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

Re:Hypocrisy Alert!

[_xeno_]

Oh well, I'll have to use my moderator point elsewhere.

[S]o Flash is a bad evil tool of the devil (as spouted here at Slashdot) but when the EFF uses it, no problem?

Flash is a bad evil tool of the devil when used in place of HTML or used in place of other, more accessible, standards. In this case, Flash is being used to make what is in essence a movie. When knowingly browsing to a movie, I am willing to accept that the movie might require a plugin in order to be successfully viewed.

What I hate and find annoying is when Flash is used in place of HTML or other more accessible means. If Slashdot's front page were a large Flash animation, then it would be an annoying tool of the devil. If Flash were used for the topic icons, it would be another misuse. But if Flash were used for a cute little animation that is the basis for a text story, that's an appopriate use of Flash.

Also, don't forget that there is no entity known as Slashdot. Some people like Flash, others do not.

I personally hate Flash when used where simple html and images would have done since Flash sometimes causes my browser to crash and generally slows down the rendering of the browser page. But when it is used to create an animation with sound, I don't mind it - as long as I am aware of that fact before loading the page.

This is just another right-tool-for-the-job issue, and in this case, the EFF is using the right tool for the job they wish to do.