Anti-Pirate Site Uses Pirated Photos on Its Website

Well, isn't this a big oopsie.  

You may have heard of Canipre, a company that promises to track down and sue the bejeezus of alleged BitTorrent pirates in Canada.  However, TorrentFreak has uncovered an issue:

Anti-piracy group Canipre, who work with the makers of the Hurt Locker as did the U.S Copyright Group, have been busted ripping-off the work of independent photographers.

Their dark themed website features images that originate from several photographers, but they all have one thing in common – they are being used without permission. A classic mistake, but one that should have never been made by a company that takes the moral high ground when it comes to piracy.

Just a few days ago Canipre’s boss defended their plan to sue thousands of BitTorrent pirates by claiming that they want to change people’s attitudes. In addition, they proudly use the ironic slogan “they all know it’s wrong and they ‘re still doing it.”

Read the whole story and see the offending photograph here.

Google Announces Their Streaming Music Service

The rumours were true.  At the Google I/O conference, the company unveiled Google Play Music, a subscription music service designed to compete with the likes of Spotify, Pandora, Rdio and whatever Apple is hoping to launch.

At first blush it looks pretty good.  Nice customization, a good price ($9.99 a month after a 30 day free trial) and integration with their music-locker-in-the-cloud service.  And if you sign up for a trial by June 30, the price drops to $7.99 a month.

But there are also questions.

1.  For the most part, Google is identified with "free."  When was the last you paid Google for any of their services?  This could be a problem.

2.  $9.99 is an okay price, competitive with other players. But do they have to charge that much? Shouldn't there be a free option? (See point 1.)

3.  Google is first and foremost an advertising company.  They make the vast majority of their money from ads.  How do paid music subscriptions fit into the standard Google business model?

4.  The world of streaming music services is pretty crowded, especially in the US.  Even with Google's strength, reach and deep pockets, do we need them to play in this space?  Or is this just something to annoy Apple?  Or do they really need to tend to the music needs of all those Android phones (none of which work with iTunes, of course).

5.  So we have Play, YouTube, Google+, the Motorola properties, Android and a host of other products. If they could be put together, you'd have something pretty spectacular.  But that's not the case.  For example, YouTube's music licenses are completely different than what they negotiated for Play.

But here's the thing we need to remember about Google:  more than any other big company, they're in it for the long haul.  People said they were crazy when they started as a search engine.  People believed they were nuts when they started running ads based on search.  When they bought YouTube, they were condemned for wasting their money.  When the first Android phones came out, they were derided as crap.

And let's not forget that Gmail was in beta for, what, a decade?  This is just v1.0 of Play.  Like I said, remember what people said Android during the Cupcake and Donut eras. Never, EVER judge Google on v1.0 of ANYTHING they do.

Episode 9 of the Geeks&Beats Podcast Is Now Available

This week's episode with me and BNN/CTV's Michael Hainsworth features Dave Wakeling of The English Beat and General Public.  One of the things he reveals is the exact location of the famous mirror in the bathroom. Stream the episode here or subscribe through iTunes.

Thanks to this week's co-producers Thomas C. Foster Jr., Alex Reedman and Alan Gibson.  All it takes for you to be a co-producer is to help us defray some costs with a donation.

Show notes:

Proof that your band is never too old to have an app.

The most-tagged songs on Shazam in 2012 along with why Shazam is important to the music industry.

A summary of who I saw and what I learned at the Worldwide Radio Summit in LA. (Example)

Prince's original demo for "Manic Monday."

Want to buy John Lennon's Ferrari?

Star Trek socks?

How People Discover and Consume Music Today [INFOGRAPHIC]

Hypebot passes on this great infographic from The Music Bed.

Google to Introduce Streaming Music Service Today. Apple Is Pissed.

There are multiple reports pointing towards something very interesting happening today at Google I/O, the company's annual gathering of software developers.  The whispers are that Google will unveil its streaming music service.

The service will be subscription-based and connected to Play, which Google's online media centre.  This no doubt greatly pisses off people in Cupertino who have been pushing hard to get all the licensing agreements in place for a similar service for Apple's iTunes.

Apple is close to reaching a licensing deal with all the major players.  The only holdout is Sony, who, like Google, takes great pleasure in causing Apple pain.  If this rumour is true, expect to see plenty of articles saying things like "Apple blew it" and "Apple is on the decline."

This is another step down the road towards access over possession.  Why go through the trouble of physically acquiring and maintaining a music library (even a digital one) when you can access all the music you want--more than you could ever afford to buy--for just pennies a day?

And while it's true that the vast majority of current subscribers to streaming services are classified as "inactive," these are just growing pains.  While many of us--including me--never see a day when we won't own music in some form, the allure of being able to get what you want, when you want it, wherever you happen to be on what device you happen to have will prove to be infectious.

I'm involved in something later today that is along these same lines.  An announcement tonight.

More at the New York Times.  There's also this at All Things Digital.