When the alarm clock goes off, the target pops up, and to turn off your alarm you must shoot the target.
WANT.
The real reason MegaUpload was shut down?
In December of 2011, it was reported by Digital Music News that the creators of MegaUpload were rolling out plans for a new cloud based music service that had the potential to change the music industry.
Called Megabox, it would have created an alternative to record labels as a means for artists to sell their music on-line, cut out the middle man and allow artists to keep 90 percent of their earnings.
They were also going to have a program called Megakey that allowed artists to offer their music free and still generate revenue.
This came just a week or so after Universal filed to have a promotional video by Megaupload removed from youtube that featured A list artists, that Universal had absolutely no claim to.
Was Megaupload taken down because it was a threat to an existing business model, that makes a lot of people a lot of money?
It’s starting to look that way.
Also, for your reading enjoyment, here is an interview with the founder of Megaupload concerning the youtube video take down, and his previous problems with Universal.
Sources:
Mystery surrounds Universal’s takedown of Megaupload YouTube video on C|NET
MegaUpload Is Now Launching a Music Service Called MegaBox… on Digital Music News
Post on google plus by Shauna Myers “Why was MegaUpload really shut down?”
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Sony Music Artists except Adele…
Adele remains unbothered.
Queen.
Anonymous on Adele, whose music was the only music they did NOT leak during their mass torrent leak of many Sony artists.
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Neil Gaiman on Copyright, Piracy, and the Commercial Value of the Web (X)When the web started, I used to get really grumpy with people because they put my poems up. They put my stories up. They put my stuff up on the web. I had this belief, which was completely erroneous, that if people put your stuff up on the web and you didn’t tell them to take it down, you would lose your copyright, which actually, is simply not true.
And I also got very grumpy because I felt like they were pirating my stuff, that it was bad. And then I started to notice that two things seemed much more significant. One of which was… places where I was being pirated, particularly Russia where people were translating my stuff into Russian and spreading around into the world, I was selling more and more books. People were discovering me through being pirated. Then they were going out and buying the real books, and when a new book would come out in Russia, it would sell more and more copies. I thought this was fascinating, and I tried a few experiments. Some of them are quite hard, you know, persuading my publisher for example to take one of my books and put it out for free. We took “American Gods,” a book that was still selling and selling very well, and for a month they put it up completely free on their website. You could read it and you could download it. What happened was sales of my books, through independent bookstores, because that’s all we were measuring it through, went up the following month three hundred percent
I started to realize that actually, you’re not losing books. You’re not losing sales by having stuff out there. When I give a big talk now on these kinds of subjects and people say, “Well, what about the sales that I’m losing through having stuff copied, through having stuff floating out there?” I started asking audiences to just raise their hands for one question. Which is, I’d say, “Okay, do you have a favorite author?” They’d say, “Yes.” and I’d say, “Good. What I want is for everybody who discovered their favorite author by being lent a book, put up your hands.” And then, “Anybody who discovered your favorite author by walking into a bookstore and buying a book raise your hands.” And it’s probably about five, ten percent of the people who actually discovered an author who’s their favorite author, who is the person who they buy everything of. They buy the hardbacks and they treasure the fact that they got this author. Very few of them bought the book. They were lent it. They were given it. They did not pay for it, and that’s how they found their favorite author. And I thought, “You know, that’s really all this is. It’s people lending books. And you can’t look on that as a loss of sale. It’s not a lost sale, nobody who would have bought your book is not buying it because they can find it for free.”
What you’re actually doing is advertising. You’re reaching more people, you’re raising awareness. Understanding that gave me a whole new idea of the shape of copyright and of what the web was doing. Because the biggest thing the web is doing is allowing people to hear things. Allowing people to read things. Allowing people to see things that they would never have otherwise seen. And I think, basically, that’s an incredibly good thing.
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The West Wing Characters: CJ Cregg
”One in forty American men wear women’s clothing and we’ve had well over forty presidents. I’m just saying, one of these guys was dancing around the Oval Office in a prom dress. Now let’s get to the bottom of that.”In my opinion, CJ is one of the most essential members of the ensemble. She is the poster girl for 21st century feminism, as the brilliant and (would you believe!) capable woman of the White House. I think the audience becomes attached to CJ quickest, actually, because she comes from a more relatable mindset. Where Josh is duty-bound, Toby carries an undeniably melancholic tone, Sam is the eager up-and-comer, Leo is the voice of wisdom and the President is their charismatic leader, CJ is there for a cause. I think, unlike a lot of the other characters, her primary reason for joining the Bartlet campaign was the direction of a cause led by people she respects (as understood from In The Shadow of Two Gunmen Part 2). Her biggest flaw is, arguably, her morality. It shines through at certain moments that, for CJ, it is not about the politics but about whether or not they are truly doing the best they can to achieve what is right.
I think CJ is as entertaining as she is, because she’s one of the boys while also being the strongest female presence on television in that era. I truly believe she was. Josh, Toby and Sam treat her like a sister, and that familial bond between the core characters is a huge part of the draw with this show. The backdrop is so serious, dramatic and compelling that to have CJ’s flirtatious humour contrasting that is vital. While every single character has made me laugh countless times, CJ always seems to be at the centre of the amusing chaos of the White House - Gail the goldfish, the root canal surgery, ‘I’m too sexy’, Josh vs. CJ (in A Proportional Response), CJ and the turkeys, The Jackal, the prank war, her reaction to Josh’s fansite etc. She never becomes a single-tone character, though. Janney delivers the heartbreaking humanity of CJ on as many occasions as she lets audiences hear that infectious laughter of hers. While Sorkin brings a great deal to defining CJ’s character from the start, Allison Janney brings her alive in a way that simply no other actress could have done. It is effortless with her, and I am constantly in awe of the talents of this cast.
Frankly, I am of the belief that you could not watch The West Wing and not fall in love with CJ Cregg. If not simply because, if you loved any single member of ensemble, she had a wonderful rapport with all of them.
There’s a reason why, when the show ended, CJ was the last one standing of the original senior staff. She is far and away the best thing about the show, for me.
the thing about michael fassbender…
…is that he’s a domestic violence committing, female co-star intimidating asshole. You can read the details of what he did to his female partner at the link. Regarding his treatment of female costars: Kiera Knightly didn’t want him spanking her during one of their scenes in a film & said so while tied up; in reply he said “Keira, you’re tied to a bed. You’re not really in a position to say that.” So when a woman is obviously scared and uncomfortable, his response is to scare her further, really make her feel her powerlessness to control what happens to her body. So that happened. And then some of his fans talked shit about her for not fully appreciating how wonderful it would be to get nonconsensually struck by him.
Basically, I don’t understand the attraction at all. I don’t understand. I want to push him out an airlock every time I have to see his hateful face. I want him and every other man who abuses women off my fucking planet. Kinda now.
But, yanno, I also want to shout “he freaking beat his wife!” whenever I see Sean Penn, so I guess I’m just a ~sensitive bitch~.
I find it interesting that I see their faces on my dash semi-regularly (mostly Fassbender), but apparently Chris Brown’s attractiveness isn’t sufficient to make his domestic violence inconsequential.
True? Food for thought.
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Accent theme by Handsome Code
