Vox Polis

Sad news! Ian Richardson has passed away today.

I think the first thing to say would clearly be that there are three unpleasant, ignorant, culturally myopic young English girls in the Big Brother House who have made comments that are unacceptable and quite deplorable in any normal social setting. No one is trying to justify or excuse them. But equally is it right that they are so easily and quickly labelled as racist? Given the potential explosiveness of this charge, it is important to analyse this claim. Channel 4 has suggested instead that the dispute and comments made reflect cultural differences and ignorance. I think one needs to distinguish between the cause of the dispute and its ensuing salvoes. This allows the question of racism to be addressed. A second question is whether any of this ugly episode should have been broadcast at all.
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You’re sick of reading about it and I’m sick of writing about it but copyright extension just won’t go away. After the Gower’s review recommended no extension to the copyright term for sound recordings I really thought we’d seen the back of this. Apparently not. This morning I read that 4500 musicians including Sir Cliff Richard and Katie Melua (now there’s a soporific duet) have signed an advert in the Financial Times calling again for an extension of copyright on sound recordings to 95 years. Is it just me or is this all getting a bit demeaning? My advice to the signatories of this advert: stop this pathetic grubbing around to wring out every last penny from your faded glories. If you want to make more money record some new songs, go on a tour, work as a musician. If that doesn’t work then do what the rest of us do and get a normal job.

In related news, independent music labels have apparently claimed that fair use copying rights (also called for in the Gowers review) could “open the floodgates” to a tidal wave of private copying and (shock, horror!) sharing. For the nth time: it’s unfair to make people pay for the same thing twice if they want to use it another way. It wouldn’t fly in any other industry and entertainment shouldn’t be treated any differently.

Only 212 days to go until our pubs become empty and our streets are littered with fag butts.

In Scotland the bars may now be smoke free, but they’re also usually free of people as everyone loiters outside. In fact you almost need to smoke to talk to your friends.

The Gowers Review of Intellectual Property has brought the issue of copyright length into prominence in the past couple of months (and brought out swarms of music industry lobbyists). The BBC reported last night that the review is to recommend that copyright on sound recordings not be extended from the current period of 50 years. Whilst I am personally in favour of a significantly shorter terms the music industry, figure-headed by the likes of Sir Cliff Richard, had been lobbying for an extension to 95 years so a recommendation of no change does feel like a victory of sorts. The Review will be published next week as part of the Chancellors pre-budget report.

Via The Register.

On Tuesday leave your headphones at home and don’t recharge your iPod, because its No Music Day. A great opportunity to tell off all your noisy, obnoxious fellow passengers on the tube, bus or train to turn their music players off - I’d like to see that.

In support Resonance FM will not be playing any music - will anyone notice?

Only feel sorry for Vox Polis contributor Jonny - he’s playing live on Tuesday evening - At least it’ll be quiet.

I’m glad to see that Burger King have launched a new “double” whopper burger - aimed at those who only feel manly having eaten at least half a cow a day. Those people probably idealise Desperate Dan and his cow pies.

I’ve always believed that people should be free to do what they like; and that includes eating as much fast food as they’re bodies can take. I believe that government and society should have an enabling role; to teach us all about the dangers but allow us to make our own mistakes. To stigmatise rather than to paternalise. The trouble is people are stupid.*

The other day I was discussing the film Super Size Me with a few “intelligent” friends of mine, who proclaimed how much they had been put off McDs after watching Spurlock’s disastrous experiment. They then went on to explain that because of this they only eat at Burger King’s now. Somehow I think they missed the point.

Burger King burgers are actually worse that McDs’ burgers in terms of calories- and have now got even worse: even McDs’ bigger big mac wasn’t as bad as the double whopper.

But to believe that one fast food restaurant is better than another is simply unbelievable. Perhaps some people should be banned from eating fast food after all. Or maybe we should just blame Spurlock for not explaining to his audience the bleeding obvious.

*I’d like to believe that people are only stupid because we have a paternalistic government; that they’ve been conditioned to believe that they need things restricted. But its probably not true.

In a report released today the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) recommend changing UK copyright law to allow fair use copying. Currently activities such as copying a CD to an iPod are illegal in the UK due to the lack of a fair use provision in our copyright law (such as that found in the US). In addition they recommend keeping the copyright term for sound recordings at 50 years after the date of recording and allowing the British Library to circumvent anti-copying measures for archival purposes.

Given how much illegal activity there is, giving us fair use rights is long overdue. Having a law that is so widely flaunted weakens public understanding of (and adherence to) copyright law as a whole. Provisions for the British Library are also a good thing, although exactly what DRM encumbered fluff they feel the need to archive is a bit of a puzzle. As for leaving the copyright period alone I am personally of the opinion that the current terms are far too long but there doesn’t seem to be much public appetite for a change.

Update - the full report is available at the IPPR website.

An unemployed man who became addicted to TV quiz shows has rung up a phone bill for £9000. Of course who does he blame? The TV shows? Himself? The Government? Jodie Foster?

No, he blames the phone company for letting him spend so much. Personally I would ban the pointlessly pathetic TV quiz shows.

I can’t find the article online, but the Telegraph had the best quote:

“I just ring them when i got bored and I sometimes lose track of time”.
Maybe he should get in contact with this man.

Universal Music are backing a new site which will allow users to download music for free after wading through some adverts.  The move seems to me to be largely an admission of failure in the “war against downloading” that the labels have been running; if we can’t make you pay at least look at these ads.  It’s unclear whether advertising support is a sustainable business model but with advertisers particularly keen to target the youth sector (who are the main consumers of online music) they’re in with a shot.  It does strike me that Universal’s willingness to accept the likely drop in income gives lie to their claims that £12 was the absolute minimum they needed to put bread on the table.

Personally I think this is a pretty horrendous solution to the problem of getting money to artists.  Outside of the pop conveyor belt there are still artists with some integrity who aren’t going to be comfortable being associated with certain companies.  Just take a look at the horrors of commercial radio to see what happens when music gets too much in hock to advertisers.  On the flip side of this, there’s plenty of music being used by advertisers at the minute and no-one seems to be particularly cut up by it.  Indeed, it’s not too different to the financial support provided by wealthy patrons in previous centuries.  So I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.  Napster and iTunes will certainly be watching closely.

Via FT.com.