Unhappy Birthday Interview

Unhappy Birthday — a website that tries to educate the public and encourage folks to snitch on their friends for singing the (copyrighted!) Happy Birthday song in public places — is perhaps the most widely read thing I’ve ever written. It’s been seen by millions and I continue to get hate mail several times a week.

Last Sunday, the nationally broadcast CBC show WireTap aired an pseudonymous in-character interview with me about the site where I pretended to be a copyright high-protectionist. I think it turned out pretty well.

You can listen to it on the unofficial WireTap podcast. My interview starts at a bit more than 10 minutes into the show.

11 Replies to “Unhappy Birthday Interview”

  1. Press on Don Quixote, your duel with the windmill awaits you.

    Too much freaking time on your hands kid.  The hate mail is well earned and deserved.

  2. Haha, wonderful interview!  Well played!  “Not everybody gets to have a birthday ever year!”  hahaha

  3. If Stephen Colbert can ‘Defend’ the Right, why not give Raymond Ty his due as a patriotic defender of Copyright ;-)
    (cue dragnet-style music)
    If the US wants to Defend its IP via PROIP, someone has to be out there in the hinterlands out-ing those ner’do-wells who would skirt their duty to pay our creators for their innovative songs!

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