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.
Boy, what a lot of stupid people out there. I’m the only one who can say that.
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.
Haha, wonderful interview! Well played! “Not everybody gets to have a birthday ever year!” hahaha
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!
Priceless.
hilarious! i love wiretap. you did a really good job – was that in one take?
Yeah Colin. It was basically one take. That said, it was much longer, and they edited it down pretty substantially.
Mike, if it wasn’t obvious. This recording was satire.
That interview was hilarious… nice work!
Oh man is that funny. Poor, poor Raymond.
There’s a pretty easy solution to the Happy Birthday copyright issue, which I’ve detailed on my blog: Roland Barthes declared the death of the author in 1967. Hence, all copyright should end in 2038.
http://dancingsausage.net/?p=955