Grammy Anti-Piracy ad
You’re already swamped with totally useless corporate online music ’stores’ backed by Big Music.
Now you’re going to be overwhelmed by bandwidth-sucking music industry web pages and video adverts ’speaking out about the future of entertainment downloading,’ as the catchily named whatsthedownload.com, one of the latest to go up, says here.
What’s it all about? Let’s put it this way – Napster II is the site of the month.
Say no more.
The same page pumps up the RIAA’s God-awful www.musicunited.org, the MPAA’s appalling www.respectcopyrights.org (MPAA), the Recording Academy’s trashy glitzoid, www.grammy.com, and the loathsome www.keepmusiccoming.com.
And in the meanwhile, “Ad Against Web Piracy Debuting on Grammys,” says an Associated Press story here, going on:
“The organization best known for bestowing accolades on the music industry at its Grammy Awards will begin airing ads discouraging online music piracy with the awards show’s Sunday broadcast.
“The Recording Academy hopes the TV and radio spots will drive viewers to a Web site that features artists discussing the impact they say online piracy has on their business. The downloading and sharing of songs via the Internet is blamed for declines in music sales that have reduced profits for record companies and royalties for artists.”
And it quotes Recording Academy President Neil Portnow as saying, “People still do not realize why it’s illegal.”
Hey, Neil, since when was “downloading and sharing of songs via the Internet” illegal?
The ad had its debut during Sunday night’s Grammy broadcast last night and showed a teenager downloading a song from the Internet while a crowd danced inside a nightclub, says AP.
“When the teen completes transferring the song file to her computer, the music and the lights at the club suddenly turn off, leaving clubgoers confused over who pulled the plug on their fun.” its says. The ad closes on the Web address for the organization’s information [for information read propaganda] site. The radio spot asks the listener, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if everything were free? Music’s free? Or is it’?”
Not if the record labels have anything to do with it.
Portnow apparently wouldn’t say how much the Recording Academy spent on the campaign, scheduled to run through the end of the year, says AP, adding, “He said broadcast stations will run the ads as public service announcements.”
February 9th, 2004 at 9:23 pm
Or check out http://www.whatstheupload.com/
February 11th, 2004 at 2:48 am
those are commercials, not PSA’s. i bet wal-mart would love to make a commercial showing how their huge theft losses keep them from paying their (local-labor) employees more. so, please dont steal from wal-mart, goto save_their_jobs.com. the FCC certainly would not allow that, yet the RIAA get’s free COMMERCIALS with a diguise that only works in pitch black dark. i think its time for P2P united to get tv PSA’s warning of the innovation and legit use of P2P apps. and to warn against corporate freind legislation, that once passed, can plague growth and innovation long after the yay! voters are all retired or dead.
February 13th, 2004 at 6:40 am
What we really need is a pro-p2p-ad. Say something like: “Want music? Got a computer? Get yourself onto p2p and get it for free.”