three fans – inez, formengr, andrea – the video and audio has been painstakingly collated to make a two DVD set of the event, which was limited on the day to just 1,400 people present. The trio then decided to make the work available on the Internet for the masses, but supported by a great idea to help those in need.

“It was a SPECIAL show with a SPECIAL purpose – to raise badly needed funds for those who lived through the devastation. And it seemed only appropriate that the DVD should carry on some of these goals,” inez explains.

So plan in hand, inez approached Radiohead for their approval and to find out which charity they would like donations to go to. The band chose Oxfam to handle donations on behalf of Haiti.

Normally with a charity product a whole bunch of funds would go to producing a physical product and then getting it delivered all over the world, but with the magic of BitTorrent none of that is necessary. In fact, even the online distribution costs come to almost nothing meaning that every penny goes in the right direction.

Inez has chosen a handful of trackers to distribute the DVD including the signup only Zombtracker and the one the majority of BitTorrent users will recognize, KickassTorrents.

The official Oxfam donation link can be found here and a copy of the full video can be seen on YouTube, linked below.

Please download and give generously.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Dozens of contributing artists waived their rights and performed free of charge to maximize the revenue for Africa. In an attempt to replicate this success, a group of artists recorded “We Are the World 25 for Haiti” following the devastating earthquake in Haiti, hoping to raise money to help those in need.

Although most people realize that donating directly to Doctors Without Borders or the Red Cross is a more efficient way to donate, the initiative was obviously started with the best intentions by most of the people involved. According to the RIAA however, there is also a group of people who deliberately try to “steal” from this fundraising campaign – music pirates.

In a recent blog post the RIAA dramatically claims that “the album is now widely available on illicit BitTorrent sites like The Pirate Bay, Torrentz and more. The posting highlights a truly ugly side of P2P piracy – the undermining of humanitarian fundraising efforts via online theft of the ‘Hope for Haiti Now’ compilation.”

The RIAA basically says that pirates are purposely stealing money from Haitians. But are they?

In a response to the RIAA’s writing, Music Ally dug up some numbers and they found out that compared to most other popular singles the number of downloads the song gets are really low. Aside from this, one has to wonder if those who downloaded the song would have paid for it if it was not available on BitTorrent. Perhaps they already donated through a more direct channel?

Techdirt further notes that the RIAA blames sites like Torrentz which doesn’t even store torrent files, while they leave out Google, the site through which their source actually found the torrents.

What most people missed though, might make the RIAA’s post look even more hypocritical. Charity singles such as “We Are The World” actually bring in a lot of cash for the record industry and related businesses. This could be easily framed as “Stealing from Haitians” as well.

Columbia Records fared well with the release of the first “We Are The World” single and the performance rights that still come in today continue to benefit the “copyright holders.” In addition, charity songs including “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” ended up on thousands of compilation albums for which the charities probably never saw a penny.

We were unable to find out exactly how long the profits of the new Haiti single will actually go to Haiti, but we’re sure that the music industry will take a cut regardless. Similarly, iTunes will give up their share for a few months but will be profiting from the single later on.

These examples show that reality is always a bit more balanced than how the RIAA portrays it. Nonetheless, those who actually like the song should definitely consider buying it or at least donate to one of the other charities that benefit Haiti.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.