i download **** and use adblock

and i feel no remorse

Here is an example of where you can go wrong with copyright.

Darude's 1999 song "Sandstorm" resurfaced in 2014 as an Internet meme.

It's all here in this article, including a video of the song: Darude - Sandstorm | Know Your Meme

I have recreated the graph laid out in the article.

Darude - "Sandstorm" Internet search popularity:
http://i1383.photobucket.com/albums/...pskocystjb.jpg

The article also states that the song was used in a number of videos before that in the late-2000s. Now, if the labels or the artist would have taken the steps to get all of those user uploads deleted, then a 15-year-old song would never have been able to regain popularity in this way. To put it a different way, that song sat dormant for 15 years and because people used it without permission, it actually served as a way to promote the song. In other words, free publicity and free word of mouth (one of the oldest forms of publicity in the world). This is why I think copyright is wrongheaded in some cases.

Darude states that he was "weirded out" by the meme's popularity, but I don't get why, other than being annoyed at requests to play "Sandstorm." It helped him out and brought his song to a younger generation. If those user uploads had been quashed, as they so often do, it would have only served to keep the song in obscurity. In this situation, this is not the same as someone stealing music and claiming they created it.

If someone posts a song they didn't create, but says who made it and the song title, then I know exactly who made it and the song title. When the song gets deleted for copyright, then I don't know who made it, nor do I know the title of the song...because it doesn't exist.

Another example would be Taylor Swift. She pulled her music from Spotify because she didn't think the royalties were high enough on that service. Her right to do so, but IMO, artists like her, and their labels as well, don't consider the fact that they're destroying their ability to have name recognition, which really isn't something you can put a price on. For example, a user in Thailand might have never heard of Taylor Swift before using Spotify. Now they do and can then go and buy her albums. Now she's gone from Spotify, and the user in Thailand will never hear of her because she simply isn't there (in the service) to be discovered.

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A major issue for me is with sports broadcasting and blackout rules. I have given up and now they don't exist to me. I'm not die hard enough to find ways to get this content. It works because the leagues get their money upfront from the cable networks. But how much are they losing out in other areas (name recognition, merchandise, etc.) because they don't exist to people who have no access to said content?

imo:

Something like what happened to Darude is not something you want to hold your breath for. And Taylor Swift is Taylor ****ing Swift.

Darude sucked balls 15 years ago and now it's popular again?

Euuchhh ..

Rick Astley I could understand 'cause it was a bit of a joke, but how does that become a meme?

Relevant article: Pulsewidth: Tidal Takedown