Posts by David Hadley

Brown pledges annual commons debate on surveillance

Gordon Brown Is Right...

...we are now free to do anything the government decides to let us do.

Extreme porn bill gets final reading

Still Legal?

So how long before harmless little pastimes like this:

http://littlefrigging.wordpress.com/2008/03/12/a-sub-postmistress-in-bondage/

or this:

http://littlefrigging.wordpress.com/2008/01/09/village-hall-accountancy-fetish-night/

become illegal too.

I would say that I don't know what this country is coming to, but it seems as though soon it won't be coming at all.

Billy Bragg: Why should songwriters starve so others get rich?

The Analogies Don't Work...

...for either side, for or against. An extra digital copy doesn't cost anything to produce, doesn't deprive anyone of anything and copy 1 000 is just as good as copy number 1. In short music has lost its scarcity value through being so easy to replicate and it is that - simple supply and demand - that controls the price or lack of it.

Last I heard the world wasn't suffering from a global shortage of pop stars - if anything there is a glut. If they were still working in a factory instead of being pop stars and their factory was no longer producing what people wanted to buy then no-one would suggest we keep paying them to produce their widgets. They are not owed a living just because they style themselves as 'artists'. I write poetry - I rarely get paid for it when it gets published (and then only trivial amounts), but then I know that and accept it and know that I'm highly unlikely to do it for a living, but I carry on because... well, that is what I do.

I haven't heard of that many rock stars giving it all up and getting a job cleaning windows or whatever recently either, so they should consider themselves lucky that anyone at all is ready to spend their hard-earned money on the outpourings of pop stars.

If every tunesmith in the world just gave up tomorrow, how long do you think it would be before we all crawled to their doors dragging bags of gold begging for just one more tune? I think it would be a very long time - perhaps instead we'd all learn how to whistle instead.

Paris 'cos there are certain 'talented' people I find it so easy to live without.

Don't shed any tears for Pandora

Advertising

The record companies are amazing, aren't they?Not only do they make Ebineezer Scrooge look like a philanthropist, they also expect radio stations, TV networks and now internet companies to PAY THEM for the privilege of advertising their wares to the populace.

Who was it who said something like 'a pop song is just basically an advert for itself'?