My Online Radio is Troubling the Law!!!

We'll start the posting today pasting the email I received this week from the site 4shared (click on the pictures to open it in the normal size, so you can read it):

And that was that. My 4shared account has been disabled, although I realize that some files are still hosted (because they're still playing in the player on our blog), cause they say I do not have permission to share the songs that are not mine. This is a controversial idea. First: I am not sharing mp3! I made the account to host MY MUSIC, PURCHASED BY ME, so that I could assemble a kind of radio in my blog, which DISCLOSE the work of artists that I like. I have disabled the option to download the files at 4shared site. And if they still can not guarantee that the file is not going to be usurped from the site, that's their problem, not mine.

Boyz II Men in the 90's.

Having said all that, the files causing this problem belong to Boyz II Men. These are some songs released in the nineties (old) that I would like the visitors of my blogs to hear while navigating. I understand that these songs are records of 'UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP' (again). For all other files that stayed my radio did not represent any problem. From Snap! to Hammer, from U.N.V. to TLC, none of them caused me trouble. Coincidentally, Boyz II Men was the band who sold more albums in the nineties! That is, I am breaking the law only when the copyright holders of the songs that are pearls to the R&B songbook feel that they are losing money. It has nothing to do with the quality of the artists, or even with their pockets. I'm sure the members of the group are the ones receiving the least amount of money for the sales of their music.

So Vevo puts the official clips on youtube, and I can put them here on my blog (throught embeding), and talk about the artists at ease. This is disclosing and sharing. But I can not ride my playlist and do the same on my own, through mechanisms ensuring that the music will not be improperly used (different from what happens on youtube). This is breaking the copyright law. Oh, yeah ... So I spent $30, between the price of Boyz II Men's cd, and the tax paid cause of the import aimlessly. Cause I can not listen with my friends. I can not share the music, cause Idon't own the copyright. Oh, yeah ... Good to know this. From now on, I'm gonna listen to my songs all alone, and not share with my friends... Let's see how the artists will sell millions without that push up.

Nokio, from Dru Hill and Black Angel Down.

I would love some cool artists to come here in the blog to opine on the subject. I really like what Nokio, from the groups Dru Hill and Black Angel Down, thinks. He usually has strong opinions and corroborate the feeling of the fans about it all. I'd love to hear some from Frankie J, who was there to sweat the shirt to make hir new album released. A good example of how talent and artists' work are the last things on the thinking of the grand corporations. And I would rather listen to the members of Boyz II Men, to know whether they are satisfied with what happened in the nineties, in terms of entrepreneurship and the bureaucratic part of their music, or not. Sorry for the big Universal executives, but, for me, the owners of the songs are the artists. If not for them, the record would not have won loads of money. It is the beautiful voice of Nathan Morris I want to publicize at my blog. It is the brilliancy of Shawn Stockman I want to show my friends. Never been part of our conversations the stamp printed in the cd (Motown / Universal at that time). The farther we got was quoting, and appreciating, authors and music producers. Then we will see how, in times of internet and global sharing, conglomerates mediocrity survives long-term. 

Frankie J, working.

I wanted to say that I will not buy any cd nevermore. But unlike the big conglomerates, I like Frankie J, and he'll throw a new cd at the end of the month. I want to support him. Unfortunately, probably I will not be able to advertise it, and I will not be able to convince other people to buy the album. The same talk over the New Kids (already bought the cd), and all the artists that I love very much, for whom I was always proud to cheer publically for. Unfortunatelly loving them and wanting the world to listen to them is not a good thing anymore.

JulyN