This girl should be a superstar...

This girl should be a superstar…Danielle Spencer ‘Wish I’d been here’ – Music video via Youtube 29 March 2014 Russell Crowe on Twitter

On Saturday Russell Crowe tweeted a link to a video by Danielle Spencer for the song ‘Wish I’d Been Here’. There was just one problem, Australians for some reason are excluded from watching it. The video had 96 retweets and 258 favourites.

The video was loaded up on to the official Danielle Spencer YouTube site on 7 October 2010 so this was not new music or a video of the song. It was made by an Australian film company in Centennial Park, Sydney. There is another video of the same song on Danielle Spencer’s official YouTube  site which Australians can see that was load up on 6 October 2009 approximately one year earlier.

I am wondering why do musicians and artists make and load up videos in which people in their home country can’t watch?  It is not like Crowe or Spencer needed the money from exclusive deals. The video was made in 2010 when Crowe and Spencer were still happily married. I agree with Russell Crowe’s statement in that Danielle Spencer should be a superstar (except in the fact she already is, but that is here nor there). But why exclude Australians from watching this fabulous singer and musician as they are an important part of making this woman into a superstar that could be or is?

I can understand now why Australians resort to piracy when deliberately excluded from cultural and social situations like this. When I searched for Danielle Spencer on YouTube I initially watched pirated music until I found a legal copy of the video of the song Wish I’d Been Here and other videos on her official site.

About eight months ago I wrote a post about Australians and piracy. To understand Australian's role in piracy of any kind whether it be music, television or movies, people have to understand the history of their exclusion from significant cultural and social events in the world. It is not an excuse or reason to engage in piracy but an explanation. When they are socially and culturally excluded from significant events, and legal means are not available Australians will find creative solutions including piracy.   


Yes I am an Australian...

Danielle Spencer from comfortcomes.com (no copyright infringement intended)

Sunday, 30 June 2013

@lyndahere and more piracy revised

@lyndahere to @alanthomasdoyle Love the beautiful brand new song you debuted last night at @PTBOMusic Fest Yes, you are a sailor. 30 June 2013

As @lyndahere loads up a new Alan Doyle song from Great Big Sea that no one has heard before I am struggling to understand why people pirate music, television series, movies or anything. There is nothing like a continual spoiler on social media. But also @lyndahere has made another decision about how this music should be heard by the world. Because she has the technology to do so doesn’t make it right.

The recent newspaper articles and internet sites around the world reporting the current piracy trends in television shows have interested me. The reports from Torrent Freak and newspapers describe Australians as the biggest pirates of Game of Thrones television series followed by Americans and Canadians. The television show has seen it as a complement rather than as a criticism. Torrent Freak wrote “Interestingly, many of the people connected to the show saw it as a compliment rather than a major threat that needs to be dealt with…The most outspoken position was taken by David Petrarca, the show’s director, who noted that unauthorized downloads actually do more good than harm. According to the director, pirates are partly responsible for the “cultural buzz” the show needs to thrive and survive”.

Others like the American Ambassador to Australia were less complementary. “ After the season got underway some critical notes also appeared. “The Ambassador of the United States of America to Australia recently complained about the “plain theft” being carried out by Australians”. Unless a person is familiar with how television operates in Australia and has operated then it is difficult to understand why Australians are the biggest pirates of the television show Game of Thrones. Television and social media have been intertwined as people jump online to discuss the latest happenings. Australians are no different but as events like series 3 of Game of Thrones appears in the US they are excluded. Social media screened elsewhere throughout the world can destroy story lines if it is not shown simultaneously. And the moment is lost when it finally does appear.

Australians have been left out of participating in significant social and cultural events for years through no fault of their own. In America and Canada it is different. They are able to watch television programs before anyone else. They don’t have far to travel to significant cultural events and if they choose to spend their time doing other things and their money on other things why should they use piracy as way to participate in things for free by people like @lyndahere who have made a career out of piracy. If she is concerned at people missing out then I am kind of interested why she doesn’t respond to many people who contact her one social media.

There are many reasons people illegally download either television or music. They range from getting something for free in the here and now rather than waiting until it is screened on television after the event, constant advertising  and social media. Also I believe there are many television viewers like me totally unaware of the options now available online for watching the latest television programs. Research shows illegal downloading has been over all decreasing and there are a number of reasons why this is happening. And it seems a lot of people are willing to pay for television programs in particular from subscription television and other TV streaming sites. Other issues like ethics, extreme fandom and the thought that piracy may affect the networks to make expensive television series is combating piracy as people choose legal means.  I bought the DVDs.

In the U.S. the situation is not much better, and to a certain degree one could claim that HBO is to blame for Game of Thrones’ BitTorrent record. They want to keep access to the show “exclusive” and even Netflix wasn’t able to buy the rights no matter what they offered. However companies who produce programs like Game of Thrones and Foxtel sign agreements that prevent viewers from buying it legally until they have finished viewing it on their own network in the US. It seems while Australians and others continued to be excluded from simultaneous viewing because of various legalities and philosophies of the companies that produce the programs they will find creative ways both legal and illegal to watch television shows.

At the same time results from the piracy were being published on Torrent Freak.com The Australian the national newspaper in Australia published some interesting results on a survey conducted on piracy. The APRA (the Australasian Performing Right Association) surveyed 1000 people on piracy. What I found interesting about the research was it challenged stereotypes of who committed piracy. “The research confirms the stereotype that illegal downloaders of content are younger, with 44 per cent of the 210 people who admitted to it being aged under 30 (and over 18)” when in fact a large amount of piracy was being committed by people who were older, educated and financially well off.

The Australian writes “However, it also throws up the unedifying prospect that the concept of the illegality of stealing copyrighted material is not getting through to educated professionals and is perhaps even knowingly being flouted”. While this may be true of some of the Australians surveyed it seems to be that way for people across a range of countries like America and Canada. @lyndahere tells us she is educated yet she has no concept of the illegality of stealing copyrighted material and has clearly flouted the laws. There seems to be a whole range of people who tweet and retweet her bootlegged and music pirated videos that they are promoting illegal material to publicize people. 

The research provided an interesting way to combat the piracy…Two-thirds of respondents agreed in principle to action to discourage people who repeatedly download copyrighted material illegally, although only 37 per cent of those who download illegally agreed. This aligns broadly with research by Sycamore Research in 2011 that showed 72 per cent of respondents would stop accessing illegal content online if their ISP sent them a notice. It would be great if this also applied to people uploading and distributing illegal content.