My Blood Is Boiling, No matter how you try,the bastards will get you Options

[Andy Partridge]

Man,my blood is boiling. I was trawling around the net to see if by any chance there were any reviews of POWERS,highly unlikely as we never serviced any papers or sites with it.It was to be strictly limited in all ways.What should I stumble on,a bloody site offering it to you FREE as an illegal download! For Zod's sake,this means that one of only 500 purchasers of the disc has put it on the net to be stolen by all and sundry.I am squirting blood from my eyes with anger.Thank you SO much you cock breath!! It hurt like hell when people put up the entire Warbles boxset{yes,and HINGES too} for the stealing,but to do it to POWERS from out of only 500 copies..... that hurts.
Of course you can't contact the site in any way,but oddly BT had found a way as they were one of the big advertisers on there.....fuckers fuckers fuckers.
Thank you for stealing my wages,may it happen to you.

[nightotter]

It's sad that even Powers with a limited run can't go untouched by these bastards. Of course, you made your money on the 500 sold, but if you intended on making them available as a download, you are losing cash.

Sorry mate.

[Kendley]

Sorry to hear it, Andy.

[Per Aronsson]

It´s a shame. It takes just one person to upload something and then it escalate.

[Jeff Truzzi]

I'm no barrister, but how can advertising on a site that sells illegal products be legal? Isn't every advertiser on there culpable of subsidizing and encouraging illegal activity? If that's not a legal loophole that needs closing, maybe it's an opportunity (and potential income stream) for some ambitious lawyers (or law students) to set some intellectual property rights precedents through a class action lawsuit from the artists being robbed by that site.

You may not be as litigious in the UK as the US is,
but these thieves - and the advertisers who profit from such theft - are bullies.
And the only thing a bully understands is getting the living shit kicked out of him.
Hit 'em legally, with the law.
And hit 'em where it hurts - in the pocketbook.

Many artists and creative people have earned much more money from litigation than from their art.
I won't name names.

[Andrew Swainson]

Andy - it's possible that it may not be quite as bad as it appears Andy. I checked all of the download links from (presumably) the same site you were looking at and none of them lead to actual files to download. It looks like they may have just picked up the album info and posted it as a jumping off point for searching torrent files. From what I can find with a couple of searches there don't appear to be any available.

Thinking about it, there can't be too many people who would fork out for a ltd edition CD and then chuck the tracks online for all and sundry to cop a feel. Let's hope it stays that way.

This post has been edited by Andrew Swainson: Oct 5 2010, 08:34 AM

[Blushift]

Andy - it's possible that it may not be quite as bad as it appears Andy. I checked all of the download links from (presumably) the same site you were looking at and none of them lead to actual files to download. It looks like they may have just picked up the album info and posted it as a jumping off point for searching torrent files. From what I can find with a couple of searches there don't appear to be any available.

That is good news if you're right Andrew. I agree that it would be a bit unusual for one of this crowd to buy, rip, then distribute - but not entirely impossible. I volunteer to help sleuth if we want to track a culprit down! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif)

[MarmaladeArmy]

Andy - I feel your pain. We had the same thing happen with our 'limited release'. 'Limited interest release', maybe I should say. Anyhow, just trying to recoup what you put into these things, let alone ever breaking even, is hard enough without the all-music-and-art-should-be-free mentality flying around. Methinks this is a philosophy that applies to mainly non-artists.

Sorry for the continued slap in the face.

[Spastic Minnow]

Andy - it's possible that it may not be quite as bad as it appears Andy. I checked all of the download links from (presumably) the same site you were looking at and none of them lead to actual files to download. It looks like they may have just picked up the album info and posted it as a jumping off point for searching torrent files. From what I can find with a couple of searches there don't appear to be any available.

Thinking about it, there can't be too many people who would fork out for a ltd edition CD and then chuck the tracks online for all and sundry to cop a feel. Let's hope it stays that way.

Probably something like the "download [SONG] as a ringtone!" popup you get everytime you go to one of those dozens of seemingly interconnected lyrics websites? No matter how obscure it could be you will get that popup.... then have to search for the hidden close function...

Here look: "Send 'MOGO' Ringtone to your Cell" They don't actually have it as a ringtone, it's just a link to some adware-ridden website that sells ringtones and just pops in the name of whatever song you're searching for into the link.

[donavan]

Andy, people who have posted that they have bought Powers could not be blamed for feeling a bit uneasy about your post. I mean all are under suspicion now and could possibly think twice about buying future projects. Or at least discussing them. Although I understand your frustration it looks like Mr Swainson is probably right and it isn't what it appears to be. Let's hope so anyway for you and the good folk on here that support you.

[Jupiters Smile]

Greetings,

Just saw this and it surprised me. I've just done some searching myself and found a handful of sites announcing said wares for free. Thing is, I'm pretty sure no one's actually nicked anything. Every site I've found seems to be of the same ilk - they're all zombies. They exist for the sole purpose of attracting visitors and therefore generating revenue.

It goes like this
1. Site collects names of albums, films, games or anything that someone might possibly be looking for a dodgy copy of.
2. As it collects these names of "stuff", it automatically generates webpages making out that they are available to download.
3. Search engines pick this up.
4. People get lead to these pages through their searches.
5. They visit the site and the site then shows them its adverts and generates revenue.
6. The visitor clicks on links and the site gets more revenue by sending the visitor off somewhere else.

It's all about attracting visitors and clicks. The sites have nothing to download. They just make people think they do. All a bit sad really.

By the way, many (most) advertisers don't have any clue or control over where their ads appear. Advertisers sign up to an advertising service and that's usually where it ends.
The ads appear on a web page when a web site owner signs up to the service (e.g. google ads) and puts the electronic billboard on their web page. The ad service then pipes the ads to that billboard and the web site owner gets paid every time an ad is viewed. Not even the web page owner knows or controls the ads that appear on there.

So if you've got a lot of time on your hands, you can build a site that's full of lies, attract lots of people by whatever means and make some money. A bit like the mainstream media does in a way...

[Jeff Truzzi]

Greetings,
By the way, many (most) advertisers don't have any clue or control over where their ads appear. Advertisers sign up to an advertising service and that's usually where it ends.
The ads appear on a web page when a web site owner signs up to the service (e.g. google ads) and puts the electronic billboard on their web page. The ad service then pipes the ads to that billboard and the web site owner gets paid every time an ad is viewed. Not even the web page owner knows or controls the ads that appear on there.

Thanks for enlightening me to that, Jupiter - much obliged!

[Keltik]

Nice to hear it's not likely to have really been nicked...and I sincerely doubt anyone who has gone to the trouble of joining the Forum would have done so. Mind you, if every single registered member bought one, that would account for only 298 of them. You might have sold one to Ronnie Biggs' accountant for all we know.

[Adrian]

Andy,if it hurts you......
Right grab you balaclavas and find the arse,I know someone in the Masons.
arrrrrgh

[hummingbird]

It sucks, royally. I don't see how such thieves will ever be caught if no one ever calls the police, Scotland Yard or (in the US) the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC is the US dept. that will will work with WIPO http://www.wipo.int/portal/index.html.en , to track them internationally and their transient servers. The Powers is such limited distribution, that I think it would be an easier trail to track. That being said, such operations are just the tip of the iceberg of illegal file downloading. The worst offenders are the average joes that convince themselves that taking music isn't wrong. All of it, from the pirate website to the average joes, pisses me off to no end.

[cicadashell]

i don't want to minimize the impact of illegal downloading, but really...let's take a deep breath.

[johnivor]

Dear Andy,

That sucks and blows. It seems that the World Wide Web is more like the Wild, Wild West, only with faceless usernames in place of bandana-veiled bandits. I am hoping upon hope that Messieurs Swainson and Smile are right and it turns out to be merely a hall of mirrors. Even if that is the case with Powers, it is still a gut-wrenching epidemic in the music world.

The folks on this site have followed your career for many years and know of all the struggles and sacrifices you made for your art. You have enriched our lives with your music. If anything, we all feel that we owe you, immensely.

[geordiegav]

I feel your frustrations as an artist and label ownwer Andy,I only hope they dont turn you into a Howard Hughes figure of music release!

Try and focus on the positives of the internet and music release possibilities rather than the negatives of internet theft.

It's great that Powers has almost sold its print run and it shows there's a demand for AP product in beautiful packaging and remember that was all sold over the magic carpet of the internet.

Don't let the bastards grind you down!

[nightotter]

It's great that Powers has almost sold its print run...

I thought it sold out already? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

[Jeff Truzzi]

...let's take a deep breath.

That's a neat link trick, cicadashell!

Okay, I was a little hasty with my "sue 'em all, let zod sort it out" response.
But maybe you shouldn't dismiss the legal angle so quickly.
Owning rights to your music (finally!) occasionally requires (shall we say) 'vigorous assertion' of them.