[fingertipsmusic] Taking down five recently featured MP3s

From: Jeremy Schlosberg <fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxx>
To: fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2010 00:01:35 -0400
To the Fingertips mailing list gang:

I am sorry to report that the MP3s I have featured intermittently over the
last couple of months from the music site Direct Current are not, after all,
free and legal. This comes as a surprise to me. Before I began linking to
MP3s from that site, I had written to the person who runs it specifically to
ask him if his MP3s were free and legal and if so, could I link to them.

In retrospect I see that his answer was a bit evasive. I began with the
assumption his MP3s were free and legal, so he never really had to correct
me. I stated clearly that I link only to free and legal MP3s, and asked him
if it was okay if I could link to the ones on Direct Current. He told me,
sure, go right ahead.

But in that exchange, he never had to say outright that they were free and
legal.

I had assumed the MP3s were free and legal in the first place because the
site is so above-board and music industry insider-y, because the language
vaguely suggests they are, and because the founder is himself a big-time
music industry veteran.

And we all know what happens when you assume. I should have known better,
but obviously wanted to trust in the site's legitimacy. I was taken in by
it.

A conscientious Fingertips visitor, however, smelled a rat after the Arcade
Fire feature last week, and ended up writing to the site and asking the same
gentleman more pointedly than I did about the status of the MP3s. And, it
turns out, the MP3s on Direct Current are not free and legal, are not posted
with anyone's permission.

I have featured five to date: The Books, Arcade Fire, School of Seven Bells,
Sophie Hunger, and Sarah Harmer. Some time in the next couple of days, as
time allows, I will be removing those links and taking down the reviews. I
hate to have to do it, I hate having wasted valuable time and space on songs
that should not have been featured, and I especially hate having misled all
of you about the nature of the MP3s.

If you are someone who is concerned about having illegally distributed music
in your digital collection, I'd suggest removing these songs. Personally,
I'm not paranoid about getting "caught" somehow, I just don't like the basic
idea. If something has a price tag on it, it's not for me to decide to take
it without paying for it. Fingertips has obviously always been about free
and legal MP3s only. I am dismayed at having posted five that were not.

Many apologies for the misunderstanding and the illegal postings. Obviously
I had good intentions, but I also learned an important lesson about being a
bit more vigilant when MP3s end up online looking too good to be true. In
this case they certainly were.






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[fingertipsmusic] Taking down five recently featured MP3s

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