Digitally Shared Music Not Legal?

Lord Mandelson’s strict policing approach and the FAC’s sudden stance reversal and Lily Allen’s stupidity on taking on a subject she can’t stomach or have the wits to comment on will only spark an outcry from users and non-users alike of online music sharing platforms.

Change is change, either you embrace it and innovate yourself or just shut up! This is a tsunami you can’t stop.

Lily’s righteous pose just make me gag, what a hypocrite. If she didn’t use the free nature of MySpace to launch her initial recordings, did she think she could have landed the contract with Regal Recordings, in no small amount thanks to the listeners and tens of thousands of comments left on the site?


Immediately I can see big problems arise from the attempt to patrol internet traffic. Number 1 is privacy issue of end users and punishing someone with a link to an IP address without a fair trial or search warrant topples the fundamental human right of innocent until proven guilty. Think how easy it is to fake a screenshot of an IP address of a BitTorrent or p2p client.

Also, private/public Wi-Fi is never secured enough anyway. “Who’s going to be blamed if someone logs on at an internet café and downloads copyrighted materials?” wrote blogger Kite09.


As blogger ChrisJWOwen voiced: “The vast majority of music is … a rehash of other music that went before …” All harsh legislation will do is drive file-sharing underground and make it harder to curtail, just like back in the Prohibition era.

iTunes and Spotify are legit and users don’t have to resort to stealing if the music can be enjoyed with little or no money. People should have the right to listen to a track before buying to make sure the song isn’t a dud and if they truly love it, they will still buy.

Again, not all CDs contain great songs, often there are only one or two good ones, so freedom to the music lovers and their right to download!

Digitally Shared Music Not Legal?

The Comfort of Virtual Invasion

Is working from home better than in the office? I doubt that.

My #1 concern would be the lack of human contact, productivity issue and the perks of professional resources more readily available in an office than from home.

Think about it, would your boss wanna speak with you always via a webcam or prefer to see you in person? How would you know you aren’t slacking off or having some crises that require other people’s assistance, like falling down the stairs or having technical difficulty with your copier? Would your co-workers find it easier to bond with you or to solve a problem more efficiently from a cold screen?   Besides, it’s just plain unhealthy to be stuck in front of a computer screen 24-7. Poor eyes!


With the exception of Silicon Valley dwellers, hermits, long-distance daily commuters or a ranger snowed-in deep at some remote no-where, I don’t believe web applications or video-conferencing alone can replace the work-place interactions.

Even if you’re an ultra-busy biz-man, you would still need to come in for meetings or have a cup of coffee with your clients. Think about all the camaraderie lost and generally the solitude of being with yourself, never venturing to brave the “outside” or feel the excitement in a hubbub atmosphere.


Why not compromise? Have them both? A blogger called camholder wrote: “I think it’s all about conditioning, so people who work from home occasionally is going to be less productive th(a)n people who do it regularly… they’ve picked up the discipline.” It’s all about the “work mode” mentality.


Yeah, who wouldn’t agree that a home environment is more soothing than an office setting, but to Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC’s technology correspondent, “it’s not really possible to work effectively from my kitchen, I need to be out seeing businesses, … need access to some technology … only f(ou)nd at work – like studios – and I need to work with colleagues, like picture editors who may not be so keen to come … to my place.”

Solution? Make the office more casual.

The Comfort of Virtual Invasion