I Can't Believe This Guy Is Beating Me by 59 Thousand

And with your help, he won't be much longer.

Tim Wilson. Never heard of him, but he's one of those country singers who throws in the F-word on his song and it's a success. "Ha-ha! He said, 'Where the Fuck is My Jetpack?'" and his song has over sixty-thousand views on YouTube.



By contrast, here is what I find to be a far superior song, and instead of just a picture of the smiling singer/songwriter you get an actual video, and this video is only sitting at about 1,200 views. (And between you and me, these lyrics are way better.)



Now granted, Mr. Wilson has a major label behind him and he tours regularly, whereas I write a small blog with a low readership and dabble in music from a computer in my bedroom, so I suppose it's only natural that the number of views for his song should surpass mine. Nevermind that he probably stole the line from me.

I would like to someday beat Tim Wilson on YouTube. Another person I'd like to beat is this dude, whose Kraftwerk/Devo/Cars sounding Jetpack video is just...well, you decide. He's got nearly 7K views.



What makes a successful video? I like to think it's content, creativity, a small push from a few people and maybe a bit of luck. With any luck and a small push from a few of you, I will beat Tim Wilson and Devo Dude in no time.

Then the world will buy the song and Tim's Nashville corporate lawyers will come calling, seeking copyright infringement money, to which I will reply, "Bite me. Owned the domain since 2003. Blogging under the name since 2006. Whereas your song was published in 2009. Who is infringing upon whom?" Or, "Upon whom is infringement being perpetrated?" Or, "This infringement you speak of, dear sirs, is wholly mine to claim! DON'T TREAD ON ME!" And then I will wave my snake-flag and call some local TV stations. Tell me, lawyers, do I have a case?

But it's not like the phrase is unique anymore anyway. Author and Roboticist Daniel Wilson (Another Wilson?) came to me years ago hoping to buy the domain for his book, which has the same title as this blog. I told him, "No. Why don't you register 'Where IS My Jetpack' instead?" Which he promptly did.

After the lawyers go away in sheepish defeat, (compensating me out-of-court for the pain, suffering and loss of potential wages) I will then maybe let Tim open for me at a show or two, provided he doesn't sing his Jetpack song.

Calle del Alfabeto

Bloggers, have you ever posted a video and then gone back to the post months later to find that the video has been removed by the original poster? Happens all the time here and this blog is littered with empty YouTube frames that make those posts pointless.

In some cases, it's a music publisher claiming copyright infringement, which in this day and age, is the dumbest move a music publisher/record label could make. When people are stealing your music from LimeWire and a host of other places, why not allow your music a little free play that doubles as promotion for your artist? Maybe someone sees this video of Prince (being painfully slow-hosted via two or three servers, with the original host being in Romania) and goes out and buys some Prince music on iTunes.

It could happen. Now please enjoy the funky fun of the Minnesota Vikings' most famous fan before it gets removed again.

Prince - Alphabet Street - Watch more Music Videos at Vodpod.

Copyright Police Have a Sense of Humor After All

I guess they've decided not to fight it and just play along. As long as they can advertise on the video's page.

From the Desk of

Dear RadioFreeBabylon,

Your video "Sweet Soul Alabama" has been identified by YouTube's Content Identification program as containing copyrighted content which UMG claims is theirs.

Your video "Sweet Soul Alabama" is still available because UMG does not object to this content appearing on YouTube at this time. As long as UMG has a claim on your video, they will receive public statistics about your video, such as number of views. Viewers may also see advertising on your video's page.

That's Some Grim Photography

A barn in Montana, by Adam Grim

From Adam Grim, Photographer, that is.

A couple posts back, I reopened the never-to-be-ended debate about copyrights in the Age of Information. Stuff is out there and it’s easy to get. Whether you’re using Limewire to steal music or you’re grabbing images from sites to use in your blog posts, someone is going to take offense, usually an artist or creative type who invested time and energy—and creativity—in their work.

So I was kind of a dick to Adam Grim, a photographer who takes some nice pictures. I whacked him in the head with my shovel and then scooped a bunch of shit on him. (I don’t like being a dick, even though I’m good at it.) UPDATE: Read Adam's remarks in the comments. He had good reason to be pissed at my using his picture, based on his previous experience.

If any art directors out there need a good image for some piece of collateral, a magazine article, an ad or a website, I’d bet Adam can hook you up cheaper than Getty or Corbis. I'm not sure if Adam's working professionally yet, but he should be. You might be able to get a good deal from him.

Adam, consider my axe done ground and the hatchet done buried. In the future, I will link stolen images much more prominently. Like the ones here.

Sunset at the pier in Oceanside, California, by Adam Grim