EFF Releases "The Tinseltown Club"

Seth Schoen writes: "Sing along, kids! EFF is debuting the EFF Action Center with a song produced by EFF and friends -- the Tinsel Town Club Song (a parody of the "Mickey Mouse Club Song"). "Tinseltown Club" makes fun of Disney for its support of legislation which takes away your rights. There's also an MP3 version (with better sound quality) for those who can't see the Flash animation, and we expect to make several other formats available soon. To help save bandwidth, we are encouraging listeners to share the song on peer-to-peer networks." Update: Seth has written in with some mirrors you can try, I've posted his note in the story.. Seth says:

"Please try P2P networks first, before going to an HTTP site! The song and animation are definitely out there on the P2P networks by now.

For those who have BitTorrent, use http://bittorrent.theory.org:8080/20020528_eff_tinseltown_club.mp3

For those who use http, get The MP3 from here.

Please go easy on action.eff.org (where the Flash animation is posted) and please do set up and publicize your own mirrors.

• Seth"

Comments

This is Hilarious!

[Anonymous Coward]

THis is Hilarious, I just hope that the EFF doesn't loose it's credibility as a result of this hilarious piece of work! They really should be acting more mature when it comes to serious matters such as these. Think about it, do we really want them to represent us with such works of art?

A good example of a legitimate use of Peer-to-Peer

[cardshark2001]

The EFF is making a good statement here, without even issuing a statement.

1. Parodies are be protected speech, and the same content that is legal in "traditional" media should be legal on the internet.

2. Disney really sucks

3. Peer-to-Peer file-sharing software is not merely for eypatch wearing, parrot on their shoulder types. People actually use it legitimately.

Why not make another statement?

[Anonymous Coward]

4. We don't need to use a license restricted format (mp3) when there's a better format available freely (ogg)

Yup

[Kevbo]

Would you rather be represented by humorless executives?

Very interesting

[Second_Derivative]

Odd that the EFF would use the proprietary Flash format.

(someone shoot the lameness filter please. Cheers. *fears for all those CPU cycles burned doing gzip compression*)

Well, um . . . Re:And The Purpose Is What?

[StefanJ]

. . . unless it's changed since this morning, doesn't the last frame invite viewers to find out what they can do?

The cartoon is motivating people to act.

It's propaganda

[Paul the Bold]

"WTF are they up to?" It's propaganda; they are making a complex and boring issue palatable to the average person. This kind of campaign is common (I hate to bring it up, but we've all received a Chick tract). It's not an in-depth coverage of the topic, it's an attention grabber.

I sent this link to my sisters, who have taken no interest in this issue at all. I am know that the stupid cartoon and song will make them laugh, but the confrontational lyrics should make them think. (I'm just glad I sent it to them yesterday.)

Re:hard to grab flash

[zerocool^]

For reference, when you do things like this, put them on MP3.com a couple of days before they go through so that they appear on MP3.com (it takes a few days to validate). Then you can stream the mp3 (low or hi bandwidth), and bandwidth becomes their problem, not yours.

~Will

Nice, but wrong strategy.

[Dan Crash]

The Flash video was nicely done, but I think trying to paint corporations as villains for trying to "keep their profits high" is a strategy waiting to backfire. Keeping profits high is what corporations are supposed to do. No one in power is going to spank them for doing that.

The whole issue isn't about profits in the first place. It's about control. THEY want to control the things YOU buy AFTER you buy them. And they're using all their corporate powers -- money, lobbying, technology -- to stop you from owning things at all. In their world, you don't own CDs, just licenses to listen to them.

I think we'd all be doing better if we lampooned these corporations as communist dictators instead of capitalists. The analogy fits better, and it's funnier, too.