Inactivity.

I haven't been blogging much just now, my life is pretty fucking good at the moment, hence no rants to be had. However, I will be very soon embarking on a transatlantic flight. So be prepared for a lot of anger. Loves!

Pirates.

Piracy, in my opinion, is not about the people of today wanting something for nothing, and having loose enough morals to steal from corporations to get it. It's also not a matter of how easy it is to get. What it is is a damning statement about the state of the modern entertainment and tech industries in a time when everything comes down to how much money they can extort from their customers.

A letter was recently released into the public domain from entertainment industry execs. to the government, complaining about how Google provides too many links to illegal copies of shit in it's searches. One, this is blatantly not true. Type in the name of a film, any film, and I guarantee you the first few links will be a YouTube trailer, IMDb and Wikipedia articles, and Amazon and Play.com to buy the DVD. And two, Google should show links to the pages it's users use most often, not what the government and entertainment industries choose. This leads me on to my main point, consumers don't like being ripped off and that's exactly what is happening. I'm pretty sure a large proportion of the Top 10 right now will consist of not-so-talented 'superstars' who have a lot of money at the back of them, and so can afford to be famous. They'll churn out another average song every few weeks or so, fuck around in the editing suite with it for a bit to give it the illusion of musical merit, put it on to an album and charge £15 for it. Extortion.

Tech companies are no better. Adobe will charge you £660 for a copy of Photoshop CS5, and £950 for the extended version. Don't get me wrong, Photoshop is a fantastic bit of software, I personally swear by it, but it is not worth this much money. I couldn't tell you what tools they added from CS4 to CS5, if I remember rightly it was some new brushes and a 'content-aware' fill, yet from CS4 it will cost you £200 to upgrade to the newer version. That, Adobe, is why your software is the most pirated on the internet. And this is also where I believe that piracy holds a very important role.

If the price was fairer, less people would steal it. As a consumer, I embrace piracy with open arms, because it provides the competition in the market place which profit concious retailers cannot. This brings me back to my original point on why people pirate things. They pirate music, software, and films because they do not believe it is worth their money. So listen here money grabbing corporation big wigs, rolling round in you baths of money. If you want us to stop piracy, make something worthwhile, and don't charge us the earth for it.
Peace out. 

Bohn Jlackburn

I'm not a bad person, at least I don't think I am. I don't maim puppies, I don't kidnap children, and I don't get the train without paying. But even saints like myself are not infallible, and this morning, in a rush to get out the door so as not to be late for my maths exam, I forgot my season ticket. No biggy, I could just buy a ticket on the train anyway.

So after the cataclysmic failure of my maths exam, i just wanted to get home at the end of the day, and just getting to the platform in time, I jumped on to the train. I sat down with my friends before trying to see the guard. Happy days, the guard, was just checking tickets at the end of my carriage. However when I tried to purchase a ticket, I was informed by the guard (whom I will refer to as Bohn Jlackburn) that 'He was doing fines today'. After a short interchange it became clear to me that he was a jobsworth prick and was not going to let me get away without writing something in his little gay faggot book. At this point, I don't think either of us were entirely sure what I'd done wrong. Bohn quickly backed away from threatening me with a fine, preferring something called an 'unpaid fair notice', requiring me to pay the cost of the ticket. As i'd intended to do this in the first place. Nice one Bohn. This 'unpaid fair notice' was not as simple as it sounds. After miss-spelling the name 'Christopher' twice, and requiring it to be written for him, instead of spelled aloud, Bohn eventually managed to serve me with this notice (charging me £3.80). I asked him whether i still had to pay if i had a season ticket, and he, very begrudgingly, directed me to the back of my notice. No. No i did not. All i had to do was appeal with proof i have one and i wouldn't have to pay at a penny. My maths may not be quite up to A-level standard yet.. but it seems to me Bohn Jlackburn managed to waste a good 10 minutes only to end up losing Wouth Sest Trains £3.80. Revenue protections officer my arse.

UPDATE: Appeal upheld. Won't be paying a penny.