Friday, January 27, 2012

GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT? R.I.P. HOLY WARBLES






Hey - I suspect most of you here are ONLY here because you saw me commenting incessantly over at owl's place ;-) - and the other 2 or 3 of you need to be aware of all we've lost, and all that we're still in danger of losing. 

Gary at Bodega Pop's eloquent, impassioned post is a must read, & he had generously given permission for re-posting.  Here it is in full: 

Guilty until proven innocent?



It's hard to measure the full impact of the FBI shutdown of Megaupload. The site was responsible for a reported 4% of all internet traffic, with millions of registered, paying users happily up- and downloading everything from wedding pics to the complete Lady Gaga discography. 

God knows how many of them were trafficking in crappy Hollywood films or dreck like the latest Chris Brown or Adele. All shit that will be footnotes some day in some knowing culture studies textbook look-back on the early part of this inglorious century, but otherwise forgotten, and thankfully so. As far as I'm concerned, people who up- or download any of that sludge should definitely be fined or sent to jail ... but not for copyright violation. They should be fined or sent to jail for disseminating the corporate roach-vomit that constitutes most of contemporary American pop culture. You don't even want to know what I think should be done to the people who create or publish that shit.


But, seriously. Should Britain have allowed Iran to extradite Salman Rushdie for his blasphemous Satanic Verses? Because that's basically what we're looking at here. One culture's laws trumping everyone else's.


That said, I'm not here to argue in Kim Dotcom's defense. I'm here to lament the loss of countless music blogs, the loss of the communities they fostered, the loss of the evidence of otherwise forgotten expressive culture(s) that they brought to the surface and shared.


Most notably, Owl Qaeda's Holy Warbles, which first had its Megaupload content stolen by the FBI action. As if that weren't enough, no doubt freaking out over the Megaupload action, Blogger simply shut his blog down, claiming multiple instances of copyright infringement. Of--we should be clear--expressive cultural artifacts that were either long out of print (and never to be reprinted) or so obscure as to be readily unavailable to anyone whose head is not a giant interactive encyclopedia.


The last thing I downloaded from HW was a rare, completely out of print album by Marie Jubran, a Syrian artist who recorded mostly during the 50s I think and who doesn't even have so much as an English-language Wikipedia page. I have a lot of Arabic music from the period and a couple of related books, and I'd never even heard of her before visiting Holy Warbles. That is the sort of thing we're talking about. Gone now. Not just the music, mind you, which is lovely. But an artifact that is now once again unavailable for, say, anyone studying the region and period. 


Holy Warbles, and blogs like it, are--for all intents and purposes--libraries. That, really, is their function. Libraries that store things that not even the NYPL or Queens Borough Public Library have. (I should know; I've ransacked both for their CD and other media collections, which I--yes, you guessed it--immediately download to my computer. Will the FBI be visiting our libraries next?)


Another casualty in the FBI's completely unethical shut-down: Madrotter. Run by Henk, a self-described "Dutch guy living in Bandung since 1996," the site links to, or used to link to, some 2,000 out of print Indonesian records. Henk isn't giving up. "As long as I can find an upload service that still works Imma keep giving you people great music," he writes in a recent post. Again, not just great music, but a library. A library that was being accessed by more than 40,000 people a month.


The carnage hardly ends there. The wildly popular Mutant Sounds and Global Grooves were both significantly spavined as well. Then, there's my absolute favorite music blog of all time: The Vault: Japanese Music Junkies Unite, a semi-collaborative blog that housed more than 5,000 Japanese records and tapes, most completely out of print, was also more-or-less wiped off the map. In a very real sense, it's like the Library of Alexandria burning down x 1,000. Or 10,000. No one really knows.


And this, we must assume, is just the beginning. How long before Awesome Tapes from Africa, Moroccan Tape Stash or Monrakplengthai are wiped out as well? Again, we're not talking about shit you throw onto your iPod before heading off to the gym; this is serious cultural evidence. These are, I can't stress it enough, libraries. And thoughtless, good-for-nothing corporate asswipes who supply rat-diarrhea-producing mental aphids like the members of MGMT and Bright Eyes with, like, cocaine-spending money are, essentially, destroying them.


As Lily Tomlin once put it: "I resent losing the ozone just so we can have PAM."

 xxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxooooooooooooooooooooooxoxxxoxoxoxox


Thanks, Gary.  Your blog is also a treasure.












64 comments:

Anonymous said...

I completely agree. The vast majority of downloadable content on the blogs you mentioned is long out of print or so obscure it might as well be. An invaluable resource wiped out. I hope this isn't the end for HW, by far the best blog I've ever come across.

Myles said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
brown beard said...

I appreciate the words, Holly. This is indeed distressing. Hunker down I guess.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Holly.
A fellow warble-ite mourns.
M

LYSERGICFUNK said...

OH NOOOOOOOOOOOO !

Holly said...

Do realize that you can still access owl's wise words via a Google Reader subscription:

http://www.google.com/reader/view/#stream/feed%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fholywarbles.blogspot.com%2Ffeeds%2Fposts%2Fdefault.

Of course all links are dead, but others of us can share those - it's owl's erudite & sometimes pithy commentary that made HW a community rather than a downloading factory!

اللو said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
øשlqæda said...

the storm came quickly, but owl be bach. much love & thanks fer caring

Anonymous said...

The most current posting, Kroncong, by the beloved Owl may still be read and the link is NOT dead. See it in Google Cache.

reservatory said...

Thank you for posting these wise words. We can only hope the dust will eventually settle and cultural resources like those mentioned will return in some form. My only consolation is that so many kind souls have posted so many amazing obscurities up to now that I have years of prime listening experiences already at hand. But there's always another incredible discovery right around the corner. Or WAS.

Flash Strap said...

Perfectly said, Holly. I'm in an agony of grief. Outraged. How unbelievably shitty and pointless.

Flash Strap said...

I guess I should say perfectly said, Gary.

Brian Shimkovitz said...

I am so bummed Holy Warbles is gone!!!

:( x infinity.

Holly said...

Yes, Gary wrote a perfect piece which pretty much expresses everything I want to say but can't - trouble getting past the huge lump of destructive rage blocking my brain-fingers pathways!

I fervently hope that Gary's post gets picked up by bigger sites.

Holly said...

See also Flash's obit here:

flashstrap.blogspot.com/2012/01/holy-warbles-has-been-assassinated.html

aliciam said...

devastated

yotte said...

So disappointing - not so much for the loss of the links (ouch!), but for the disappearing info. Owl showed me so many things I never knew existed. I haven't needed to d/l everything, but the exposure to so much exciting and beautiful music has been wonderful.

Sun Ira said...

Beautifully said. I took the liberty of posting it to my FB page. Thanks.

Ramone666 said...

Well said, Gary, cheers. And here's hoping Owl makes a speedy recovery. Don't let the bastards grind you down and all that.

Christine said...

holly, thanks very much for the google reader link, at least we have that to hang onto. you are right about owl's wise commentaries & hoots making HW what is was.

Chris said...

Only when the powers of Babylon are removed, the public will become more open minded to the diverse creative presence in culture and then art will begin flow. Remember that the vest art and music are made as a result of transcendence not frustration.

Anonymous said...

wonderfully put gary///and thanks for posting holly///it was only pure fluke that i didn't lose everything// megaupload was the cream/// fight all power & keep on keeping on//DH xx

Holly said...

I am deleting Hammer's comment because *I* don't like his language & this is my blog.

Christine said...

good decision, holly...

앤서니 said...

this entire thing has me more than a little angry... holy warbles was an inspiration.

RIP OWL.

post script.... thanks for adding me to your blog roll. i just saw your comment over on madrotter ^_^

앤서니 said...

hey holly! thanks for the kudos! adding you to my blogroll...

^_^

just posted some new stuff. nothing like a kick in the ass to get you going again.

http://nonotnyet.blogspot.com/2012/01/daily-fauli-fauli-til-dauli-lpclaudine.html

Algerian said...

Yeah, it's a shame :( I don't know how much work he had put into this blog and how many people have (like me) discovered wonderful music thanks to this blog

Anonymous said...

thanks for stayin alive!

Anonymous said...

Thank God! I was really concerned seeing people writing RIP and stuff, afraid that Owl would feel defeated and that the lamenting would somehow make him give up.

I was very happy to see the comment from him which seemed full of fighting spirit. I hope it will not be to much work to move the blog to another place and continue.

A big torrent with the full archives would be a fantastic thing if anybody has all the files. That would without doubt be the best archive in music history.

Thank you Owl for all the fantastic music you gave us. Many of the best things I ever heard came from you. You are one of the best things that happened to music. Ever.

/Jon

Mr. Craig said...

It was such a tragedy for so many the day Megaupload died. The effects are still being felt with blogs disappearing or going private. I was fortunate that only a fraction of my posts were compromised...

I was absent from the internet between 2004 and 2010. When I returned to discover this amazing world of blogs complete with downloads of rare and wonderful music my heart soared. Like so many people it has greatly increased my musical appreciation and allowed me to connect with inspiring people who share my passion.

And that's the key word - passion. They can kill our files but they can't kill our passion and I have faith that many of the people who have suffered a blow recently will rise from the ashes like a phoenix. It'll just take some time.

By the way Holly, would you be interested in being a part of my guest comp series over at Funky Frolic? You can get in touch with me through the email on my Blogger profile : )

Cheers.

JCS said...

Absolutely, very well said!

Reza said...

"Blogger simply shut his blog down, claiming multiple instances of copyright infringement. Of--we should be clear--expressive cultural artifacts that were either long out of print (and never to be reprinted)"

That isnt exactly true, holy warbles has been the topic of discussion on many music forums, the problem truthfully lay in the posting of a lot of new reissues from small labels , particulary jazzman records to name but one, albeit lost music that has been reissued, but to post all those frankly he's destroying these struggling labels, he has himself only to blame, certainly not megaupload
Maybe a lesson that other bloggers might learn, not to post albums that are readily available for purchase, out of order even in this music sharing blogworld

Anonymous said...

Your totally wrong about destroying struggling labels..i would personally go out and hunt the music down if I liked it enough.
Holy warbles, like Mutant Sounds just bought all this fantastic music to peoples notice.I jsut spent $200 importing stuff from france that i would never have heard of but for these blogs!!!!

Reza said...

@anon

Sadly your in the minority that listen then buy otherwise the labels would do it themselves anyway most provide sounclips on their sites, in reality the ratio is probably something like 2000 downloads leading to 3 or 4 purchases, that was the reason he was shut down so obviously the labels disagree with your way of thinking
I do agree that I have purchased lots after listening via downloads but oop vinyl where blogland is often the only way of checking something out

Hammer said...

Amen to Reza.
And, booyah Anon. Your words have them all, big boi:
"Holy warbles, like Mutant Sounds just bought all this fantastic music to peoples notice."
Bought, or brought? That's the question, son.

Holywarbles' demise let me put it at this was 'brought' by me after I saw a chance not to allow his ilk to flourish by just using other people's music (OPM). That's jus' not right.

R.I.P. (Rot In Pixel).

H.H.

Anonymous said...

Hammer: You seem to want to perpetuate the myth that you're taking the moral high road as the great avenger. However, the only people who can have blogs and/or links removed by complaints are the rights-holders. All others are committing perjury under law if they masquerade as such and are subject to prosecution.

Authority to Act:

"The information in this notification is accurate, and I state under penalty of perjury that I am authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner."

Hammer said...

Make these rights readable, good sire. I don't act unless it's something that has a valid point behind it, or must be done on behalf of anyone who has a single iota of sense left in their synaptical brain-creases.

After all and all... I worked in a Law-Center where I live and IP (Intellectual Property) has its own judiciary procedures. There was no crime unless it's an act punishable by law, commercial law, international law, or any by-law that fits the description where the act must be punishable.

You can't come on a comment section and play the White-Knight 'ere, babe. Nobody cares, anyway. Maybe you do? That's your own problem, bra. Deal with that shyat.


As for Hole-y Fart-bawls himself: well, let's take a look at him now. Hmm? His blog is not in question here. All that matters was how he thoughtlessly tried to go at loggerheads with the 'authority'. I don't respect authority, babe, Naw. What was, was and he's as dead as a col Eskimo laying face-first under tons of snow (read: his dead links). He tried for a couple of years to push-sell his musical tastes on a rather non-caring world. All this world cares for is money, hawney. Hence, the crackdown on Megaupload.

By the way, I didn't bring on the heat on his ass: it was there a long time aborning. Keep tryin' son. Keep tryin' to beat a dead donkey. (That's his re-incantatory alter-ego fer sure instead of an owl).

Har har.


H.H.

Anonymous said...

@ H.H.

Says "I worked in a Law-Center where I live...", but also, "I don't respect authority, babe, Naw..."

Kinda gives you an idea of where this guy/gal/alien is coming from...

Anonymous said...

You just can't reason or have a non-abusive difference of opinion with a nut-case laden with anger-management issues.

You may have worked in a Law Center, BABE, but it was probably as the Janitor.

Destroit said...

Holly, Destroit here. Hotel suggestions are welcome!

Christine said...

greetings holly & everyone!

has anybody happened to hear anything from jillem since his latest blog went down??
:(

Holly said...

I have not seen or heard Jillem around our virtual 'hood. But Jillem DEFINES indefatigable! :-)

Anonymous said...

@ whiteanduptight,

You might check with Ryp & Gyro1966 over at TwilightZone. I think they were in regular contact with Jillem.

I, too, miss checking out his blog every day. Dave

Christine said...

yes, you are definitely correct on that one! :)

if you do happen to hear anything around da 'hood regarding our indefatigable jillem, please, please let us know!
:)

many thanks!

Anonymous said...

Okay! I checked out the Japanese music blog mentioned in this post and did a brief search there. Came up with a bunch of records still available for purchase. Second, Holy Warbles offered plenty of records just recently released. Logically, if those music blogs were about making music available that is currently unknown and/or out of print, they'd sure look a lot different than they in actual fact did. Your crocodile tears won't get these bloggers and alike any sympathy. Further, don't bullshit a bullshitter: Megaupload was never about legal uploading and sharing! Why it would take this long for someone with authority to react and shut them down really beggars belief. That's the real worry here, not the ones you present as such. Finally, music blogging that brings attention to out of print records carries value. I aqree. But why tap labels and artists by way of sharing for free records that are commercially available in the process? Cheers!

Hammer said...

And another well-said, versed-out, truth-holding Anon comment goes through.
Still, the fight should go on? Babes, there's no fight unless you're bored shitless, and happens to be average between the ears.
If some bunch of goons want to hold an anti-capitalist struggle fought for no-one, and against a mega-corp like Megaupload and its affiliates (i.e. Multiupload; which kisses the shit-can as well as that monolithic nerdvana), they should simmer the fuck down as the net bears no reality whatsoever save for those who lack real-life imagination.
Worry on me, lovers and loverettes but... The days of normalcy and mediocrity are still ripe around erm, the 'hood? Stay sane, or...
You lose again.

Thanks Anon. Your wisdom is much preeshed 'ere.

-_-_7

H.H.

jb said...

Think Jillem is up and at 'em once again:

http://soundsfrombygonedays.blogspot.com/

What a man!

Christine said...

jb, thank you, thank you, thank you for keeping us up-to-date!

i am a VERY HAPPY CAMPER NOW!! :)

whistle, whistle, clap, clap, clap!!

now what about our dear owl?? anybody heard anything??

thanks again, jb! and of course,BIG KUDOS to jillem!

Anonymous said...

"Guilty until proven innocent"? I challenge the people here who defend Holy Warbles and Megaupload to do so in public. Your argument is very simple: Megaupload should not have been shut down, because it was also used for legal sharing. Let's apply this logic to all legal matters. If somebody robs you, let's n o t arrest and prosecute that person on the ground that all her activities will not be in breach with the law (as obviously they can't be). In all simplicity, like or dislike Megaupload, that's the principle you're defending. So please, take your stand and its implications and make them public. Further, what was so great about Holy Warbles? Admittedly, I don't spend much time visiting music blogs, but I know this much: just about every new release there (they were numerous, too) were records that are widely available in stores such as Juno and Dusty Groove and a host of other smaller online shops. So what exactly was on offer on this site that was so unique and expertly researched? Don't tell me it was the random folk jam from the Arab world, Scandinavia, France, and whatnot! Fans of records like that are such a marginal group they would never cause the fuss currently made on select blogs. That's not the reason behind Holy Warbles' high standing. Anyway, as I said: take your laments public and bemoan the fact that our legal system requires we pay for commercial products, from small specialised enterprises and big corporate ones alike. Also, to Holly, why ask for permission to post other bloggers' posts since permission to take anything that isn't yours in the first place clearly isn't an obstacle in your realm of reality? You have made it clear that your ethical sense is none regarding intellectual ownership. The least you can do is stay true to your destructive cause.

Holly said...

Anon -
You see what *I* choose to post. You have no idea what I do with downloads from other sites,so fuck off.

And I proudly sign all of my posts. Everywhere.

Christine said...

To Anonymous (posted February 24, 2012 1:58 PM):

Your argument using the comparison of not shutting down Megaupload with not prosecuting a person who commits robbery "on the ground that all her activities will not be in breach with the law", does not follow logic as you claim.

Imagine that you have a bike you legally own stored in a rented storage unit at a storage facility. Now imagine that somebody else renting the storage unit next to yours has a 100 pound bag of cocaine stored in their unit. Now imagine that the whole storage facility has been shut down due to the illegal activity of the person renting the unit next to yours, and you can't get to your bike, which is legally yours.

Megaupload is not one person, as you have compared it to in your example of one person committing robbery, so your logic does not follow and can't be applied "to all legal matters" as you claim.

Anonymous said...

Whiteanduptight,

If a storage facility in full awareness does as you say, then it is obviously guilty of facilitating crime. Further, Megaupload knew what everyone using up- and download services online know: Megaupload hosted illegal sharing of music and films. Now, following your ill-advised analogy, it isn't true that you can no longer "get to your bike", as you put it. Rather, it simply cannot any longer be kept at the "storage facility" of initial choice. The "bike" / l e g a l material people have uploaded by way of Megaupload must now simply be stored elsewhere, since Megaupload has been instrumental in crimes against copyrighted material and is under prosecution. No material as such has been l o s t, as you appear to claim.

Claiming it was wrong to shut down Megaupload on the ground that their service was used marginally for legal sharing as well, would be to argue against legal action if a guilty part has otherwise operated in accordance with the law. Such a principle would render hollow any legal accountability of breach of copyrights.

Really, the point above is self evident. Now the reason I'm so annoyed by this defense of Megaupload and blogs such as Holy Warbles is the fact that record labels have taken a big dent as a result of illegal sharing. Take a look around and see how independent labels have reduced their activity - or called it a day - over the last five years or so. There's even talk of corporate record companies giving up the cd altogether.

Without a shred of doubt, online piracy is a cultural evil. It's that simple.

Anonymous said...

"Holly",

You could also have chosen a different online signature. It does not trace back to a real-life identity. But I will humour you. You can call me "Bob".

Now "Bob" knows what "Holly" knows and the rest of the music-blogging community know as well: Megaupload is guilty. Period. "Bob" also knows that Holy Warbles must have become popular for sharing for free a fair few new releases on labels such as Finders Keepers, Sublime Frequencies, and other like-minded crate-digging labels specialising in global groove, records people should ideally have had to buy, if they wanted to listen to them. In fact, "Bob" wouldn't have been surprised to find many labels he likes represented in the long list of records illegally shared at Holy Warbles.

However, "Bob" spends his time looking for records as in physical artifacts and therefore prefers music blogs that give insight into music that he can find on vinyl, mostly second-hand. "Bob" also supports the labels mentioned above. He especially likes to buy records from the many small and fabulous labels that can be found in all corners of Europe. Sometimes these labels are run by one single person, be it a dj, a musician, or simply a music enthusiast. For sure, none of these labels are corporate enterprises with a big turnover. So "Bob" doesn't think there is value in sharing for free their work when they, themselves, haven't decided to do so. He also fears the impact this illegal sharing has on the labels he likes.

To make it absolutely clear, nothing al or øwl quaida is worthy of any defense! "Bob" is sure "Holly" gets the point.

Lastly, "Bob" would like "Holly" to come out as "Holly" in real life. He would indeed like any admirer of Holy Warbles and the like to conduct her "admiration" in full public. In fact "Bob" would like the hordes of illegal downloaders and defenders of Megaupload to all step forward, regardless of musical preference, so a stop can be put to online looting of copyrighted material.

But will they? No, they will not. Why? Because they know it is illegal. Behind handles and covert identities they will, however, continue their plundering, simply because online anonymity enables them to do so.

To round off, any blogger's "Holly"wood is a perfect realm for legal escapism, befitting every pun the sentence entails. Nobody is simply "Holly", from the point of view of being legally accountable, unless she's a person one knows from real life. This should be pointed out, as legal accountability is the clear objective for this poster's communication with "Holly" on her blog. Beyond that he wants nothing to do with her. Following this, "Holly"'s response above is irrelevant.

Sincerely, "B o b"

Holly said...

Bob -

1 - You totally evaded discussing white&uptight's point about people like, oh say, Tav Falco who has lost access to his own intellectual & other property that he legally stored on MegaUpload.

2 - Why you assume I don't support artists & labels is frankly mystifying. You're right - you don't know me.

3 - I am also mightily perplexed as to why you're commenting on my blog if you "want nothing to do with me" - I don't recollect you visting here earlier to enjoy any of the few recordings I've chosen to share. Stalk much?

4 - Do go single-handily save all the labels you like from internet plundering, oh valiant Bob [clap clap]. Meanwhile your churlish manners annoy me so please keep me OUT of the loop. Other folks can give you all the validation you need.

5 - "legal accountability" - for what, exactly????? ???

Sigh.

"Holly" is full of "non-admiration" for "Bob" so "Holly" will no longer publish "Bob's" comments. The rest of y'all, carry on!

Holly :-)

Reza said...

"GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT" , sorry Holly just GUILTY , its pretty clear to all, irrelevant of any personal insults, that Holy Warbles was closed down because he posted lots of in print easily availible albums, selfish downloaders can gripe about it but bloggers like him give the whole blogging communiity a bad name and are the root cause of any problems any of us may encounter in the future, good riddance to his ilk

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Holly said...

After everyone's finished the crossword & is ready for their 2nd cup of coffee or tea, I'd urge y'all to read Marie's (Rhythm & Tunes) thoughtful observations above.

Off original topic, yes, but worthy of own thread.

Hammer said...

*Slurp*

Hmm, interesting how this has swollen into a fight of chopping logic mania. Hmm, indildo.

Holly said...
""Holly" will no longer publish "Bob's" comments."

We say:
Who cares? You said this before about one of my comments and continued posting them hereabout. And your indemnification was simply put as "I don't like Hammer's language", placing your I's between two quoting commas. The hell Holly, babe-ums? What about your language? Fuck off? Can you say this on a public comment-venue or outlet without coming out as the MADD person here, hunnie dew? Relax, babe. 'Realax' yer chaffing tits, and ease yer knickers, too.

Anon.: Man, you rawk big fawkin' sawks (excuse my non-language).

In this commentrail of apparent idiocy there are to be found some gems. Much as Holy-Warbles' now-defunct blogsite that actually did carry some good plunders, and rare wonders. The fact that some on the other side of the pool take his 'work' as educational makes it all laughable. Arguably, he tried to teach the world some music (some here called it World music, of which the now-hip word is ethnic, mind ya). Meanwhile, he himself was a pupil trying to gather the ends-and-odds of all that's musically-correct. Of course, if there was such a thing as so, and beside the legal interpolations. He did what he could, and he lost the game. Full-fucking-stop.

Remember: music is a commercially-available product that you can buy, and ONLY buy with money. There is no such thing as a free lunch, babe boo bums. 'Member that shyat. 'Kays?

Kindly,

H.H.

Holly said...

Published the above just so everyone here can see the depth of Mr. Hammer's pathology. And that will be the last you'll hear from him in this forum. You may catch up with him at may other music blogs, where one can only assume he's hanging out to meet women as he's certainly not downloading music.

Sorry Hammer, I'm taken!

Christine said...

Reply to Anonymous in regards to this statement in your reply:

"The "bike" / l e g a l material people have uploaded by way of Megaupload must now simply be stored elsewhere, since Megaupload has been instrumental in crimes against copyrighted material and is under prosecution. No material as such has been l o s t, as you appear to claim."

What if you had stored your "bike/legal material" on Megaupload, then got hit by a virus and everything on your computer was lost? Or you simply had deleted the material yourself to free up space on your hard drive, and were using Megaupload to store your files? How can your material "now simply be stored elsewhere", if the only place you had it stored is no longer accessible?

The issue I'm debating is not one of whether Megaupload was engaged in illegal activity or not, or knowingly or not; the issue is that the entire library of material stored on Megaupload is no longer available. If this was done to stop proven illegal activity, then it should have been conducted in a way that shuts down only the illegal activity; the legal activity should not have been shot down for simply being an innocent bystander.

Devil Dick said...

just a FYI - per ur request.... the flip.

http://devildick.blogspot.com/2012/02/dynamic-v-adios-amigo.html

brown beard said...

Bleh! I can't stand the arbitrary defense of downloading as long as the material is out of print / not "available".

You know what's also not available? truckloads of $$ to buy all the interesting and enriching rereleases that are coming out. SOME money is certainly available, and I will use that money to buy SOME of said releases. But gimme a break here!

I challenge all the 'I only download out of print records' blowhards to consult an attorney and vet the legality of those actions!

LONG LIVE ENTROPY!!!!!!

thanks Holly,

burntoutsavannahs said...

did y'all see the damia album i posted that the owl so graciously dropped in my lap? http://spookcityusa.blogspot.com/2012/03/look-what-owl-dragged-in.html

GuillermoBlogeado said...

MIXTAPES DOWNLOAD HERE:

http://melomanovariopinto.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/mi-pequeno-homenaje-a-lo-que-fue-un-gran-blog-holy-warbles/

RIP the owl...