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Level 99

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Posts posted by Level 99

    Mega Man X series: Maverick Rising - History

    in Projects

    Posted

    Wouldn't it be hilarious if the entire existence of this album was a highly elaborate hoax? In fact, I'm almost certain it actually doesn't exist and Bahamut has, like Capcom, just been trolling Mega Man fans.

    If this were a hoax then I'd ask for the last three months of my life back working getting this ready to roll, please.

    Official & Unofficial Arrangement Projects (Tracking)

    in Recruit & Collaborate!

    Posted

    What's the difference between "seeking interest and recruiting" and "actively recruiting"?

    Because I go between advertising to get interest and asking people directly if they're interested...

    Seeking interest is basically the first stage when people are just seeing if other people are interested in participating in OR listening to an album based on concept. Actively recruiting means the person has determined that they're going through with it and is seeking participants instead of just testing the waters for reception.

    RIP "Triforce Mike" Pandel

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    The memorial night was both wonderful and heartrending. There were people singing songs, lots of pictures and drawings of Mike around, people going up to the mic and telling stories. The place where it was held was so full that there were more people outside the front than in the store itself, and the thing was livestreamed with so many people trying to watch that they hit the user limit very early in the night. I did my best to go up there and say a few words because Mike was the kind of guy who, if you only met him for two minutes, you still remembered for the rest of your life.

    I feel like Doug does. It doesn't feel like he is gone, just that he is away on a trip. The things he did that were captured on audio and video barely show a glimpse of the kind of vigor he had, but its through those that people who never got to meet him will know why everyone who did is so emotional.

    RIP "Triforce Mike" Pandel

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    His brain stem is damaged. That's a very VERY severe injury, one that pretty much can only be remedied by a miracle at this point. And, as Stevo pointed out, neurosurgeons don't even wanna touch it.

    It's bad.

    And while I may not be that familiar with him, it doesn't change the fact that this accident is tragic, and does touch quite a few members of the community.

    What I want to know is... do we know who did it, or is it a hit & run?

    The full story is on both Nerdy Show's Facebook and Forums. It was not a hit and run, and Mike was completely at fault. He charged into an intersection when he shouldn't have. Its also in the first post of the thread.

    RIP "Triforce Mike" Pandel

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    They need to start planning arrangements for this because people are coming in from all over the country. Even though we were, and some are still, hoping for something to improve, it says something when even neurosurgeons won't operate due to the severity of an injury. At a certain point one has to start coping with the grief and loss in a situation like this even if they're not technically passed on yet.

    Nerdy Show definitely is the brother/sister/whatevercloseness podcast to OCAD. I consider all of those guys to be very close friends. Hex, Cap, Mike, all of them are my brothers. Mike's accident has hit me so hard it is hard to come to terms with what has happened.

    The outpouring of community support and love for Mike, ranging from his closest family and friends to people who he had never met and only was known through his show or his work, has been astounding. Thus far, I've seen pictures, comics, Minecraft structures, songs, all of these tributes to him and his life.

    For anyone who didn't know him, I encourage you to listen to Nerdy Show's past episodes just to get the briefest glimpse of the spark of life he had in him. You can hear it in his voice, in everything he says. For those who did know him, they know that the best way to remember him is to celebrate him in the same way he celebrated every day he lived.

    Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Okay, I just want to back up a second and voice an opinion. I'm not advocating invasion of personal privacy, first amendment rights, violation of personal property, and all that stuff.

    I'd just like to point out that, personally, I haven't purchased or listened to a new album from a commercial artist in over two years that was in any way shape or form involved with a major record label (I haven't watched more than maybe three or four major motion pictures in the theatre in that time as well, and anything else I've seen was either watched over Netflix or bought on the cheap on bluray or DVD, however I'm making this case solely based on musician's situations). With the advent of things like Soundcloud, Bandcamp, and other services that offer free, pay-what-you-want, and reasonably-priced static costs for albums and songs that go 85-90% directly to the artist, what need is there to bitch and moan about the labels that charge too much money and then file lawsuits against its own listeners? There seems to me to be a wealth of resources for free and cheapasfree music of all types now on the internet, all of which the RIAA would have no grounds to launch suits over even if there were infringments.

    Instead of going after the corporations that keep pressuring governments internationally to enact this kind of policy, go and send a message to the musicians themselves that you will no longer listen to or purchase the music of people whom are represented by the RIAA. Here's a quick list, mostly from personal experience, on how to get massive amounts of music legally for life, and a lot of it for free:

    1) torrent free music. By this I mean you can torrent albums that artists have released for free and given their blessing to be shared through bittorrent due to its cost-saving bandwidth reduction benefits. There are tons of albums that are in this category, you just have to go and find them (and also make sure that yes, they are free and consented to be shared via bittorrent. A good movie example of this is Big Buck Bunny.)

    2) purchase or freely download music from websites like Bandcamp and Soundcloud. While you may need to research and make sure that it isn't one of the major labels that posted it and is collecting there on behalf of said artist, this is one of the best ways to support a musician while getting drm-free music that you can redownload in a multitude of formats forever. Easier than trying to keep a disc from breaking, and more versatile since you can download seemingly with no limit once you purchase. Even better, nearly every artist on these sites has either the full album or at least a few full-song demos that you can play right there in your browser. Great way to listen to an album completely and then decide if you want to support the people who made it.

    3) purchase music directly from the artist. A little bit more homegrown but there are still people who do this, no harm in asking if a musician who's material you want can sell/give it to you with no middleman.

    4) download from free music sites like OC ReMix. As long as fair use is in good standing, and in my personal opinion there's no amount of money in the world that would convince the supreme court that a vast personal reinterpretation available for free of a copyrighted song violates fair use, sites like OC ReMix will be around and thriving.

    5) go to concerts for artists you want to support but are on major labels. The cost of touring is usually fronted by the band itself, and even if ticket sales are partially garnished by a label or representation agency, the merchandise being sold at shows besides discs generally have the majority of their profit going towards the band itself.

    I absolutely disagree with forcing ISPs to invade their user's privacy and police their internets, but in all seriousness, what can the objectors do as a group? It is unlikely that there would be enough money pooled from a fundraiser or drive to invest in lobbyists that can effectively counter the kind of influence big media has in DC right now. Petitions and protests can only do so much. Want to hit the people who are responsible for this kind of crap where it hurts and eventually remove their power and ability to do this? Two ways:

    1) Do not listen to, support, purchase, or even pirate material from artists that have any bit of money going to the RIAA. The RIAA pays for their lawyers and lobbyists with the profits of their media sales, along with some of the money made by suing the pants off of people (but this counts as a very minor amount compared to the money they make in sales).

    2) Tell all the musicians who you listen to that you will not be giving them a dime until they allow you to purchase material from them in a manner that does not contribute to the RIAA.

    optional: if you really really can't not purchase or listen to artists that are under the umbrella of the RIAA-represented labels, buy your music second-hand in a physical format from friends or used music stores, heck even on ebay as long as the RIAA doesn't get a cut. However this has limited viability because if the RIAA sees there are still sales and listeners but they're getting things all second-hand now, you can bet your ass they're going after those places that do it with more fervor as their money dwindles.

    I really don't expect this to be heeded in any way that will make a difference, I'm just pointing out that this can likely be effectively stopped at the source by a) being upstanding citizens and not listening to the artists that help, advertantly or inadvetantly, contribute to the people that cause these continuous problems, and B) getting all your music somewhere that doesn't put a thing in the pockets of the RIAA.

    The landscape of the industry is changing now more than it has in the last 50 years. Just like there is a current divide between small game publishers and creators (the "indie" scene, as some call it) and the big game publishers, so to is there a divide between DIY, indie, self-publishing musicians and the gargantuan labels that represent relics of an age where they refuse to evolve as the rest of the world does. They can't punish you for not downloading or listening to an album, they also can't punish you for selling an album and not giving them a cut. So clean up your methods of buying and selling, and things rapidly improve for your and everyone else.

    If you're a musician yourself and are trying to sell your music without contributing to the problem, see again alternate methods that are up-and-coming like bandcamp (god, this is starting to sound like one big-ass bandcamp suckoff, but really, they're doing it the way it should be done in the digital age). Trust in your fans to support you, and with social media working the way it does its so much easier to circumvent the need to have things being pushed by people with big mouths.

    tl;dr - stop suppporting artists who contribute any funds to RIAA (MPAA as well if we're talking movies), and get all your musicians to hop on board methods of selling that are tailored to the digital age. There's so much music available for free or cheap already that really there should be no complaint about not having enough to listen to to the point where you have to pirate*.

    I now await everyone's arguments and verbal assaults.

    * two notes. 1) see here for an interesting read on piracy, and how I totally misused the word in this post http://newmusicstrategies.com/2008/04/03/should-i-be-worried-about-piracy/

    2) I'm primarily addressing people who live in the US, either as content creators or content consumers.

    (il)legalsounds Selling OCR Albums

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    i think you're thinking of Hyrule.

    i've seen these sites before. i'm not really sure what can be done, we could email them all day long but i'm fairly sure they know what they're doing and all you'd get is a very Ruskie "fuck off", if that.

    but if anyone has had success shutting them down I'm all ears!

    I also have a hard time believing people give much business to these sites when they could just go one site over and get them for free...

    What happened when I found out that they were stealing NiGHTS: Lucid Dreaming was I put the call out online, here and elsewhere, to email them and bombard their twitter with requests to remove it. They took it down in under two days, but did not send a response email to me at all.

    I can only assume it would have the same effect again.

    (il)legalsounds Selling OCR Albums

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    So are we organizing? I'm all for this. If EVERYONE sends them an eMail, it'll help get the message across. They'd rather just take them down then mess with it, I'd hope. Honestly, we all know they're not getting rich off our video game soundtrack arrangements, but the megastart music they have up there.

    Is it just a free-for-all that we're going to take the form letter and send it or are we organizing? The latest Bad Dudes album is up there and we should look for any other friends with original or arranged music so we can all work together to request the albums removed - make sense? Power in numbers, baby!

    I sent in my email already but if things were to be organized, we'd all need to post whatever links we find here and then just include a mass of things to remove in the emails. Lets see what happens in the time that it takes people to find links to other things they know are free or being sold there without permission, they might act fast to take the stuff down.

    (il)legalsounds Selling OCR Albums

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Please proceed; clearly they didn't get the message the first time. This pisses me off just as much, if not more, but what really aggravates me is that any time I spend dealing with it is time better served working on the site & releasing more music... which they'll then turn around and try to profit from.

    I think perhaps we should propose a three strikes rule to them - this is the second time our free content has surfaced on their site, for sale. If it happens again, or if they fail to remove it this time, some sort of petition may be in order. I don't want to inadvertently publicize their "service," though...

    Not exactly sure how successful anything besides email spamming and spreading bad word about them online will be.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Organization_for_Multimedia_and_Digital_Systems

    Russian Organization for Multimedia and Digital Systems (ROMS, Russian: РОМС), also known as Russian Multimedia and Internet Society is a Russian collective rights management organization. ROMS is a body designated by Russian law for collecting and distributing statutory copyright royalty payments from radio stations and Internet download sites in Russia.[1] It is disputed whether they are authorized by law to allow music for download[2] This is currently pending in the Russian legal system.[3]

    All the materials in the LegalSounds.com music service are available for distribution via Internet according to license ЛС-3М-05-09 of the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society. Under the license agreement, Legalsounds.com pays license fees for all the materials subject to the Law of the Russian Federation "On Copyright and Related Rights."[6]

    So basically it is something designated by the Russian government, which is currently of ambiguous legal status in its own country. I'm fairly certain that it won't back down much since its a government-designated entity that gives legalsounds clearance to do what it does.

    Prophecy sending a letter of that type might do something, but I think just having as many places as possible see and present the story would be more effective. Showcasing this kind of clear infringment of the Terms of Use that OCR puts forth, and the whole "holy shit they're selling free music that people work their asses off on and can't even sell themselves because its fair use" would cast them in such a bad light that they would back off a whole lot more.

    And at the very least, have a whole slew of people email the site requesting the removal of ALL OverClocked ReMix material and to very clearly state that anything from that site being sold anywhere is a breach of the terms of use and likely of legality. Also have people tweet at them requesting the removal. Maybe they'll get the hint if a fuckton of people do it.

    In fact, here, I made a template for y'all to email to them:

    To Whom It May Concern:

    It has come to my attention that your site, Legalsounds.com, is attempting to sell a number of works for profit that are available for free online by the site that originally published them. The following albums, all of which come from the site OverClocked ReMix (http://ocremix.org), are infringing on OverClocked ReMix's Terms of Use:

    legalsounds.com/download-mp3/mega-man-9--back-in-blue/album_511164

    legalsounds.com/download-mp3/wild-arms_--armed-and-dangerous/album_567378

    legalsounds.com/download-mp3/badass--boss-themes/album_553889

    The site, which provides free fan arrangements of Video Game music, is available in every country around the world and publishes its music for free under Fair Use laws and because the artists agree that their music be distributed for free on said site. By posting any music from OverClocked ReMix, you are breaching the Terms of Use found here: http://ocremix.org/info/Content_Policy

    From the Content Policy page above:

    "OverClocked ReMix grants all parties a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, universal license to use, redistribute, incorporate into other works, and publicly perform OverClocked ReMixes as long as the following criteria are met:

    A.) No profit is made from the exercise of this license. This includes but is not limited to incorporation of OverClocked ReMixes into commercial works, charging or accepting more than the cost of the delivery means or medium(s) for redistributing OverClocked ReMixes, accepting donations and/or offering "Name Your Own Price" options for OverClocked ReMixes, or redistributing OverClocked ReMixes in the context of commercial advertisements. Live performance or playback of OverClocked ReMixes may occur in commercial, for-profit spaces such as stores, private clubs, or other gatherings, so long as no cost is explicitly associated with listening to them and no endorsement of the commercial entity by OverClocked ReMix can be inferred. "

    As far as I am aware, either because I am one of the musicians on these albums or I have spoken to them, none of these artists has given their consent to Legalsounds to post the music on Legalsounds website, or that it could be sold by anyone anywhere for any price. So beyond breaching the OverClocked ReMix Terms of Use, you have also breached International royalty laws and taken advantage of artists who post their music for free of charge.

    This is not the first time Legalsounds has posted material from OverClocked ReMix without right or consent, as last year the album NiGHTS: Lucid Dreaming was found being sold on your site. If it has not been made clear enough, no material from OverClocked ReMix should ever be found being sold on your website for any price.

    Remove all the infringing material as mentioned above, and refrain from hosting or attempting to sell any material from OverClocked ReMix at any point in the future. If any sales have been made off of these albums, refund them and point them to http://ocremix.org to get the material free of charge.

    [Your Name Here]

    Have at it, folks

    Minecraft [1.7.2/4?]

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Blame has been given

    Good, I also need to update it tonight, which will be done shortly before sushi but shortly after cleaning.

    Bumpyedit: I just switched over the serverbox so now we're running on a Core 2 Quad with 4GB of memory JUST FOR FUCKING MINECRAFT on the OCAD server. You're welcome, now come back and play.

    Please?

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