Beer Steak Bullshit

Just as you thought the music industry was dwindling and nothing worthy of your time was being released, a dude by the name of Wilbur Sargunaraj enters the scene and wipes off the competition as soon as the first words run through autotuner start off the song. Love Marriage is a true masterpiece of the music industry and the video that accompanies it is the work of sheer genius.

If you are an unlucky owner of a Dell computer, you probably already know Mr. Wilbur Sargunaraj. You may never have met him, but if you have ever called Dell customer support, you would have dealt with that exact Indian accent.

While Love Marriage is without doubt a gem and Wilbur Sargunaraj is the king of dance pop music, I can’t help but notice that the less talented you are, the more popularity you gain across the interweb. Real artists are called fakes while beauty contest winners like Maxine Swaby or intense singers like Mark Gormley get unlimited exposure. Damn, internet rocks.

Wilbur Sargunaraj Love Marriage Music Video is below. Prepare to be awe-struck:

I know you’ve been dying to hear new, striking Chrismas music this holiday season so let me introduce you to the masterpiece titled It’s Christmas by latest singing sensation Andrew Hart. You best jump on the bandwagon because Andrew Hart is the new Tay Zonday and It’s Christmas is the new Chocolate Rain. You don’t want your neighbors to own It’s Christmas before you, because it will show how slow and backwards you are so get right on it. You can purchase future #1 song on t3h interwebz by going to gottabeandrew.bandcamp.com. The song only costs $.99 and there is no denying this will be a major hit. You’ve heard it here first.

Once you got yourself your new It’s Christmas song from talented Andrew Hart, you can sing along with me: “Santa’s coming down the CHIMM-ERR-NEEEEE”. If you wish to see more videos by Andrew Hart, check out his YouTube channel by looking up his username GottaBeAndrew (Gotta Be Andrew – for easy remembering). The video of the song is below:

Speaking of Marilyn Manson and his reunion with Evan Rachel Wood it’s worth a mention that the reunion was proceeded by the music video released by Marilyn Manson for his song Running to the Edge of the World. The video is pure genius. Most of it is a mugshot of Marilyn Manson singing the lyrics of Running to the Edge of the World which is then sneakily intertwined with footage of him beating the shit out of and killing a half naked woman who happens to look similar to Evan Rachel Wood. How awesome is that??

The Running to the Edge of the World music video was posted on MySpace by Marilyn Manson. The song itself is amazing, just as everything Marilyn Manson has released, but the video itself proves he’s a multi talented genius. Whether the video had anything to do with his reunion with Evan Rachel Woods is left for speculations but I don’t think the two are related. Running to the Edge of the World is the works of art, both as far as music and video are involved. The message is simple – love hurts! Kudos to Marilyn Manson for releasing yet another work of a genius.

Ozzy Osbourne told Australia’s Herald Sun that sales of his latest album, Black Rain, are “suffering terribly” as a result of illegal downloading. Ozzy Osbourne explained, “I’ve been suffering terribly from people downloading it. If they don’t find something to stop it, people won’t be able to make records. There won’t be any new bands. How are they going to survive? I’m an old-timer, I’ve been doing it 40 years now, but new bands are going to suffer. It’s ridiculous, you could be doing it for nothing.”

Ozzy Osbourne added that he’s been forced to tour more in order to make up for lost income from CD sales, saying, “I’ve never done in a long time as many live shows as I’m doing now. This year I’ve done 90 shows. I mean, I ain’t getting any younger.”

Nevertheless, Ozzy Osbourne denied in a recent call with reporters the charge by his wife and manager Sharon’s brother that his sister was working Ozzy too hard: “My wife does not get involved with telling me about working. I tried retirement, it sucked. If I don’t want to do anything, my wife can’t make me do anything I don’t want to do.”

Ozzy Osbourne is currently on a headlining arena tour of the U.S. with special guest Rob Zombie. The trek pulls into Des Moines, Iowa on Friday night (November 2nd).

 

RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) gets $220,000 from Jammie Thomas of Brainerd, Minnesota who was sued for illegally downloading music. RIAA formerly originally offered the woman to have her illegal downloading settled with a standard “low cost” fine of only a few hundred or thousand dollar, but she refused and went to court instead. She lost! RIAA wins!

Now, I’m in no way advocating illegal downloading – it’s bad and I encourage everyone to buy legal music, however there is something not quite right about this case. The woman was found guilty of illegal downloading based on the IP address that was used to download. Not even her hard drive was presented as the evidence. In the year 2007, when hacking to unprotected wireless networks happens on day to day basis, in the age when Trojans hijack people’s computers, in an age like that a woman is found guilty illegal downloading of music based on her IP address? No other evidence that the woman was in fact doing it… nothing but her IP address!

Anyway, it’s about time illegal downloaders start getting busted. Maybe it will help send clear message to those who are still doing it…

Another interesting finding is, that she wasn’t sued because she was downloading music, it was because Jammie Thomas made music available for others to download. So it looks like it’s not even illegal downloading that’s an issue here, it’s offering the music for others to download without paying royalties to the artist.

That however makes some sense to the point:

If there were no people who share copyrighted music, there would be no people downloading it illegally – that makes sense. Furthermore – from the prosecutor’s point of view – it’s easier to bust the ass of someone who shared the music 2500 times, than go after the 2500 people who illegally downloaded it from them. It also sends clear message to the others who offer files for illegal downloads and might contribute to making them stop.

What RIAA needs to do right now is to invest extra money and time to giving this case more exposure. That would improve their settlement conversion rate significantly and would become great source of income for RIAA. Even by sending out letters to small offenders and collecting as little as $1000 from them would boost their bank to fight serious sharers and downloaders, or organized groups.

Back to the court ordered fine – $220 000. Damn… That’s a pretty high fine. Granted, Jammie Thomas should have taken on the offer she got from the RIAA to settle it without court, but still… $220 000 is a lot. I’m glad it set strong precedence, but how did they get to such high figure? Well, let’s see:

It seems to be based on the premise form the recording industry which assumes that everyone who downloads a file would have bought the CD but they didn’t because they were able to get the music illegally. So in other words they assume that every illegal download translates as a lost sale. That is what pumps the price of your fine up this high and if you ask me… it’s a bit of a bald statement right there and not a very good premise to build your court conclusion upon.

On the other hand – court decisions are made as punishments to those who broke the law as well as deterrents to those considering breaking the law. If the punishments were reasonable, people would weigh the punishment against the crime and many might realize that they can “afford” to do the crime. If the judgment is lofty, the deterrent is greater.