I was browing idly this afternoon, and found a blog that was offering free downloads by my band. I’m the one doing all the digital distribution for the band, and I know damn well that this was not one of the legal and very well known sites we deal with. I think the clue was that there were thousands of other bands offered for very little money, from as website that claimed to be nothing but a front end for file-sharers (and so claimed that anything illegal was nothing to do with them). So… I left a reply on the blog asking them to stop doing it.
I thought better of it, though, and decided to get the blog hosting company to remove the site and the many, many illegal links contained on this one blog.
I’m not naming the blog company for legal reasons (although I can tell you it’s not this one) but they really don’t seem to give a shit. The process of making any kind of complaint is a labyrinth maze of menus, seeming for their benefit, as it’s a pain in the arse for any user. As far as I can tell, they will only do anything if the actual copyright holder fills out a bloody great form, and not until. This would be like me telling the police that the man next door has a stolen car, and the police telling me that unless the owner of the car came to them and told them that my neighbour had stolen their car, they were doing fuck all about it.
Which is a bloody stupid way of doing things, I think.
What? Why Bother? 