Day and Night Digital | Irish Independent

Some Pirates in the dock

The Pirate Bay on trial: Four men are accused of helping millions of internet users download copyrighted material. The industry has called on internet service providers to censor such websites.

Last week the trial involving four men accused of helping millions of users download movies, games, software and music through their site The Pirate Bay begun in Stockholm. Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, and Carl Lundström face up to two years in prison, damages of €10 million and a €115,000 fine for facilitating the distribution of copyrighted material.

The trial dubbed “spectrial”, as the defendants considered it a spectacle, has not gone according to the IFPI’s (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) plans thus far. Half of the charges against the men were dropped as the prosecutors fumbled on defining The Pirate Bay as the source of the Bittorrent files (The Pirate Bay’s computer servers never actually hosted any copyright-infringing files) and the defendants have been gaining notoriety by using their Twitter accounts to ridicule the case ranging from expressing boredom (“#spectrial is so boring. It’s sleepy”) to joy at their supposed winning of the case (“EPIC WINNING LOL”).

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Videos of The Week: Coldplay & Gary Barlow, Zander Bleck, White Stripes, Donkumentary

1. Coldplay & Gary Barlow
   “I just want you back for gooooood!!”. It makes perfect sense that Coldplay were joined by fellow bed-wetting balladeer Gary Barlow of Take That at the secret War Child show in London last week.

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Linkage: Twecipe, Atlantis Explained, Last.FM vs RIAA

1. Twecipe
   On Twitter and looking for a decent meal from scraps on the fridge? Send @twecipe a list of ingredients and get back a recipe.
   http://twecipe.com/
2. Atlantis Explained
   Last week, the Sun reported that the lost city of Atlantis was found on Google Earth. The satellite image shows intersecting lines the size of Wales, three miles down in the Atlantic Ocean. A Google rep has explained the phenomena as sonar artifacts from a boat which was gathering data for Google Earth’s new ocean feature.
3. Last.FM / RIAA rumours debunked
   With the U2 album leaking onto the web a week early, Techcrunch investigated whether social music site Last.FM handed over user listening data to the RIAA in an attempt to catch some of the 100,000 users who downloaded the album in the first ten hours of availability.

Update: Last.FM has insisted vehemently that this is a rumour and has no truth in reality. Read their non-mincing response - “Techcrunch is full of shit”.

Sites of the Week

1. Photoshop Disasters
   Photoshop allows designers to digitally manipulate reality. This site celebrates those special cases when the designer forgets to finish the job.
   http://www.photoshopdisasters.com
2. Irish Blogs
   “What Ireland is saying right now”. Irish Blogs is an aggregator of Irish bloggers and a great place to find a blogger who resonates with you.
   http://www.irishblogs.ie
3. Sexy People
   Showcasing the weird and wonderful world of photographic portraits.
   http://www.sexypeople-blog.com

Band of Blogs: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Belfast bands, Camera Obscura, John Shelly and the Creatures

1. New Yeah Yeah Yeahs
   Two new tracks ‘Zero’ and ‘Heads Will Roll’ from the Karen-O fronted band showcases a different electro-leaning sound for the rock band. It’s Blitz! is out on April 14th.
   Listen at the Hype Machine
2. Belfast invasion
   Two of Belfast’s most promising bands Escape Act and Cashier no. 9 play Whelans this Saturday. Escape Act are also offering their album for free download from Bandcamp.
3. Camera Obscura
   ‘My Maudlin Career’ is a beautiful, twinkling and welcome return for the Glasgow band.
   Listen at the Yellow Stereo
4. John Shelly and the Creatures
   Another talented Belfast band (is it 2009’s place to watch?) find their brand of lilting folk-pop currently soundtracking the latest ad for the Northern Ireland Tourist board.
   myspace.com/whywalter

Our favourite Oscars moment of 2009

Videos of The Week: The Simpsons go HD, Freaky dogs scare children

1. The Simpsons make changes
   After 19 years, the series intro finally makes the jump to high definition.
   
2. Irish Music Vids
   As outlets for Irish music video disappear, hats off to those artists who continue to make great videos. Stand up – The Ambience Affair, Fight Like Apes, Grand Pocket Orchestra and Lines Drawing Circles.
   nialler9.com/tag/imv/

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MAP - The Sound heard around the world

On the 15th of every month of group of 22 music bloggers around the globe (myself included) participate in a thing called the Music Alliance Pact or MAP for short. On that day every month, each member of the group posts a list of 22 mp3s on their blog, one for each country represented by MAP, accompanied by a description and a link to the artist’s site. It’s a simple idea which was started by Jason Cranwell, a Scottish music blogger who wanted to share his recommendations with others beyond his own internet space.

“I wanted readers to get out of their comfort zone and open their ears to things they might not otherwise listen to,” says Jason. “As each individual blog’s regular readers would usually download and listen to that author’s recommended songs, they would be more likely to download the MAP songs too, even though their source was another blog entirely.”
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Linkage

1. Watchmen Portraits
   As the comic book world gears up to welcome Zach Snyder’s superhero film version, these 17 portraits showcase a distinct aesthetic which suggests the film will be better than your average comic book movie.
   url.ie/172v
2. Bad Movie Club
   Last Friday, several thousand people watched the same bad film and simultaneously voiced their (often hilarious) opinions on Twitter in 40,000 different tweets. The film in question was M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening, a truly abominable movie.
   badmovieclub.co.uk
3. Death in the Insect World
   Stunning photos focusing on death and natural selection in the world of insects.
   url.ie/1758

Band of Blogs: Here we Go Magic, Heartless Bastards, Casiokids, !Kaboogie

1. Heartless Bastards
   A blues-rock band fronted by the very talented and charismatic Erika Wennerstrom from Dayton, Ohio. Their new album The Mountain is released this month.
   myspace.com/heartlessbastards
2. Here We Go Magic
   Another Brooklyn band buzz, this time the music in question bares no relation to MGMT. Instead, Here We go Magic specialise in a psychedelic electronic-folk crossover that sounds wonderful to these ears. Listen to ‘Tunnelvision’ first.
   myspace.com/herewegomagic
3. Casiokids
   How about these crazy alt-electronic Norwegians? Think Hot Chip from Scandinavia with more guitars.
   myspace.com/casiokids
4. !Kaboogie Sampler
   Free download of a sampler CD from the Irish dubstep, ragga and jungle label featuring some great Irish electronic music.

kaboogie.net