Belated 12 Days of Xmas Countdown starting in its usual haphazard fashion.

BUT.

So I got jumped by the usual suspects and came back from PA to find a DMCA email in ye olde inboxe.

I have re-posted the full contents of the email below and have edited the post so that it doesn't include the rapidshare links. As usual, Blogger has included a link to Chilling Effects, "founded in 2001 by Internet activists who were concerned that the unregulated private practice of sending cease-and-desist letters seemed to be increasing and was having an unstudied but potentially significant "chilling effect" on speech" [source].

Without incriminating myself. We've all done things that are "illegal"-- severity varying, because I know you have all peed in public before, at least-- and when caught, it's hard to argue against the consequences if you have entered into a contract with the government under which you live, which is easy to do. You're living there. And so I can't be too terribly indignant about getting that post taken down.

I don't feel bad though because it was the Clash Singles box set. That box set being a very pretty go by a record company at milking a cash cow 20 years later for the rest of what it's worth. So hopefully you guys grabbed the more rare tracks way back in 2007, and really, that thing was about the beautiful re-issues of the singles covers, which you can find sprinkled around the internet. It's too bad-- or fitting-- that someone (whoever you are) decided to go after a shining example of exactly why people take issue with record companies and why they are trying to provide this material for other enthusiasts.

But this means I will be sticking to my new more cautious policy of severely reducing the amount of files actually posted by me. I will continue to link, though I will be more careful about burying the link so nobody else gets in trouble. I will continue to abstain from posting entire albums. This is too bad because I was hoping to post an album that I have been meaning to post for years, so I might lift that restriction just once. I will continue, as I have done since this blog started, to properly cite all text that I quote, which I think is one of the most important things to do. I do have some standards.

Finally, I am very happy that blogger now sets the post to DRAFT status. I was pretty irritated the last time this happened, on what I thought was a well thought-out review of the new Green Day album, when the whole thing disappeared because I had linked to one of the tracks. I think it's a nice recognition of the work done on blogs (maybe not here, after all the goofing off, haha) because a lot of the places I have downloaded from have always included well-written, insightful reviews of the music.

For the email, as if you guys haven't seen it before, Continue reading!

Blogger has been notified, according to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), that certain content in your blog is alleged to infringe upon the copyrights of others. As a result, we have reset the post(s) to "draft" status. (If we did not do so, we would be subject to a claim of copyright infringement, regardless of its merits. The URL(s) of the allegedly infringing post(s) may be found at the end of this message.) This means your post - and any images, links or other content - is not gone. You may edit the post to remove the offending content and republish, at which point the post in question will be visible to your readers again.

A bit of background: the DMCA is a United States copyright law that provides guidelines for online service provider liability in case of copyright infringement. If you believe you have the rights to post the content at issue here, you can file a counter-claim. For more information on our DMCA policy, including how to file a counter-claim, please see http://www.google.com/dmca.html.

The notice that we received from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and the record companies it represents, with any personally identifying information removed, will be posted online by a service called Chilling Effects at http://www.chillingeffects.org. We do this in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Please note that it may take Chilling Effects up to several weeks to post the notice online at the link provided.

The IFPI is a trade association that represents over 1,400 major and independent record companies in the US and internationally who create, manufacture and distribute sound recordings (the "IFPI Represented Companies").

Sincerely,

picture source