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Two Blanks Against the Trend
skdffff writes "German band Eisbrecher has decided to make a statement for its fans and for music consumers in general and is releasing their album ("Eisbrecher") including a bonus DVD with 2 blank CD-Rs which have the same label as the CD itself. Alexx Wesselsky (singer and head of the group): 'We are of the opinion that the music buyers are criminalized enough and have been made responsible for the wretched state in the music industry. We are giving them the chance to make 2 legal copies for private use with "official blanks".'"
The Dead Kennedys did something remarkably similar years ago with the tape version their "In God We Trust Inc" album.
The statement that they had was 'Home taping is killing big entertainment industry profits; we left side two blank so you can help'
And again, by someone whose music doesn't really interest me. Maria Jimenez, a singer from Spain, included a blank CD with one of her latest releases so that people wouldn't feel guilty about making copies for their own use. She only asked in return that people did buy her CD.
This is the only comment I found in English (last paragraph).
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The spirit of that decision, I think, can only be observed in one of two ways; short duration, strong copyright laws, or long duration, weak copyright laws. The problem with the egregious Disney extensions is that they apply to other copyrights.
The ridiculous result is that Disney now owns a large percentage of what's in my head. They have relentlessly pursued copyright violations that were completely tangential to their trademarks and intellectual properties in order to establish the "don't fuck with the mouse" mindset, thus setting an example for everyone.
In short, I would quite agree with you if our copyright laws were still as originally written; I cannot agree based on current law.
Thinking outside my Head
If this were a band offering free MP3s for download, that might be interesting.
Check out the link in my sig, www.magnatune.com
Those artists are offering free MP3s of their albums.
Plus they get a 50% cut of what you decide to pay for the album. Great idea imo.
You buy the albums through the internet by the way, downloadable in different formats (WAV/OGG/MP3/FLAC)
CDBaby is also doing something like this. (although they sell real CD's, not downloads)
The path I walk alone is endlessly long.
30 minutes by bike, 15 by bus.
Chapter 8 ("The Financial Advantages of Anti-copyright " - pdf) of "Digital Resistance" might interest you. It debunks some of the more persistent capitalist myths behind the idea of "copyright for the protection of the artist".
I find CAE's other books quite interesting as well. It's quite hard for me to find well-written material related to the intersection between technology and culture, any pointers?
HAD
The Rosenbergs did a similar thing in 2001. They included a second copy of the CD, dubbed the "Napster Copy"
http://www.livedaily.com/news/2625.html
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It's OK to be social, just don't tell anyone about it.
The German counterpart of the RIAA is the IFPI Deutschland and not the GEMA.
Free Manning, jail Obama.
I recently ran across a good, concise discussion of US copyright laws with timeframes of when content becomes public domain here at Project Gutenberg. Looks like we will see some PD works next in 2019.
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1. If you refer to eisbrechers music as being rap then you either never heard a song by them or your definition of rap is quite unusual. In your definition wumpscut, rammstein, Das Ich or such bands would also count as german rap ;-)
Best chances to hear one of their songs is at one of the many wave/gothic clubs in germany. Most probably during one of their industrial/noise sessions. (Mind you those genre names mean slightly different things in europe)
Both members have excellent track records making goth music and producing other bands of the genre. Before Eisbrecher they were rather succesful with their band Megaherz.
2. As far as I know they aren't on top of any german scene let alone the rap scene. Their debut has only recently been released in germany and they are currently not listet in the german 100 and aren't even listed in the german alternative charts. So I would not say they are top in germany at the moment.
Greetings from germany
Jef