Slashdot Mirror
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"
I tried to grab the flash file to share on gnutella, but eff.org keeps denying me when I use wget or curl (grabbed url from page source).
Is there a URL where we can grab it so we can spread the word?
"Let him go, Ralph. He knows what he's doing." --Otto Mann (simpsons)
they thought about the sound aspect but dammnit people want to see the video also.For someone that was concerned about using up to much bandwidth they could have made a format for download so that we could see it offline. I guess that would have taken planning and forsight. Sigh... guess I will sit here and see if it ever loads. 3 minutes to slashdot effect and counting...
Hey here is a thought, I got ten bucks that says we never see this on total request live...
Papa Legba come and open the gate
this is just sad. the last thing that's going to convince me disney is evil is a bunch of geeks singing, badly at that.
BilldaCat
So do I. They'd be just the people to sue and establish more fair use precedent.
-- Fester
"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows."
why not convert the mp3 yourself??
Hmm... let's see here... converting a lossy format to another lossy format... can anyone say, "Massive Quality Loss"?
This is not the greatest sig in the world, no. This is just a tribute.
for now.
Ryan T. Sammartino
"Ancora imparo"
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?
I unable to play Stallman singing " Free Software song ". Does anyone have a link to a music file of *him* singing it in another music format (ogg/mp3)?
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.
WWJD? JWRTFA!
4. We don't need to use a license restricted format (mp3) when there's a better format available freely (ogg)
So do you think the RIAA would be stupid enough to come after me if I distribute this song on a Napster-like system?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Would you rather be represented by humorless executives?
In Vino Veritas
Does anyone think after hearing this parody, Disney will have some epic crisis of conscience and immediately reverse its support of anti-freedom legislation?
Seems like the time and effort behind this would be better spent mailing/e-mailing/snail-mailing/phoning legislators to voice your opposition.
Software patents?
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*)
To help save bandwidth, we are encouraging listeners to share the song on peer-to-peer networks
Huh? There is no bandwidth saved. What they mean is, we want to shift the cost of distributing this thing to other people.
DrLunch.com The site that tells you what's for lunch!
Hmmm... so Flash is a bad evil tool of the devil (as spouted here at Slashdot) but when the EFF uses it, no problem? Come on.
The toon simply proves the point that the SWF format is the best way to do such cartoons and interactivity on the web. Why won't the open source community embrace it and make a good GUI editor for it? While cool and all, I'm simply not able to make such a cartoon with free software. Unless the EFF is hiding some cool new tool from us they are using some non-free proprietary software to make that SWF, period.
A|Q|U|A
userland's dave winer has an image you can use to link to the animation from your own website.
(i humbly admit that i made it. i am biased.)
go get it
Download here: http://shakti.tky.hut.fi/slashdot/effmp3
People who are "served" by Warner digital cable are paying more $$$ than ever before for poorer service. (And each TV now needs its own Set Top Box.)
AOL TIME Warner owns the magazines you read, the movie studios, movie theatres, 50% of internet users and nearly half of the cable TV customers.
It seems like AOL Time Warner has the EFF in their pocket, too! They convinced the EFF to attack poor Disney, which is struggling to compete in the shadow of the massivce AOL Time Warner monopoly.
--
Ask the Ya-Hoot Oracle Anything!
Sorry the Goonies was done by Warner Studios AKA Weard Brohers. ;)
Thank goodness dizzy can only ad english and some music and no edititing to Hayao Miyazaki films or I would be ticked!
Not alone! 764 Bytes a second and falling... 746 Bytes a second and falling...
. . . 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.
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.)
since when has slashdot been about quality?:)
Looking for Book Reviews? Check out Literary Escapism.
I mean, they don't have to be Free Software fanatics or anything, but I do expect the EFF to at least make a token effort at not squandering money, and keeping true to their beliefs. Surely the $1000 licensing fee for Macromedia Flash plus time spend developing the animation could have been better employed to defend peoples' rights in the real world, rather than promoting a proprietary plugin that I can't even see. I mean, the total amount I have donated to the EFF in the past is probably less than $1000, and I'd consider myself one of their more pecunative sponsorors.
Self-declared "pragmatists" may claim that Flash is the most widespread, or that it is the 'best', but he is a fool who denies that freedom from vendor lock-in and the goals of the EFF do not go hand in hand. I'll be contacting them directly over the next few days; the only right thing for them to do is to remove the proprietary Flash animation from their site.
Yeah, for earning the respect of the general public for an august organization like the EFF, there's nothing quite like making up a song that mocks those who disagree.
If that doesn't work, maybe we can shoot Disney execs with spitwads or give them atomic wedgies.
I can't get to their main page now, so I'm trying to figure out the lyrics. This is the best I can come up with so far. Anyone know what these words I couldn't figure out are?
Ooh, sing along kids!
Tinsel town glow[?]
Tinsel town glow
Tinsel town glow
Tinsel town glow
Who believes the average chains a criminal on the ???
Disney and his show biz friends
Who have a lot at stake
Who with their laws turn back the clocks
The rights we have today
The entertainment moguls and CBDTPA
And they stell us stuff (it's overpriced!)
They lock it up (and that's not nice!)
So they can keep their profits in the sky (sky high!)
So join the fight, defend your rights
Before they're whisked away
Speak up fast! Don't let them pass CBDTPA
Numbers count (they make Congress pay attention!)
Tell all your friends about that old CBDTPA
As I said when I submitted this story in vain this morning at 6am, the phrases 'Mickey Mouse Copy Protection' and 'Mickey Mouse Computer' need to enter the language in this context - as in 'Do you want a Mickey Mouse computer that stops you making music?'
if you have edonkey installed, this URL will get you the file(I know I'm sharing it, chances are other edonkey users are too); slashdot munges the URL, so you need to hand-paste it(sorry...yell at Slashdot.) Only works with IE, unless you've modified the registry to get edonkey links working inside of Opera.
8 75 400|7d4c0b5d11e81ef532048116e7c6077d
ed2k://|file|20020528_eff_tinseltown_club.mp3|1
BTW, you really DO need to get it from a P2P network. Their connection is crawling right now...and even if it isn't, each download costs 'em money.
Show Bud Selig...
Vote Expos-Twins for All-Star Game...
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true." - Homer Simpson
http://bittorrent.theory.org:8080/20020528_eff_tin seltown_club.mp3
burris
It's very catchy. Sort of obnoxiouse, but catchy. And thus, gentlemen, and the, err..3 ladies, I am going to burn this to CDR and mail it to my congresswoman, Joanne Davis (R, VA - 1st district). She a dunce who thinks the DMCA is about Napster no matter what i triend to tell her. As such I hate her, and subjecting her to this will be sweet revenge, as well as maybe getting the point accross -- unless that could be considered domestic terrorsim?
JungleBoy was nice enough to convert the MP3 to Ogg. You can click on that comment link (or scroll up) and grab a version from his server.
Alternatively, you can also grab a copy that I mirrored here:
http://www.realfx.com/EFF-Tinseltown_Club.ogg
Be sure to spread this around on P2P networks!
Here's a transcription, as best I can figure it out.
Ohh! Sing along kids.
Tinsel Town Club x3
Who believes the average [inaudible] a criminal [inaudiable]
Disney and ??? showbiz friends, hugalguglalguglsg
Who blah blah blah and blah blah the rights we have today
huguaglguglugualg
We're all gay at the EFF
We love to hug our macintoshes and program in Java
DMCA!
DCMA!
See ya real soon
--
Ask the Ya-Hoot Oracle Anything!
Satire is a constitutionally protected form of speech, and I believe that's how weird Al got around it (although he might change a note or two here and there). Especially considering the political nature of this EFF satire, use of the basic tune would almost certainly be protected under the first amendment.
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
It's the greed, desire to control beyond appropriate boundries, and self-agrandisment that makes me sick of Eisner and his boot-lickers.
Anybody seen Shrek? Apparently, the "Lord Farquaad" character (pronounced "lord fuckwad") is supposed to represent Ei$ner.
Will I retire or break 10K?
I have a copy at:
m p3
/.'ed pretty good, so try to use some kind of mirror if possible.
http://cubicmetercrystal.com/eff_tinseltown_club.
The EFF is getting
Don't belittle them with sarcastic strawman arguments. It's reasonable to expect they wanted to publish something that would stand a chance of grabbing the average person's attention thus increasing awareness of our loss of freedom to corporate masters.
There is no need to sequence the events so we do this first, then that. We can do all that and more in any order we wish and benefit from having people do all these things simultaneously.
Digital Citizen
I got the MP3. Anyone got a mirror for the flash?
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
I'm staying logged into giFT at the moment to share this file (its the only one I'm sharing, actually), and I think it has spread to a few other users. See http://gift.sf.net/. I'm sharing the MP3, don't have the flash right now..
SSL Certificate
Listening to the lyrics, there's a few lines that are a little difficult to understand. If anyone can understand them better than I, please let us know. In the mean time, here's a mirror of the song, in text format:
"Those who would sacrifice essential liberty for temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
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.
He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.
It does!!! /dev/audio), but this one is much better!!!
I got the original version to play now (with cat >
It rocks pretty hard!!!
You can get the BitTorrent installer for windows by running this file. You can then download the url given above by clicking on this link.
An Association Named Sue. Now available in ogg!
[ original post ]
c-hack.com |
I see at least one copy of the song on giFT, and I just added my own copy to that.
It's a nice song and all, but...I can't make out the lyrics. Are they posted anywhere?
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
The problem is that our rights as consumers of media are being taken away from us. That by crippling the content we buy, and making it illegal for us to work around that crippling, or to even create something that could be used to get around that crippling, the entertainment industry is hamstringing the public's rights.
The way this cartoon portrays it though, this may as well be a WTO protest. The clip seems to be one that has a strong anti-capitalist tone, the "big bad corporations want to make money" kind of thing. But this will not only NOT get the true severity of the problem across to John Q Public, it will align the EFF with the left wing anti-globalization/anti-capitalist protesters, who are far from acceptance in the mainstream. I live in Berkeley, and it reminds me a lot of the "hey, let's go protest something - it doesn't really matter what" mentality I hear all the time here. This means that they aren't just not quite getting their message across effectively, they're actually detracting from their position.
I know plenty of people familiar with the situation find the clip funny, but the few people I sent it to who are not already involved all thought it was just being critical of Disney for being a big American company. Until I explained it to them, they weren't sure whether to dismiss it as radical propaganda or not.
I fully support the EFF's cause, and I wish they had done something a little less propagandistic, and a little more explanatory.
...than is immediately evident. After listening to it a few times I can actually remember the acronym CBDTPA.
And, of course, once released as Open Audio it would then be appropriate for listing in the Open Music Registry. :-)
No Laughing Allowed!
Also note their use of ASP. Isn't that proprietary? (It certainly does seem as nice to program in as PHP)
Having studied only British English at school and preferring BBC (who use predominantly something resembling "Queen's English", apart from foreign guests and of course Vicky Parker) as my anglophone source of news instead of the US-centric American networks I find it a bit difficult to follow some of the lyrics in "cartoon-American".
I couldn't find the lyrics for this EFF-Disney extragavanza anywhere but with the EFF being involved I must be missing something. Could some kind soul either point me to the right direction or alternatively post the lyrics e.g. here on Slashdot (potential karma goldmine awaits...)?
Should invading one's peaceful neighbours be opposed, or rewarded with trade deals?
...with the Flash movie and the music (in Ogg and MP3) has been set up here:
http://marcus.pixelmagic.nu/tinseltown_club/
I quite like that song... A hacker song done to old country/folk music, very well done. I recommend everyone who comes across give it a good listen.
Bork!
Is it just me, or is it wierd that the EFF uses ASPs on there home page. No a whole lot of freedom with that setup .
jason
jason
Have a good day?! Impossible! I'm at work!
Parody or no, this was a waste of my time and whoever made it. It doesn't send a usefull message and it's not "funny" enough to have any value.
lunky> c++; lunky> do{;}
Do you want to watch a DVD on your Linux system? Sorry, the media industry says you can't, under penalty of the law they greased through Congress.
Would you like to create a mix of your favorite selections from several different music CDs you've purchased, for playing on your iPod? With the newer copy protected CDs, the media industry say's you can't, under penalty of the law they greased through Congress.
Would you like to cut and paste a couple of paragraphs from an eBook you've purchased and are referencing in your high school or college term paper? Sorry, the media industry says you can't, under penalty of the law they greased through Congress.
Whoever marked this intelligent post as a troll is obviously suffering from AIDS RELATED DEMENTIA.
You are in my prayers.
--
Ask the Ya-Hoot Oracle Anything!