Tim Blair, Saturday Songs and Sing a Song of Sixpence

(Above: image in the public domain but why should you or I care?)

Tim Blair provides links to four tunes from groups or singers possibly aiming at a left wing message, but who may instead have delivered songs celebrating the values of conservatism.

Do the values of conservatism include linking to illegal content? 

Fortunately I can provide a link to the Daily Terror page to indicate that it might or might not contain illegal content - that's within the law. But Blair has embedded the content in his pages. If the content hasn't been cleared, then that's a breach of current copyright laws.

Of course it's not always possible to tell what's illegal and legal on YouTube. There are legal channels and some licenses have been obtained. But what's the betting that terryj57 at YouTube obtained clearances from the artist and the record company before putting up a clip from The Juice featuring Roachford's song This Generation (with improved audio)?

Or how about the clip of Morcheeba, with Rome Wasn't Built in a Day, provided to us by cozenimus?

And I wonder what's the status of Stand and Fight, copied off air from Media Set 1, with James Taylor, and featuring Elio and le Storie Tese? I had imagined that the right to record off air in this case was for personal use only, not for republication on the intertubes (not to mention the mechanical rights).

What are the chances that mauro on Vimeo obtained a clearance from the B-52's, before offering up Roam to the world, and thereafter for embedding in the Daily Terror?

You can check out the songs, which may or may not be illegal content, by going to Saturday Songs.

Conservative values?

Anything you can get away with. Hey, those are values I can share. 

Do I care about the theoretical laws of copyright, as opposed to the practical realities on the intertubes? I guess about as much as I care for conservative values.

So much hypocrisy on the intertubes, so little time, and the funniest thing is, the biggest corporations are the biggest hypocrites. So good to see News Corporation, owner of the Terror and 20th Century Fox, engaging in the distribution of potentially illegal content.

Meantime, the music industry is chasing down small time punters who did a little Lime Wiring in their innocent youth, and seeing how many millions they can tote up in damages. (Joel Tenenbaum follows in Jammie Thomas' footsteps).

Oh it's a funny world, no doubt about it. Here's a song that celebrates the monarchy and conservative values:

Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye.
Four and twenty blackbirds,
Baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened,
The birds began to sing;
Wasn't that a dainty dish,
To set before the king?
The king was in his counting house,
Counting out his money;
The queen was in the parlour,
Eating bread and honey.
The maid was in the garden,
Hanging out the clothes;
When down came a blackbird
And pecked off her nose.

It's a tough world for the downstairs folk, no doubt about it. Hmm, I wonder what's the equivalent these days for transportation for a loaf of bread? Perhaps personal bankruptcy or a tidy fine over twenty four or thirty songs. Who's counting? (US file-sharer gets $700,000 fine).