NON-FICTION TALE

Have you heard the true tale of the 16 year old French lad who painstakingly translated (from English into French) all 759 pages of the new Harry Potter book (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) in record-breaking time and within days of its July 21st release date, and then posted it online? If so, you know that this time-consuming task landed him in jail and also facing serious charges of intellectual property violation. 

Now what he did, of course, was illegal, but the smart, swift French high-schooler is hardly a hardened criminal. And it is important to note that he was not trying to make any money off the book or receive any kind of payment for his intense, time-consuming job of translating an entire book. One reason why it is seems crazy to me to go after this young individual is because anyone who is going to read an entire book online (which is a pain in the ass -- most people only read one page online before tiring of staring at their computer screens) is obviously too cheap to buy it in the first place and secondly because if you were to print out all 759 pages you would end up spending more on ink cartridges and paper than if you were to go buy the book itself at the store.

And if you read it online so as to know the story ending before it was published and available in stores, then you are such a diehard Harry Potter fan that you will -- undoubtedly -- have to later buy a copy of the book to own. It is just like the music file downloaders who, while downloading like crazy, also purchase the most music online.

track                                         artists                                                    album title

Cumbia De Los Aburridos     Calle 13                                                 Residente o Vistante
Oración Acere                          Spam All-Stars                                     Eletrodomésticos
Para No Vivir Desesperado  Mexican Institute Of Sound                Pinata
Mundo Insólito                         Toy Selectah & Up Bustle & Out       Mexican Sessions
Tifit Hayed                                 Wganda Kenya                                   Colombia!
Tambo Iya                                 Ricardo Eddy Martinez                      Si Para Usted
Grande de Cadera                  Sonidero Nacional                             Tributo A Los Mas Grandes
Crazy In Kingston                    Beatconductor                                     The Greastest Hits of GAMM
Café Con Sangre                    Jose Conde Y Ola Fresca                 Revolucion
Nuestras Demandas               B-Side Players                                    Fire In The Youth

New Star Video 1008

Charles Saatchi, with his brother, founded the international advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, but Charles' greater fame is as an art collector who has dominated the contemporary art market in Britain since the early 1980s. In fact, the the 1999 retrospective, “Young British Artists: The Saatchi Decade,” uses his name to define an entire contemporary art scene. Yeah, it would be cool to convince him to “invest” in our arty little 7 inch record boxes and help out us poor old ‘45 Room’ employees with our kid’s college funds, but word on the boulevard is he’s a recluse. In my book that’s just a fancy word for record geek. And that Mr. Saatchi is a compliment. I'll be waiting on your call!

If you want to watch the fun-looking Flavor Flav Roast on Comedy Central tomorrow (Sunday 8/12 @ 10PM), best to plan on catching it live on TV and not on YouTube in clips at a later time since the media giant that owns the cable station, Viacom, is doing everything in its power to stop clips from being broadcast on YouTube. And Viacom is not alone in their war on the Google owned YouTube. Earlier this week they were joined by several other TV broadcasters and publishing companies in a major copyright infringement lawsuit against the popular video file sharing website. These proceedings ultimately mean that we should most likely now begin the countdown to the final days of YouTube. One of those involved in the legal proceedings, The National Music Publishers' Association, said it is joining the lawsuit "out of concern that many songwriters aren't receiving proper compensation when their music appears on YouTube videos." Additionally, Viacom Inc. (which, besides Comedy Central, also owns MTV and other stations) and the Football Association Premier League are also part of the lawsuit against YouTube/Google. And while this lawsuit seems crazy for many reasons, including that most artists make no money off of past videos played on TV anyway -- never mind crummy quality dubs on YouTube, which most people only view and don't download (unlike with Napster in its famous lawsuit some years back) -- it certainly looks like it signals the final days of YouTube, at least as it exists today. So my advice: enjoy YouTube while you can.