In response to the Digital Economy Bill

Frankly - Fuck The Digital Economy Bill

This is a wasted piece of legislation and it is doomed to fail from stage one. Let my explain my point of view;

1) The music that I download without paying is rarely available in shops. It is either while labels that are themselves a copyright breach! or in most other cases, they are pressings that have been deleted from the record company back catalogue so I couldn't buy them even if I wanted to.

2) The music that I download that does not fall into one of the two categories above, I would not pay for anyway, it is merely the fact that I do not have to pay an extortionate price that means that it represents a value that I would be interested in downloading.

3) The record industry is the driver in this bill, claiming that the are loosing £200m a year (cited by BBC panorama, broadcast 15/03/10) yet let's look at this...

Can you buy 12 vinyl records if you're a club DJ? Can you buy a CD single if you're a domestic buyer? Answer; NO! You can't because the music industry has decided that you can't. They are not making the product for you to buy in the first place.

The current selling price for CD albums is well out of kilter with previous selling prices and they do not currently represent good value for money;

In 1988 you could buy an album on vinyl and expect to pay £6.99 (production cost £2 approx. / profit margin 71% ) yet now we are expected to pay an average price of £9.99 (production cost 50p (!) / profit margin 95%). So record companies are being more greedy in their retail selling prices. Online prices are also excessive, 79p per track on itunes for an electronic download, of which the record industry receives 50p without incurring physical production costs for any type of media. That means that the average release on itunes delivers a higher revenue stream than selling a CD in the shops - and even that is over priced!

SO that's my basic rant over and done with, but there are other reasons why it will fail...

4) All it takes is a VPN or other cloaking method and there will be absolutely no way of tracking an IP address through that.

5) By the figures offered by current research, 61% of UK households use some form of illegal download system. Are you really going to cut all of them off and prosecute all of them? You will never even scratch the surface.

6) Ok, so you've figured out a bill to track those torrenting stuff, now what about those using forums and file download sites. They move so quickly that they'll never catch them all, and even the, how do you track the IP of people visiting a site that is out of your jurisdiction?

7) Lastly. I am a musician, a semi professional one at that. I have no problem with people downloading my music. In fact I offer it for free download on a number of different sites. I do not feel that those who download it are taking any money off me, they could still buy a CD version if they like it that much, and if they don't like it enough to buy a CD then they aren't going to buy one to find out what the songs sound like in the first place.

BOTTOM LINE - WHY SHOULD THE MUSIC INDUSTRY BE ENTITLED TO SUCH PROTECTION WHEN IT DOES NOT HELP ITSELF AND ALL IT TURNS OUT IS GENERIC PULP, UNWORTHY OF MY MONEY?

It happens to us all from time to time...

... you know how it is, you never wanted it in the first place. Most of the time you can't explain where it came from yet there it is. And it has inherent comedy value... It is, of course DIARRHEA !!

So make the most of it and laugh at yourself... Just remember - there are some things best kept clear of until the worst is past...

Nice!!

Return to the Odd Blog...

Its been a while since I've done anything much. I've kinda let this all slip a bit so here's me making amends (a bit). Whilst recently, time has not always been my own, I now return with this offering...

It's allegedly a man gurning, personally I think its more like an example of chronic constipation. In either case, the guys a freak! Enjoy. More coming soon.

What we all want to say...

I love spam marketing. It's so bloody pointless. So it's time for a few rather odd responses...

COMPARETHEMARKET.COM SAY

James, you could save up to £332 on your car insurance‏

From:	comparethemarket.com (comparethemarket@comparethemarket.emv5.com)
Sent:	02 June 2009 10:39:15
To:	XXXXXXXXX @hotmail.co.uk

If you are unable to see the message below, click here to view. To ensure that your issue of comparethemarket.com's newsletter reaches your inbox, please addctm@comparethemarket.com to your e-mail Address Book or Safe List. Facebook Twitter Hi James, If last month's budget news has made you think about how you spend your money take a look at our helpful energy saving tips and home news as well as the fantastic car insurance special offers. Great car insurance offers Save on your home insurance Switch and save on your energy You could save up to £332 on car insurance

I SAY...

NO I COULDN'T!!!

I tried your web site when my car insurance was up for renewal (probably why you are bugging me with spam emails now!) and you were nowhere near competitive. My renewal quote was £210.46 and you offered me a lowest quote that was over £100 in excess of that.

Perhaps you have spent too much on meerkats and that is causing your prices to rise? Might I suggest that you do the following...

1) Use less meerkats in future to save money

2) Be realistic about the alleged 'savings' you quote - when the small print says that only 10% of customers can make a saving of the level that you advertise, it's hardly an attractive proposition is it? How about the idea of telling us what the AVERAGE saving is? The number wouldn't be that high but it might be a more attractive prospect in terms of me believing that I might actually save some money... Aah, but most people don't read the small print - do they? WELL, I DO!!

3) Bear in mind that the only time I have ever put my details into your web site was a month ago, for a car insurance quote, and that I haven't taken it out because your prices are seriously uncompetitive. Was it really a smart marketing ploy to mailshot (spam) me offering me car insurance? THINK PEOPLE... In my quote I gave a policy inception date and that has now passed... What is the likelihood that am still looking for car insurance? Pretty small I would think, wouldn't you?

So, please take note of the following...

I REQUIRE THAT YOU REMOVE ALL OF MY DETAILS FROM YOUR MARKETING DATABASE AND ALSO FROM ANY ASSOCIATED COMPANIES WITH WHOM YOU SHARE DETAILS. I DO NOT CONSENT TO ANY OF MY DATA BEING HELD ON YOUR DATABASES FOR ANY REASON WHATSOEVER AND DEMAND THAT ALL INFORMATION THAT YOU HOLD ON ME IS REMOVED - IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE DATA PROTECTION ACT. FURTHERMORE, I DO NOT CONSENT TO MY DATA BEING PASSED TO ANY THIRD PARTY COMPANIES OR ORGANISATIONS FOR ANY REASON WHATSOEVER.

SHOULD I FIND THAT ANY OF THIS INSTRUCTION HAS BEEN IGNORED OR IS INCOMPLETE I WILL SEEK PROSECUTION FOR BREACH OF THE DATA PROTECTION ACT AND INVASION OF PRIVACY TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT THAT THE LAW ALLOWS.

SIMPLES!!!

Beer in the evening...

OK, so I've been off from work today working on the site, trawling the web, looking for bizarre shot and I came across this. It almost makes you cry to think of the waste!

Whilst I'm chilling in the sun drinking a bevvy, just thought I'd share this picture of criminal spillage. Such a shame!

Massive site update

OK, it's seriously taken all day to get this far but all the Golgotha Outlaws section of the site is now live. All the music is linked and ready to download and all the artwork is in place.

Also, I've built and submitted the site map today to Google, MSN, Yahoo and a couple of other search engines so hopefully that should generate a little traffic. Other than that, I'm pretty much built now so it's more about content now, so that's where getting traffic comes in, The more people visit, the more chance I have of getting someone to contribute some content.

Maybe I will put some more time into finding stuff to put into the blog as well.

The first update

Ok, the new site is partly functional now. There's a bit of content on there but I need more, this is where YOU come in. Any contributions gratefully received.

Whilst I've been building the site today I've been looking around the web for inspiration and there's some seriously fucked up stuff out there.

DO NOT WATCH THE FOLLOWING VIDEO...

Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs Murder Guy with Hammer and Screwdriver

UNLESS YOU HAVE GUTS OF STEEL - IT'S NOT A FAKE.

but it is... rather odd

The birth of ratherodd.org

After a bit of mucking around, and my general incompetence, RatherOdd.org was finally born at about 11:30am this morning. Following a major circumvention of my severe lack of web creation knowledge I am now up and running.

Over the next few days I'll be building the basic site and getting a few bits up and running. Contributions are always welcome so if you would like to start me off with a few photos of unusual, gross or odd things then by all means feel free to email them to me and I will add them to the galleries and credit you for their inclusion.

Lets make things RatherOdd.org