Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Online Music Downloads ... Part II

As I've mentioned in previous posts ...

I occasionally will use Google to find online music from my favorite bands and/or bands I'm not familiar with.

The legal ramifications of such activity are not really a concern to me as the files I randomly find in public folders and blogs are just as likely to be public/free domain files as they are copyrighted. The exact nature of such, regarding such questions, is really not known to me and so I count it as good fortune to find any of such files.

It's a sporadic and infrequent activity on my part and it generally leads to my purchasing an official CD of the same artists material and so I don't really concern myself too much with the legality of such behaviors (even considering the fact that I'm the subject of a rather banal and corrupt local investigation).


Musicindexof.blogspot.com

Which brings me to my next point ...

Just two days ago ... I found a handful of songs from Rage Against the Machine on the above titled/mentioned blogspot.com blog.

I downloaded some of them as they were in .FLAC format and seemed to be fairly decent quality. This download was in large part because I have been wanting to purchase one or two hard copy Rage CD's in the near future from my local record shop and I figured this would be a great way to figure out exactly which CD's I will ultimately purchase.

Anyway ...

So today ...

Wanting to see what else the auther of musicindexof.blogspot might have available for download ... I revisited the site, only to find that it had been removed from public access.

Huh???

What does this tell me?

That maybe those who have been lusting after the possibility of bringing me in on some (any, really) sort of internet use related charge are growing even more desperate than I could have imagined and are planning to possibly "call me out" on charges related to illegal downloading of music ...

That maybe they notified said owner of musicindexof.blogspot of such intentions and then he/she were required to take their blog offline ...

Or maybe "They" notified Google and google shut the guy down ...

I really don't know to tell you the truth.

It also could have just been a random thing.


Legality of Music Downloads

Whether the Rage Against the Machine tracks I downloaded equaled a technically illegal action on my part or not is any one's guess.

As far as I know ... such randomly found and downloaded tracks are just as well covered by the Fair Use Act of 1976 as they are covered by any of the more prosecutorial laws of our land.

It's a user making tracks available for review/education purposes, after all ...

I mean, such downloads are what will influence me to purchase one or both of those same CD's from my local record shop this weekend ... so it's anybodies guess, really.

It's also not unlike finding a used CD in the trash can as far as I'm concerned (and maybe the law as well, when speaking of, strictly, downloading of such content).

Those academic musings stated ...

The situation for the person responsible for publishing such content ... that is ... making it available for direct download by others ... is much more precarious, I'd think.

For such persons actively publishing such content ... then here, maybe the prosecutorial options becomes a bit more arguble.

:-)

Anyway ...

As mentioned above ...

My actions in so far as randomly searching public directories and repositories, seeking this music or that as demo downloads ... is very slim at best.

The general mode of operation, as stated before, is for an ISP to issue multiple warnings that such activity should cease as opposed to booted feds/cops busting in one's door.

;-)

Anyway ...

I hardly ever find myself partaking in such activity and I only bring such topics up here and now as it seems a bit coincidental that such a random site that I recently downloaded files from was shut down just a day or two later.


My General Mode of Music Download

My general mode of downloading music is most often from pay-sites like www.hdtracks.com or www.mp3fiesta.com.

I've spent thousands on hard copy CD's and online downloads and I'll continue to do such.

But it should also be stated here that many of the artists that I purchase music from were first discovered by random searches of online blogs and public FTP directories.

As a creator of music/songwriter myself ... one who has published nearly 200 songs online for free download ... I consider such activity indispensable towards ultimately paying for the music I enjoy.

...

So as I continue to spend boat loads of cash on downloaded and hard copy music, I will nonetheless also and occasionally explore google directories for online music to demo.

Just wanted to post a little heads up as I thought it rather unusual that that guys blog was shut down so soon after I downloaded those files ...


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this post is intended to be supplemental to the facts made public in my main website, http://www.jbhfile.com/; it probably will not make much sense to you if you have not already made yourself aware of the legal and personal efforts discussed in that site. please see http://www.jbhfile.com/ for a necessary introduction into why this blog exists. or, if you just like reading weird stuff, then don't. and, enjoy.
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jbh.

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Saturday, August 9, 2008

A record breaking post!!

Just a quick word about the last article I posted ... the one entitled, "Two of my fav idiots...," wherein I daftly and not too subtly refer to a certain Universtity here in Houston and a certain political figure who, by way of his father, is also stationed in my home town of Houston.

Well for what it's worth, that post now carries the esteemed honor of garnering (by far) the most unique page views/visits during the first two days after it's posting than anything else I've published here at this blog.


Not Popular

My blog is not that popular, understand.

I mean, folks don't stream here by the hundreds/thousands a day to get the latest juicy bit of jbhfile.com related information.

Really ... why would they?

I certainly wouldn't if I were outside of the proceedings discussed here. Frankly, the content here is pretty boring and unbelievable material.

In fact, on average, I'd say this blog gets about 5 visits a day, most originating from search engines and a few from regular IP based visits (friends and family no doubt).

Anyway, the above mentioned post, in the first two days after it's publication, resulted in a whopping (relative statement) 33 unique visits starting the same night it was posted!

And NONE of those visits came by way of a search engine hit!

This means that (seemingly overnite) 33 real individuals suddenly developed a keen interest in my blog and my blog URL from within their web browser with the sole intention of reading this new article.

They were all direct requests from individual IP's.


So what does it mean?

It probably doesn't mean anything.

It's probably just random that 33 individuals purposefully typed in my blogs URL and visited that particular article (that all previous log data to date shows that to be a unique event is also, most likely, random)

It's also probably just a random thing that this particular two days of very heightened activity had anything to do with the content published in my "Two of my fav idiots..." post.

Or, randomness aside...

Knowing how the hyper egotistical think (probably better than they themselves do) ;-) , I could also surmise that the unique occurrence of dramatically increased page views might have been a stampede of investigation related folks logging on to look at themselves in the mirror, so to speak.

Either way ... I really couldn't say for sure.

But one things for sure...

That particular post was a HUGE hit with somebody for some reason.

:-)


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this post is intended to be supplemental to the facts made public in my main website, http://www.jbhfile.com/; it probably will not make much sense to you if you have not already made yourself aware of the legal and personal efforts discussed in that site. please see http://www.jbhfile.com/ for a necessary introduction into why this blog exists. or, if you just like reading weird stuff, then don't. and, enjoy.
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jbh.

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Monday, August 4, 2008

Two of my fav Idiots...


...

Yes.

Some, so called, "bastions of learning," are actually the most ghey and over hyped mind jobs on the block.

That said ...

The math/neuro/psych wing of Rice Univ., here in my beloved home town of Houston, are front-runners in the claim for the cup!

They love their "hypotheticals" so much that they'd do anything to create the semblance of a physical proof for the same.

Even those "things" best associated with Nazis ...

:-)

You know ...

Like planting evidence ... torturing ... drugging ... making false claims regarding character ... all that sort of loveliness ...

EDIT (08/08/08):

Now, in retrospect (four days after this post) ... lets be realistic.

In no way am I guaranteeing that said University (or even that most notoriously fumbling of political figures) is involved in the ongoing investigation against me.

Just that things have "reached me on the winds," so to speak ... be it via direct verbal confirmation with random sources or be it otherwise.

As with everything else in this blog, things should be taken with a pinch of salt.

Refer to my main website, www.jbhfile.com, for those things I consider factual.

And besides ...

If such folks really are involved ... a little poking should do some much needed good towards cracking the plasticy veneer of their most axiomatically created "Ivory Towers."

...

Just some random filler to keep my lovely blog alive.

Best...

.jbh



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this post is intended to be supplemental to the facts made public in my main website, http://www.jbhfile.com/; it probably will not make much sense to you if you have not already made yourself aware of the legal and personal efforts discussed in that site. please see http://www.jbhfile.com/ for a necessary introduction into why this blog exists. or, if you just like reading weird stuff, then don't. and, enjoy.
-------------------------------------------------------

jbh.

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The jbhFILE.com Official Daily Blog

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Houston, Texas, United States
This blog is a supplementary text to my main website at: http://www.jbhfile.com. The purpose of this blog is to form a semi daily dialogue related to personal circumstances as outlined in jbhFILE.com. have fun.