THERE ARE SOME BAD PEOPLE ON THE RISE....

Woke up this morning, full of the joys.

Today is supposed to be a celebration at TVV with the pre-written 750th post complete with special song.

But to my horror, I found that post #748 from just two days ago had been taken down.

It was the post which talked fondly of Paul Haig and Hey! Elastica. It featured a 12" single and an LP track, neither of which you can easily get your hands on just now, so its not as if I was having an effect on sales. It was also a posting about which I'd spoken to Paul's manager beforehand - it even had a few words added late on from Paul himself.

I then got an approving e-mail after the piece from Paul's manager.......

All of which means that the artist and his management were fine with things.

The label the single was recorded is Belgian-based and not noted for demanding such actions. I've written before about Paul Haig and had no problems. I briefly wondered if it could have been anyone to do with Hey! Elastica, but given the band have also been written about before at TVV, and that they broke up well over 20 years ago, I don't see how it was them.

So, call me paranoid, but I've come to the conclusion that some evil bastard is out there picking on me out of spite.

The other evidence I have for this is that the dmca notice was served on me three times within a 7 minute period between 5.31 and 5.38am this morning, leading me to conclude that it was someone who maybe hadn't previously written to blogger to demand a takedown (that's the pure evil of this particular legislation - all it takes is someone to claim their copyright has been infringed and the onus is on the person writing the blog to counter-claim against an anonymous figure).

I know the easiest thing is to move the TVV operations lock,stock and barrel to the likes of wordpress who don't have such a knee-jerk reaction when hit with a dmca claim. And I'm going to give it serious consideration.

In the meantime, I have to fly out the door and go to work where I know this is going to sit in my mind and distract me all day long.

I've asked Paul's manager for his thoughts, and as and when I get them, I'll share them with you. In the meantime, TVV will close down for a few days while I consider my next actions. (For one I'll need to back the bloody thing up and will need time to do that when I get home tonight)

TVV will return on 1st April with that 750th post......

mp3 : Paul Haig - Blue For You

Fuck you.....whoever you are.

PS : Big thanks to Paul Haig and Evan H (Paul's manager) who have been in touch this morning.

Paul has advised that while there is a version of Blue For You on his debut solo album (which came out on Island but is now Universal-Crepuscule), the Crepuscule part has reverted to him as they dont exist as a publisher/label. And it clearly wisnae him who asked that it be taken down.

Evan sums it up beautifully....

"if there are any actual physical copies around or on a compilation then tvv highlighting the track would encourage people to buy more music. Remember home taping didn't kill music or napster...

Guess who did...not music fans!"

As I said, Fuck You, whoever you are..... You're not going to win this one.

PPS : Thanks again to everyone for the supportive comments....and especially to the nice person who sent a link to the post in a saved form.....scroll on down and see what all the fuss was about.

JC