xeropoint.net

The amazing Solstafir on Spotify:

What’s happened? It seems I’ve woken up in Cold War-era China! No, it’s actually Ireland in 2009 where large corporations are now seeking to control what citizens can view and access on the internet. Where is the law in all of this? Well, absent actually.

The original case has now been well discussed and reported across Irish and international media. Eircom in a world-first has come to an agreement with four major record labels represented by IRMA to suspend the internet access of any customer suspected of accessing copyrighted material ie music via Eircom’s network.

Full article here:

Internet users face shutdown over illegal music downloads

Unsurprisingly there has been a huge reaction from internet users:

Eircom to cut off Music File Sharers

Now that the dust is settling there is a growing movement to take action and protest against the government, Eircom, IRMA and of course the record labels behind this profit-motivated attack on personal freedom. Anybody who uses the internet in Ireland really needs to voice their opposition to these moves by Eircom and IRMA. Irish bloggers have been vocal, and other sites have been created especially to draw attention to the problem.

Music industry pushing for internet filtering as well as “three strikes” – what can you do about it?

As well as making your opinions known to all of the parties involved it would also be useful to contact each and every publicly listed member of IRMA by phone, post or email and let them know what we think of their organisation’s actions.

A list of members is available on the IRMA site here:

IRMA Members

More information is available at the following links:

Eircom Filtering the Internet

IRMA Threatens Irish ISPs

Blackout Ireland

A sample Blackout Ireland letter to the ISPs

The future will be widgetized! Your widgets will have widgets! Here’s another one.

Another free music download. This time from Serbian goth metal rockers Consecration. Sounding somewhat like Katatonia and Porcupine Tree this freebie is well worth a listen.

Direct Download Link

Elliot Jay Stocks, one of those terribly annoying multi-talented designer musician types has put some free sample tracks online. If you like dissonant NIN style ambient electro rock then this will be right up your street. Also featuring the sounds of an mbira.

http://sourhaze.com/v7/

There’s also a Myspace site but I’m not going to link that because I hate Myspace. have I mentioned that already!

Now directly from the supporting-the-home-team category comes this nice little musical discovery.Hailing from Limerick, the Supermodel Twins sound like Weezer meets Snow Patrol in a….well somewhere such people could meet.

This homemade video is shot almost entirely in the dark but it sounds pretty good:

More tunes and info on the MySpace page

BTW: have I mentioned how much i hate Myspace. No, well I HATE Myspace. There you go.
 

Nine Inch Nails aka Trent Reznor has released a new collection (is the term album now redundant?) of music online for free. Like Radiohead’s recent experiment with free online releases this has created a big buzz in the music and tech press. Is this the future of music distribution or just another cash-in on the hatred of the RIAA among file sharers and music fans? Time will tell but already there are signs of success for NIN at least – the multi-format multi priced “Ghosts” is moving like hotcakes – the demand for free downloads have caused the NIN servers to crash and the super deluxe physical version has sold out. At $300 per copy times 2500 copies sold it should at least make other artists take notice if not the record companies. Yes that is $750,000 for those who can’t be bothered with working it out!

ghosts.nin.com

NIN – Nine Inch Nails

Currently Playing:
Execution from the album “God’s Gift” by Toranaga