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piracy

March-April 2010

In some corners of the web, pirates serve as curators of high culture

Navneet AlangWebsite

There’s more to online piracy than Beyoncé singles and porn In the summer of 1999, a terrifying rumour began circulating on the then-young internet, gluing millions to their screens: Napster, the illegal music service, was about to be shut down. It seemed like the party with an endless soundtrack was coming to an end. The […] More »

Legalization Week continues with rockstars, pirates, lots of lawyers

Graham F. Scott

For day two of what we’ve dubbed “Legalization Week” here, Jordan Heath Rawlings writes about a plan from the Songwriters Association of Canada that would throw open the file-sharing doors to every Canadian and find new ways to help musicians make a living from their creativity. It’s just one of many proposals that have been […] More »
November-December 2009

Pay indie artists and break the music monopoly — Legalize Music Piracy

Jordan Heath RawlingsWebsite

Music is a dead industry walking. A radical all-you-can-eat plan promises unlimited tunes and puts artists — not record companies — first Politically speaking, it was a pretty good haul of booty. On June 7, an organization of self-described “pirates” took what was a fairly small step toward gaining real political clout, but a gigantic […] More »

Big screen? Big deal, say today’s viewers

Jason AndersonWebsite

Crappy image quality. Tiny screens. Scratchy sound. No thanks The extent of my snobbery has wavered over my years of film-going, but I have always adhered to one fundamental principle. I was trained to believe that seeing movies projected onto a big screen was always the aesthetically correct choice, even if the conditions were less […] More »