No Rock And Roll Fun

WHO CAN YOU TRUST?: We're very impressed with the work the World of Stuart has done investigating The Industry Trust For IP Awareness, and in particular their Jonathan Ross-fronted claims that people knocking out dodgy CDs and DVDs at car boot sales are really gangsters. (Of course, the short version of this is: if people selling pirate discs were gangsters, wouldn't the So Solid Crew be releasing a single about it by now? "Goin' down the school field / floggin' wonky DVDs/ also got some china dogs/ I'm sellin' for my aunties"). Perhaps the most amusing part of the study is how, in each of the local packs, the spokesperson for the local Trading Standards people used exactly the same words; there's some impressive sleuthing into an incident which the ITIPA claims proves the link between DVD duplication and drucks:

So. The "Industry Trust for IP Awareness Limited's"

QUOTE:Counterfeit DVD production was found to be financing drug trafficking, when a seizure of counterfeit DVDs from a boot sale in East Sussex led police to raid premises at which cannabis resin and cocaine were seized with a street value of £20,000.

should in fact be

QUOTE: Counterfeit, stolen and dangerous items, including dodgy DVDs, dodgy clothing and airguns, were seized at a car boot sale in East Sussex. Six individuals were arrested and their homes were searched. Police found what they believe to be a small amount of drugs in a house in Eastbourne, and DVD copying equipment was found in different premises miles away. No link whatsoever has been presented between the counterfeit DVDs and the alleged drugs.

In fact, it's pretty comprehensively shown that the whole document is about as reliable as that one that Colin Powell showed to the UN that time, and shows the same sort of disregard for fact in an attempt to reach a conclusion that's already been arrived at. Yes, piracy is wrong, and bad, but it's not the major threat to everything we hold dear that the movie and record industry would have us believe.