Lyndahere, Fandom And "Mean Girl Shit"...

“Correct and appropriate usage of these essentials (strategies) establishes fan status. Usage that is socially approved and deemed authentic may heighten one’s social position within a fan community Usage that appears bogus or inappropriate, however, can spoil identity and lower status” (Narvaez, 2007)

Peter Narvaez from Memorial University in St John’s Newfoundland wrote a paper titled “Fandom as Magical Practice: Great Big Sea, Stockwell Day and Spoiled Identity” published in the Newfoundland and Labrador Studies in 2007. Narvaez provides background information on fandom studies (the study of fans of aspects of popular culture) in which he describes how the fans of famous celebrities change their environment and personal circumstances to be similar to and lessen the distance between themselves and the famous person. These people in reality are relatively unknown to their fans and do not acknowledge their existence. He compares this change to the practice of magic. For the most part being a fan of popular culture phenomena is fun and brings people together that share a common interest.

“The central problem for the fan is one of emotion, how to feel socially closer to persons who you believe you know quite well and care a great deal about, but persons who do not even acknowledge your existence as an individual” (Narvaez, 2007).

The first strategy involves decreasing the distance between themselves and a famous celebrity. It can include obtaining memorabilia items that have direct contact with the celebrity and include items that have been personally autographed, photographs, calendars, posters, CDs, and DVDs from a range of sources including other fans and online internet sites. Other strategies include attending live performances, visiting geographical locations connected with the performer, communicating directly with the celebrity in a variety of contexts and participating in online fan communities via social media including Facebook and Twitter. All of these are activities are engaged in by @lyndahere in particular attending ALL of Alan Doyle’s and Great Big Sea’s live concerts and peddling her video recordings on YouTube via social media. She spends a regular amount of time in St John’s where Alan Doyle and Great Big Sea are based. However, her contact with Great Big Sea fans and what information she chooses to share is based around her own needs and exclusiveness of opportunities that arise for her. They may include articles, photographs, information but mostly her own videos. In July during the Newfoundland Folk Festival Alan Doyle joined some musician friends on stage. It was only after the event that she mentioned it on Twitter and peddled videos on her site.

The second strategy suggested by Narvaez for fans aimed at decreasing the distance is “similitude emulation, attempting to master the same knowledge that the admired performer possesses by trying to understand and often to relive the artists most important experiences and influences”. Narvaez states that fans do this by taking on the role of researcher and documenting sources of information and performances in order to copy their lifestyle. As it has been documented by herself Lyndahere (@lyndahere) tries to attend every public event attended by Alan Doyle and Great Big Sea taking thousands of photographs and videos and documenting the experiences. She lives part of the time in St John’s Newfoundland and only briefly to return to Seattle. Klapp as sited in Narvaez (2007) refers to this transformation as “identity voyages” “a mimetic process whereby a fan vicariously lives through a performer, imitating their speech, appearance behaviour and sometimes adopting their attitudes and ideas as well”. This includes watching NHL hockey and of course following Alan Doyle’s beloved Habs ect and attending many of the same events and places he does including charity events, restaurants and pubs. The following Tweets off Twitter over the past three months demonstrate this.

‘There are better choices to make than repeatedly running away from following through on a heart’s desire. Stay put and let it be yours @lyndahere 14 July 2012’

My life is your life

@alanthomasdoyle Love your Half-Naked Scene best. Watching RH now reminds me of seeing it in Rome – English Italian subtitles - & Cannes 2 September 2012

@alanthomasdoyle @bobhallet join @deanbrody on a downtown St. John’s rooftop to film the “Its Friday” music video. 1 Sept 2012

@lyndahere Already have my companion persuaded for The Once – you should Guy Forsythe if you can. Caught him Tonder – awesome.

@lyndahere I’m excited too. I’ve been planning my flights around this show. Can’t wait in response to @corytelford and the Critical List at the Fat Cat.

@lyndahere It will be great. Sean and @obriensearch are a good combo. Be nice if they worked out some more shows together. 1 August 2012

@lyndahere Sweetest sight tonight Jim Cuddy taking a photo of his family members with his phone @ the Duke. Great show tonight by him and his band. 28 July 2012.

@lyndahere Kenny Roger’s the world’s biggest screech-in & now @obriensearch too? A fascinating George St Festival combo. Gotta go watch this unfold. 25 July 2012

@lyndahere @alanthomasdoyle I have supper plans there the day I get back. Sounds awesome. 18 July 2012

About living in St John’s…

@lyndahere Yet another gorgeous summer day in St John’s. Awesome. 30August 2012

@lyndahere @alanthomasdoyle And yes, it’s been a blissfully lovely summer here. More than makes up for last year. God only knows about next year. 28 August 2012

Your interests are my interests…

@alanthomasdoyle Studied Medieval Icelandic Saga in uni. If you have some free time pick up Njal’s Saga. Great stuff. RC should film him. 15 August 2012

@alanthomasdoyle I fell in Iceland when they chose when I learned they chose between Christianity and paganism. No wars…they voted in 1000 AD. 15 August 2012

Mixing in the same circles…even though Alan Doyle was not on the program she was there just in case.

@lyndahere went to a performance of the Thomas Trio reunion at the Newfoundland Folk Festival. The following tweets were sent to Alan Doyle who advertised on Twitter how exited he was because he was to be going. She of course went and filmed it and placed in on her YouTube site.

@lyndahere Influential ‘90’s St John’s band Thomas Trio & The Red Albino rock the Ship at their 1st reunion gig plus link to her YouTube site. 25 July 2012

@lyndahere It was a blast. Enjoyed it so much I’m going to catch the Thomas Trio’s George Street Festival gig too. 24 July 2012

@lyndahere Really impressed by Thomas Trio & The Red Albino tonight. Light years better than I expected it to be. 24 July 2012

@lyndahere They made the most of their opportunity tonight. Which is something worth respecting. 24 July 2012

@lyndahere Fascinated that your manager and guitar tech came from these guys. 24 July 2012

@lyndahere What a great end to the NL Folk Festival 2 nights in a row seeing the 3 of you onstage…love it Alan. 6August 2012

Belonging to a fan community examples of @lyndahere’s mean girl shit…

On her Twitter page @lyndahere wrote “Best response to the same old Grade 8 Mean Girl shit is the usual. It’s not about me. It’s not about you (hard isn’t it?) but about him” 31 August 2012”. Mean girl shit. Judge for yourself.

Great Big Sea’s sharing is never enough for @lyndahere after Alan Doyle offered the words of his on his webpage and photos from his Iceland trip.

@lyndahere And what about all those Bonus Tracks lyrics? Would love to be sure of every one of your words? 27 August 2012

@alanthomasdoyle Things haven’t changed all that much, have they? (love the photos –keep them coming please and thanks) 15 August 2012 from Iceland.

Flooding the internet with poor quality out of focus photographs and then blame it on the camera…

@lyndahere After using one camera for 8 years and thats intense use – I can’t believe the new one’s autofocus is malfunctioning after two months. 27 August 2012 Lyndahere bragged on her webpage she had taken 250 photographs plus videos at the performances of Alan Doyle at his recent appearances at a writer’s festival in Newfoundland. (Excessive and unnecessary by anyone’s standards).

Making announcements before things happen.

Announcing the lyrics on his webpage before Alan Doyle.

@lyndahere At last! Official ‘Boy on Bridge’ lyrics from @alanthomasdoyle:alandoyle.ca/look-listen (now I can safely write about the songs)

@lyndahere Can barely wait for Testify. Release date coordinated with the Boy On Bridge documentary (10 years out in Sept too)

Complaining about the GBS fan community and their lack of appreciation of her ‘work’ and criticism.

@lyndahere Sometimes I wonder what it’s like to be one of those people who can’t show gratitude. But then I decided it’s probably better not to know. 13 August 2012

@carbonbhoy Yeah better if I’d instead how much I appreciate those who feel free to express their gratitude. Best to stay positive. 13 August 2012

Sharing when I feel like it…

@lyndahere What a great end to the NL Folk Festival 2 nights in a row seeing the 3 of you onstage…love it Alan 6August 2012

@lyndahere My blog starts in 2006. Started seeing GBS in the Fall of 2001. Tons of early photos scattered about no videos till 2005/6 …in response to another GBS fan request for old photos of GBS.

Alan Doyle doesn’t like being talked about like this…in a sexist manner.

@lyndahere @alanthomasdoyle And a sexy Animal too. 22 August 2012

@lyndahere @alanthomasdoyle Its beautiful. I loved your concert attire last night too. Better than your tux shirt. Sweet animal. 22 August 2012

@lyndahere There ought to be a law against being this cute. Resistance is futile @alanthomasdoyle 26 July 2012

@alanthomasdoyle Love your Half-Naked Scene best. Watching RH now reminds me of seeing it in Rome – English Italian subtitles - & Cannes 2 September 2012

Correcting Alan Doyle’s spelling constantly…

@lyndahere Alan when you spell “Niagara” that way, it always makes me think “Viagra” Now segue to “Let’s get it in”. Smiling now. 7 September 2012.

@lyndahere I know you did those official BoB lyrics yourself Alan. Stamp of Authenticity in how you spelled “discreetly’. Loves it.

@lyndahere I love your typos Alan. Is the Torbay gig outly hours away now too? Ready for both options.

There is a difference between advertising a band on twitter to get a few more people to attend than recording and putting it up on YouTube for others to see. It is truly unfortunate that bands who want to play the music they love with the people they love can no longer do so in St Johns without it appearing on YouTube for the world to see. It is also truly unfortunate that Alan Doyle and others who attended a nice evening at the pub were threatened with being filmed and placed on YouTube. Its ‘foreigners’ like Lyndahere that threaten the culture and way of life a community with her constant prying and unwanted filming without the consent of the people who live there.

Lyndahere And Free Culture...Taking responsibility for our actions online.

I recently read a blog about an American student Emily White who was working as an intern at her college radio station. The student stated openly and honestly that she had downloaded approximately 11 000 songs without paying for them and had only ever paid for 15 CDs in her life. She was under the impression like many young people that it was acceptable to download songs and distribute them for free from the various file sharing sites available. The student now wanting to work in the music industry is thinking about the moral implications of her actions on artists and the industry she loves. There were nearly 500 responses to her blog posting and raised some very interesting responses justifying illegal downloading. David Lowery is an academic teaching music economics as the University of Georgia in the United States and his response raised many issues that affect musicians and singers like Great Big Sea.

I have just downloaded my second officially free single off the Internet by Great Big Sea’s Murray Foster’s Cocksure Lads “You Have Gotta Stay Cocksure”. The single was available from the University of Toronto’s official university magazine page where he did an interview (Murray Foster is an alumni from the University of Toronto). My first single was Great Big Sea’s Alan Doyle Mutiny on the Dawn available on his webpage. I also joined MySpace and have access to a five free songs. I have never downloaded anything off a computer other than webpages, documents and images for personal use (basically because I don’t have the technical expertise and equipment). These songs weren’t that hard to find. After a brief search I was also able to find a range of free illegal music available for both concerts and recorded material made from copies generously shared by people who had no part in creating it for Great Big Sea and the members of the band.

David Lowery argues society should not accept the free culture while praising the college student for grabbling with the moral and ethical implications her actions are having on the profession she wishes to work in. One of the primary reasons used to justify illegal downloading is the music companies and their artists they sign make a lot of money. Not all artists and musicians make millions of dollars like the Rolling Stones, Madonna and more recently Justin Bieber. The average income of a musician is approximately $35000 a year. Record companies pay advances and specific royalties to artists. And most have to repay the advances from record sales. If there are insufficient record sales then the debt may be written off. Under the law music companies are required to pay songwriters and issue a license. Artists are paid approximately 9.1 cents for every song they sell. Despite popular belief artists don’t make money on the road…they go on the road to support the sales of their album.

David Lowery recognises there are many moral and ethical issues associated with the implementation of technology. Copyright has worked well for musicians and artists of all kinds for hundreds of years and has protected their work, allowed them to decide how they want to distribute it and make money. But technology like the internet has radically changed all that. It is through this change in technology that individuals and organisations can now exploit artists and make their work freely available. Because people have unlimited access they may do so without thinking about the moral and ethical implications for society. These private corporations want individuals to recognise it is acceptable practice to download illegal material because we have the technology to do so even though it is illegal under the law. For example Lyndahere (@lyndahere) uploads her illegal material onto YouTube. Because it is there and we are able to watch it is acceptable.

David Lowery states “We are being asked to continue to let these companies violate the law without being punished or prosecuted. We are being asked to change our morality and principals to match what I think are immoral and unethical business models”. Lowery continues Google supports companies that place advertisements on sites that support piracy and include “The Pirate Bay, or Kim Dotcom and Megaupload. They are “legitimate” companies like Google that serve ads to... They are companies like Grooveshark that operate streaming sites... and over the objections of the artist, much less payment of royalties lawfully set by the artist”.

Lowery also raises the issue of file sharing sites charging entry fees to their sites full of free material. “It turns out that Verizon, AT&T, Charter etc etc are charging a toll to get into this neighborhood to get the free stuff. Further, companies like Google are selling maps (search results) that tell you where the stuff is that you want to loot. Companies like Megavideo are charging for a high speed looting service (premium accounts for faster downloads). Google is also selling ads in this neighborhood and sharing the revenue with everyone except the people who make the stuff being looted”. Youtube also support piracy in that it allows people to establish accounts and load up illegally copied material. They make their money from massive amounts of advertising. It is becoming increasingly frustrating to watch legal videos on Youtube when we are required to watch advertisements before the video. So there is a catch in watching allegedly “free” material. Youtube is also full of accounts that supply music with song words and images collected off the internet with some having thousands of hits that have copyrighted material. Some illegally copied videos even have advertising attached so Youtube must be aware that the account is not the lawful owner.

The Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) have successfully prosecuted individuals and companies (RIAA Homepage 2012). Through my research I have found there are substantial attempts to establish education programs for a range of people including parents and children and within the education environment at all levels. But it is difficult to establish if these are successful. Governments have been unable to successfully monitor and implement strategies to combat breaches in the laws. People do it because it seems acceptable behaviour within their culture, and justify it using a range of reasons including as Lyndahere wrote the “music should be heard”. People do it knowing they have little chance of being caught even if reported to appropriate bodies such as the anti-piracy commission in Canada. David Lowery argues rather than leaving it up to governments it is in the hands of every individual like Emily White (and Lyndahere) to examine their morals and behaviour and decide that stealing music and royalties that rightfully belong to the artists is not right. It is important to persuade others of this.

People really love the music artists produce. There are many things young people and all people can do to support musicians and other employees of the music industry other than pirating copies of concerts and recordings. This includes buying their music from legitimate sources like itunes and directly from their official sites and at concerts. As David Lowery states how difficult is it to login on to their site and download music paying artists the money due. Corporations advertise on illegal file sharing sites. Individuals can write to corporations and not buy their products. Google technically does not support piracy. For example I do not buy any products advertised on YouTube as it supports accounts containing illegally downloaded material in particular that of Great Big Sea and other artists. People can also write to their senator or congressman about the issues such as copyright that currently being negotiated and direct funds to those that create it. I do continue to watch videos on YouTube but only those that are associated with legal sites and any revenue would go to the artists and the industry.

While there are many people who make ethical choices in their life paying for music still isn’t one of them. Lyndahere (@lyndahere) Twitter site is full of retweets of worthy causes and attended events for charity to film and record Great Big Sea and Alan Doyle and placing them on YouTube.

Lyndahere And Bootlegging...My understanding of what it is?

I broke down on the weekend. I watched some live recordings off YouTube. They were not from Lyndahere (@lyndahere) but legitimate recordings from radio stations and others who had attended a range of promotional events and concerts so I thought that was a bit of a compromise. I was comforted by the fact that most people still would rather watch a legal recording from a television or radio station than an illegal recording of a concert from those that attend from the number of hits. While radio and television stations are not as quick and enterprising as Lyndahere at getting a product to the consumers it is well worth the wait to watch something legal and of quality. But exactly what am I watching.

Bootlegging is a really interesting subject and will take some time to investigate. 

Music piracy is “general term referring to the illegal duplication and distribution of sound recordings, comprised of four specific forms: bootleg recordings, counterfeit recordings, pirate recordings and online piracy”. 

There are four different types of piracy according to the Record Industry Piracy Glossary (2012): counterfeit, pirate and online and bootlegging. 

Counterfeit is the “unauthorised recording of duplication of pre-recorded sounds as well as the unauthorized duplication of the original trademark, artwork and packaging." 

Online piracy is the” unauthorised transfer of sound recordings from the Internet” and pirate recordings is the “unauthorised recordings of only the sounds of legitimate recordings.” 

Bootleg recordings are the “unauthorized recording of a musical broadcast on radio or television or of a live concert”. So basically I have been watching bootlegged copies on Lyndahere’s site.

The RIAA (2012) identifies state and federal laws involved in music piracy. There are three federal laws U.S. Copyright Law, Trafficking In Counterfeit Labels, Trademark Counterfeiting4 and the Anti-Bootleg Statue related to music piracy. The US Copyright as I understand it has been discussed elsewhere in this blog...to be continued

Lyndahere, US Copyright Laws and YouTube...My understanding.

Although this has been stated elsewhere on this blog it provides a background. There are two YouTube sites operated by Lyndahere (@lyndahere) known to people that have illegally recorded broadcasted content from appearances of Alan Doyle, Great Big Sea and other artists. On Lyndahere’s YouTube site BetweenTheRock there is a massive 1250 plus recordings mostly taken by her with a hand held video camera of Alan Doyle and the members of Great Big Sea and on AndPassionateKisses approximately 50 recordings mostly illegally recorded from Canadian television stations. These include the Alan Doyle ‘Live at Revival’ on CMT TV special. She has illegally recorded a total of 7 songs. They include Alan Doyle interviews and performances from the Global, Canada AM, interviews on HNIC Game Day, singing the national anthems, the Christmas carols for the Gift of Giving for charity (GBS), Labour Day specials, hockey interviews, the Juno Awards, and the ECMA Songwriters Circle.

Copyright is defined in the US by the Recording Industry Association America “copyright law protects the value of creative work. When you make unauthorized copies of someone’s creative work, you are taking something of value from the owner without his or her permission… (RIAA Homepage 2012). 

The US Copyright Act states on sound recordings…

§ 1101 · Unauthorized fixation and trafficking in sound recordings and music videos

“(a) Unauthorized Acts.—Anyone who, without the consent of the performer or performers involved—

(1) fixes the sounds or sounds and images of a live musical performance in a copy or phonorecord, or reproduces copies or phonorecords of such a performance from an unauthorized fixation,

(2) transmits or otherwise communicates to the public the sounds or sounds and images of a live musical performance, or

(3) distributes or offers to distribute, sells or offers to sell, rents or offers to rent, or traffics in any copy or phonorecord fixed as described in paragraph (1), regardless of whether the fixations occurred in the United States, shall be subject to the remedies provided in sections 502 through 505, to the same extent as an infringer of copyright”.

The Record Industry Association of America states “Federal law provides severe civil and criminal penalties for the unauthorized reproduction, distribution, rental or digital transmission of copyrighted sound recordings. (Title 17, United States Code, Sections 501 and 506)” (RIAA Homepage 2012). 

It is therefore illegal under the copyright to make recordings of live performances and distribute them on Youtube regardless of where the performance took place. While @lyndahere fully acknowledges the material which she has filmed it is still a breach of copyright.

Like the Canadian Copyright Act there is a fair usage exception. The US Copyright Office states there are four points to fair usage under sections 107 through 118 of the Copyright Act. “The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes, the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole, the effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work”. Under US copyright there is also a concept known as parody exception which is associated with using copyrighted material for creating spoofs or critique.

On his webpage “The Most Frequent Copyright Violations” Carnes (2012) writes of copyright in Youtube “Many users upload copyrighted material to websites that do not facilitate file sharing, such as YouTube. Even though these websites do not offer a means to download the copyrighted material, users gain free access to the copyrighted material. Some illegally uploaded YouTube videos featuring copyrighted music include disclaimers invoking the "fair use" exception to copyright protection, which allows anyone to use a small portion of a copyrighted work for certain purposes such as commentary or education. However, the fair use exception does not permit the use of an entire song. The US Copyright Office states there are no number of words lines or images that can be taken without permission that could be used under the fair use exception rule.

YouTube pays half a cent for each hit played. While that doesn’t sound like a lot of money in the case of Lyndahere who has had over a million and a half hits that amounts to approximately $15000 dollars over four years. It is difficult to know how many other sites she has and how much music she is making uploading illegal material onto YouTube. For some enterprising people it may mean a living if enough sites are established and the connections made with consumers out of other people’s work they had no role in creating. For some very successful music artists that amounts to millions of dollars in extra revenue or for others it means missing out on money that is rightfully theirs.

Fair Usage In Canada...My understanding.

Over the past couple of years several individual Americans and companies have been prosecuted for illegally downloading songs and distributing them on peer-to-peer networks by the Record Industry Association of America (Wikpedia 2012). RIAA represents the recording industry in America and part of their goals is to monitor the laws, regulations and policies of the industry (Wikapedia 2012, RIAA Homepage 2012). Two high profile cases have included a single mother from Minneapolis who was ordered to pay record companies $220 000 for illegally downloading and sharing approximately 24 copyrighted songs and a Boston university students was prosecuted and fined $675 000 for downloading approximately 30 songs. In the case of the Boston university student the defence of “fair usage” was not allowed by the court.

Fair usage known as fair dealing under the “Canadian Copyright Act' allows users of copyrighted material to engage in certain activities relating to research, private study, criticism, review, or news reporting. With respect to criticism, review, and news reporting, the user must mention the source of the material, along with the name of the author, performer, maker, or broadcaster for the dealing to be fair” (Wikapedia 2012).

The 2004 ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada in CCH Canadian Ltd. v. Law Society of Upper Canada outlined the six principals of fair dealing. They included the purpose of the dealing, the character of the dealing, the amount of dealing, alternatives to dealing, the nature of the work and the effect of the dealing.

One of principals is the purpose of the dealing. It is difficult to identify what the purpose of @lyndahere’s Between the Rock and a Hard Place webpage is. Her introduction states it is about the Canadian province of Newfoundland, Alan Doyle, Great Big Sea and even Russell Crowe the Australian actor. To be honest I have only read her posts for 2012 due to their extensive nature. They are part review of the shows she has attended but more a criticism of their organisation rather than the artists and their music. Not all of the copies of the songs filmed by @lyndahere are directly linked or named in reviews of Great Big Sea shows or Alan Doyle shows on webpage nor have they been reviewed. It is more of a place to discuss the ups and downs of her personal life and personal opinions, the usual declaration of love for Alan Doyle, to show off some photos and video recordings and more recently writing fiction.

Under the principle of how much has been copyrighted she has filmed and downloaded whole concerts, albums and CDs and released them via Youtube. “There are a few videos with low or no drums that I might put up or maybe I’ll just go with snippets all to further wet the appetite for and perhaps increase the viewership and sales of CMT special and most important of all Alan’s Boy on the Bridge solo album…” @lyndahere Between the Rock and A Hard Place 16 February 2012 on attending Alan Doyle’s ‘Live at Revival’.

Under the principal of ‘alternatives to dealing’ there are non-copyrighted equivalents of her own work. She has multiple copies of most of the songs she has recorded of Great Big Sea and Alan Doyle at various locations around the world. The continual filming of songs is not necessary to review of her work. In most cases there is nothing more than a list all the tunes played. So the dealing was not necessary to achieve the blog post.

Under the principal the ‘nature of the work’ states that one of the aims of copyright is that a “reproduction with acknowledgement could lead to a wider dissemination of work” one of the goals of copyright law…If however the work in question was confidential, this may tip the scales towards finding that dealing was unfair” (Wikipedia 2012). @lyndahere distributes songs and material of Great Big Sea and Alan Doyle without permission and consultation. I would consider an album not released confidential. Although I have not read the conditions on entry to the filming of the Alan Doyle documentary/special or the conditions of entry to Great Big Sea and Alan Doyle shows I would imagine there would be a clause in the sale of tickets as there are in my country that state that a condition of entry into the event is that a patron cannot record or take pictures at the event.

It’s easy enough to follow most of his radio appearances…but what has caught my attention the most is how diligently Alan has been working so much that his dear sweet voice is beginning to fray around the edges though that slightly pleading edge makes him sound all the more compelling to me to get his solo music heard…”@lyndahere Between the Rock and A Hard Place 18 June 2012.

The effect of the dealing…It is difficult to know how the impact of @lyndahere has affected the market of the original work. She has with no qualms and no expertise decided to release the work of Great Big Sea and Alan Doyle. I would say a lot. It is difficult to tell how many people kept and distributed her original recordings released of his solo album rather than buy an album or download songs from legal sites. The first contact that many fans have with new music is via a @lyndahere recorded video. They form first impressions based on what they watch which is my greatest fear. But this is not to give her too much credit. Her imagination justifying and validating her actions.

Great Big Sea and Alan Doyle have a 20 year proven track record in Canada, the US and around the world. They have won industry awards and sold over 1.5 million records. In Canada eight CDs have achieved gold status (50 000 plus) and three of double platinum and two triple platinum (100 000 plus). Next year 2013 will be a celebration of 20 years in the music business with the release of a consolation CD and a national tour.

The Case of One Soul Thrust...

In Canada last year a band called One Soul Thrust had their debut album illegally downloaded 100 000 times going platinum. When the article was written they had 176 Twitter followers and 324 Facebook friends.

“The Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) states that, to achieve Platinum status, an album must achieve sales of 100,000 copies/downloads of an album. Sales…that’s the key. A random polling of several torrent site’s downloads—ILLEGAL downloads—has shown that 1ST, the debut cd by ONE SOUL THRUST has been downloaded over 100,000 times,” he wrote.

“We paid to create that album totally out of our own pockets. People think of illegal downloading not hurting anyone, but we’re real people too- with real mortgages, real family to feed and real bills to pay,” said lead-vocalist Salem Jones. “By downloading our album from pirate sites, people have stolen from us, our families, everyone involved in the production of our album, and their families.”

CRIA Watches Massive Music Piracy Crisis Devastate Unknown Band at Torrenfreak.com

Lyndahere And The Dangers of Blogging...A response.

There was nonsense too, the same old mean shit (done by the same old stupid mean bullies for the most part) that I shouldn’t have let delay me for a moment let alone a day or two. Foolish of me far more foolish than any bully because unlike those bullies, I know the truth, I know what matters here @lyndahere Between The Rock and A Hardplace webpage 22 February 2012.

Individuals such as Lyndahere (@lyndahere) want us to believe that they have a right to take others work and do as they please without consultation or permission of the owners of the work. Lyndahere believes it is totally appropriate for her to attend a performance of any artist including Great Big Sea and Alan Doyle and his band, film it and distribute it without the permission of the owners of the work. As soon as she could she uploaded the recordings to her YouTube site BetweenTheRock and madly sent all those concerned a link.

She would be the first to call the police if someone broke into her house and stole goods in particular her beloved computer, camera and video recorder. The copyright laws and using material under fair usage are different in Canada and America the two countries where Lyndahere live and are both currently being reviewed. However, it is not lawful in Canada to follow people from place to place and it is illegal to download material and distribute it.

There are many dangers for an individual who takes on causes and stand up for injustices on social media against bullies and bullying from the likes of Lyndahere. When I contacted Lyndahere and sent her a private copy of my essay to her webpage Between The Rock and a Hard Place in the hope that it may change her behaviour she attacked me on her Twitter page even though I had not contacted her on Twitter. She informed her followers I had sent a hateful post. When I challenged her she would not publish the post which now forms the bases of this blog so people could make up their own minds. She failed to recognise her behaviour may cause someone distress. Lyndahere obtained an ISP address and threatened to contact employers for sending what she deemed hateful posts. Twitter and social media can serve as weapon to threaten and intimidate others and maintain control.

She criticised and challenged me for not writing a post not under my real name although she does not write under her own name. She did not respond to the Twitter posts I wrote but wrote Twitter posts to followers behind my back. This is not the first time I have read posts written by her about people behind their backs to followers. The outbursts were removed but I guess served as a warning for other Great Big Sea fans who dared to challenge her. She is not interested in discussing the impact of her way of life and behaviour on others. There was nonsense too, the same old mean shit (done by the same old stupid mean bullies for the most part) that I shouldn’t have let delay me for a moment let alone a day or two. @lyndahere Between The Rock and A Hardplace webpage 22 February 2012.