Music Industry back in court

A bit over a year ago I wrote about the Charleton ruling in the Music Industry vs UPC case. In that, the judge said he'd like to allow the Music Industry run roughshod over our civil rights but that there just wasn't legislation to allow it. Ok I'm paraphrasing a bit, but basically that's what he said. So it is with some interest that I notice the merry-go-round is starting up again.

This time the industry is taking the state to court over the fact that the relevant statutory instrument hasn't been enacted yet to make three-strikes legal. This SI has been promised for this month so it does make you wonder what has brought on this fit of pique. Is it sabre-rattling to ensure that the SI is issued quickly or do they have a genuine case of lost revenue caused by the absence of the SI?

Of course this court case and the SI will yet again fail to take account of the fact that any technical method used to root out fileshares will be quickly worked around. Despite the huge investment in things like the Chinese and Iranian firewalls they are unable to successfully block access to the internet. I doubt EMI and their friends will make any similar investment and it would seem to be unfair to put the burden of cost on ISPs like UPC.

EMI's other great claim is that their profits halved in 2011 and blamed it mainly on piracy. How ludicrous is that? Don't they realize that there is a recession going on and that demand in the domestic economy has tanked by up to 30%. Recorded music is a luxury compared to essentials such as food, heating and clothing and so will obviously be further up the list for chopping in households. Personally I have gone from being a 100 CD/year person to purchasing about 20 in 2011 and I don't think I'm alone in this reduction.

I'll be keeping an eye on the case and the SI over the next few weeks.

A long old week

Its been a long old week both personally and politically.

Reports

Two major reports on Ireland were published in the last week. Firstly, Peter Nyberg published his report on the banking crisis where he blames pretty much everyone except specific politicians or the ECB. Buying into the school of thought that came out with classics such as "we all partied", it is hard to see what Nyberg really brings to the table in the way of clarity. Maybe in a few weeks, after the report has had time to sink in, I'll be more positively inclined towards it but at the moment it doesn't really do it for me.

Secondly, Colm McCarthy published his followup to his 2009 best selling An Bord Snip Nua report, by coming up with a list of national silverware that would be better off in private hands. While he had the decency to suggest that we should hang on until the market has recovered before flogging our assets, that there is about €5B to be generated by this process. Again, it is a detailed report, but An Bord Flog It does continue the right-wing agenda of privatisation. One would hope that at least some lessons of Greencore and Eircom will have been learned.

Music

Every year in the run up to Easter I find myself in St Patrick's Cathedral for long periods of time. However, it's not because I become a staunch Anglican. Rather, I am heavily involved in the staging of the annual Good Friday concert in aid of the Carmichael Centre for Voluntary Groups. Over the years I have been bumped up the food chain from stage hand to ticket checker to traffic control and now over the last few years to stage manager where I get to bully talented musicians and singers into doing what I want.

This year the Goethe Institut Choir performed Brahms' Requiem in a very successful evening. However, the first half of the concert was quite awkward from a logistics point of view as the choir performed a Tallis piece from the rear of the Cathedral as opposed to just staying on the staging at the front. However, thanks to the wonders of SMS technology it all went off without much trouble.

The Campaign

I suppose this being a political blog I should comment on the Seanad Campaign. I was on the Coleman at Large panel last Wednesday where we discussed the McCarthy report and the Seanad in some detail. Having done plenty of radio in the past I found it much easier than Vincent Browne the week before. I also bumped into David Norris at the Good Friday Concert where we had a good chat about the campaign and his plans for the Áras.

The count for the DU seats is happening on Wednesday in the Exam Hall, starting at 9:45. I'm still trying to decide what my metric for success will be. Obviously being elected would be the greatest success, but I'm realistic enough to accept that is an unlikely outcome. Initially, I think my goals are to not be the first candidate eliminated, secondly to get into triple figures and then maybe finally to end up further up the rankings than Paddy Power had me (joint 12th). Whatever way this election ends up I've enjoyed being part of the process and learned a lot. As they say if I knew then what I know now I'd have done it all differently.

Radio Ga Ga

This morning Pat Kenny hosted a full two hour hustings with as many of the University Senate candidates as he could squeeze into a small room in Buswells Hotel. About 35 candidates attended so we were arranged into six sub-panels of between five and seven people and each group was given about 10-15 minutes. I ended up being placed on the 4th panel that was on just after 11AM with the rest of the "young" candidates.

Apart from being flattered by still being considered young, I ended up not being overly happy with the outcome of the panel. Pat decided to take me to task on being a member of the Labour party rather than focus on what I stand for or might bring to the Seanad in terms of expertise and knowledge. While I can see why this might be of interest, it seems odd that other candidates who are also declared members of parties just had the issue noted and then asked their opinions on issues.

I guess the easiest way out would have been for me to ignore Pat's line of questioning and just go into the zone about the platform on which I am standing. But that just isn't my style. If asked a question I'll give a straight answer even if it doesn't necessarily do me any favours. But that's something that I'm actually proud of - I have principles and I'm happy to stick by them rather than fudge around any issue.

Still it was worth doing if for no other reason than to meet up with many of the other candidates. Some of them I had never met before, others I haven't seen in several years. I guess we'll all meet up in the Exam Hall just after Easter to watch the votes being counted.

Later this evening I ended up back on the airwaves again, this time in my old haunt of Raidio na Life, filling in for Muiris on Scrios agus Ár. That was a far more satisfactory event where I got to blast some of my favourite tunes across the city interspersed with the odd cúpla focal. Its a lot easier to enjoy being on the radio when you're the person in charge of the agenda.

Its all about the balls

Last night I got to see one of the truly great bands perform in Dublin. Accept, the German dinosaurs, rolled into town and blew the roof off the Village. For a band that started out almost 35 years ago they still know how to rock. Below the fold is a video of one of their most famous songs, Princess of the Dawn, but to get the full effect of last night you need to treble the volume and then add some more.

Accept's other main classic is the tune Balls to the Wall which was brought to every teenager's attention in the early 90s by Beavis and Butthead. I know I've mentioned the dynamic dunces before but I guess I'm just a product of my time. Anyway, the reason why I bring it up is that I also thought that was going to be the theme tune for the earlier part of the day when Ireland took on England in Lansdowne Road in the last round of the 6 Nations.

But how wrong was I in that prediction? For the first time this season everything clicked. The opening 40 minutes was incredible to watch and but for a few tight calls and loose passes we could have had another 15-20 points on the board. Maybe it just is the Old Enemy, 800 Years of Oppression stuff that fires up the team, but in the modern game, played by professionals that should not make the difference. All of a sudden I'm beginning to regret my decision not to go to New Zealand for the World Cup, but I guess if the Seanad is in session then it'd be a bit rich for me to be skiving off for a month or more.

Also being held last night was the annual Irish Blog Awards. The only link to the title is that it was held in a function room that could also double up as a Ballroom - tenuous, I know, but cut me a little slack! Glad to see that the Cedar Lounge Revolution picked up the best political blog award. I don't always agree with what they're saying but they are always thought provoking and their two repeat columns Meanwhile, back at the Seanad and Sunday Independent Stupid Statement of the Week always entertain. Good job comrades!

Back to normality tomorrow, when I'm going to have a look at some more of the crazy stuff related to 3rd level that has been coming out over the last few days.

The End

In 1967 The Doors released their debut album featuring the hits "Break on Through" and "Light My Fire". During the late 80s and early 90s I went through my Doors phase and became quite the fan of the album and especially the final track, the epic "The End". On the bus into work today the song popped back into my head and I noticed how prophetic Jim Morrison had been in that song with regard to the Irish economy in 2010 and it could be interpreted as a lament being sung by Lenihan and his Fianna Fáil comrades.

This is the end, beautiful friend
Fairly obvious opening line on the current state of chassis.

This is the end, my only friend, the end
So who is this only friend? At this point the public have turned on FF as have the bond markets. Who is left? The EU, the ECB, the IMF? Or is it just the Irish bankers and developers?

Of our elaborate plans, the end
Plans to dump €60B+ of additional debt on the shoulders of the Irish tax payers without a whimper from the coping classes.

Of everything that stands, the end
From a FF point of view, the only thing that counts is being in charge. Here Morrison/Lenihan is lamenting the imminent destruction of the party. The trappings of power will come crumbling down as the deFFification of society begins starting at the top with the TDs.

No safety or surprise, the end
No surprise, we've known for a long time how banjaxed the country is but we've decided to keep the populace in the dark and there is no safe route back to prosperity. It's the EU, the IMF or default and darkness.

I'll never look into your eyes again
Cowardice from those FF TDs who will decide to retire before the next election rather than face the wrath of the electorate.

Can you picture what will be
So limitless and free
Limitless national debt as billions are pumped into banks while schools and hospitals are left rotting. Perhaps a touch of irony with the use of the word free.

Desperately in need of some stranger's hand
In a desperate land
Again a reference to the strangers of the IMF coming in to this desperate land to sort out the mess left behind.

After this point, the song meanders into various psychedelic images of Roman wildernesses, highways, snakes and a blue bus. Not really sure how this fits with my chosen narrative so I'll just skip on ahead. The Oedipal section is even more open to interpretation but I'm just going to say the role of the Father is played by the Irish economy and the Mother is the Irish people. Morrison/Lenihan winds up the song with a return to the main theme - this is the end of the Republic of Ireland in its current state.

The end of laughter and soft lies
The end of nights we tried to die
This is the end

This analysis probably makes it clear that I wasn't so good at the old English poetry for the Leaving Cert. Best stick to facts and figures in future!

UPC versus the Music Industry

While I'm no legal eagle, I have dipped in and out of Justice Charleton's ruling in the UPC vs the music industry case. A lot of it went way over my head in terms of references to specific laws, EU directives and the like. However, from reading his description of various technical matters about which I know a fair bit, I think a lot of those went way over the Judge's head.

The story of Willie Kavangh and his visit to that "well-known site for facilitating music piracy called ‘The Pirate Bay’" is quite funny. He recalled looking for the Dark Knight. I wonder if he tried looking for any Linux ISOs or other legitimate material on the site? While TPB isn't necessarily always in the right, they provide a valuable service in hosting stable, reliable trackers for any material. The Aslan story, which has already been shown to be rubbish, is treated like gospel. In all honesty, does Christy Dignam really think that 28,000 people want to steal his badly written tunes?

The round the clock nature of the internet obviously hasn't hit the Justice Charelton's radar either when he states "another careful international survey indicated that between 49% and 83% of all internet traffic, with a night time peak of 95%, is accounted for by peer-to-peer communications." Pity that legal judgement don't have references like academic papers require so we could see exactly who carried out this "careful" study and on behalf of what vested interest. Of course the experts from DtecNet could never be considered vested interests since they have absolutely no relationship to RIAA and IFPI. However it is worth remembering that these would be the same experts who tried to confuse a court in Australia on the use of bit-torrent by targeting a single ISP, the one they happened to be in court against.

At least in point 30 of the judgement, the court did recognize the legitimacy of P2P as a means of content distribution. It also noted in point 32 that any attempt to impose a technological block on P2P will be pointless as users and developers will quickly find workarounds. However, by point 134 this point has been forgotten where a 20 minute delay in coming up with a work around was considered worthwhile. I don't get the Aran Islands analogy, but if he thinks having to phone the operator for find torrents is going to slow people down, when the operator is Google, then he may just have missed the point.

This judgment is the right decision for all the wrong reasons. We should have strong protection of network operators against the actions of purchasers of their service. If I buy a knife in Arnotts and then proceed to stab someone with it, does Alan Dukes (now kind of running Arnotts) get a 20 year jail term? We also need due process and the presumption of innocence. For one corporate entity to be judge, jury and executioner is not acceptable. If EMI or whoever suspect me of filesharing, then go to court, get a warrant and then talk to my solicitor. To be able to disconnect me from the internet on their say alone is not acceptable.

The biggest fear is that on the back of this judgement, emergency legislation will be pushed through the Dáil to close the loophole. Perhaps the easiest solution is for EMI to set themselves up as a religion and then declare P2P to be abhorent in the eyes of their god. Dermot Ahern could then sleep easy knowing that he doesn't need to come up with yet more bad legislation.

Heaven and Hell

Not a politics post today - just a snippet of Ronnie James Dio. One of the greatest rock and metal singers, he died yesterday from stomach cancer aged 67.