Entries Tagged 'Playble' ↓

Granted, The Pirate Bay has been initiating a lot of projects that we want to do. The Video Bay, Playble and Secure P2P are all ambitious projects that we’ve embarked upon and still not finished.

To those who complaint - well, fine. Most of the projects are projects that we’ve started, someone from our nearby area has then leaked it and then it’s all over the news. We get pushed to do stuff then instead of doing it for pure fun which is when we work the best together.

We’re only three people doing these projects. Most of the time, we’re actually only two. And we have day jobs as well. And everytime something happens on the Internet, the media requires us to take action or talk about it. I myself would spend around 4-5 hours - daily - to talk to the media about various issues. That’s not a joke, it’s 4-5 hours _daily_ that I spend just talking. It’s hard to keep up your dayjob and also a relationship at that pace.

Playble is still coming along. It hit some barriers with both cooperation within the team and with problems with Stim which I’ve written about before. It’s still on the todo-list. Same thing with The Video Bay - but we decided to put it on hold until there is a good enough p2p-streaming system. We where planning to release it without p2p but decided not to do that since we want it good or not at all. Secure P2P is the project of Tiamo but then we started to talk to BT Inc if they would implement some of the ideas instead and also we’re trying to convince them to put out a license that would prohibit them from making BitTorrent a closed system. That way they would have to stay true to the community, which we found a better idea then re-inventing the wheel all over again.

We’re sorry for being slow - but it’s also that we have lots of ideas and ambitions but we’re too few people. Instead we would love for some actually skilled PHP-coders and webdesigners to join our team. The problem we have is that every time we go look for them, they turn out either to not be flexible our the good ones disappear among the crappy ones. So if you know someone - who is REALLY skilled, and flexible when it comes to payments and who understands IRC - tell him (or preferably her) to talk to us.

Also, I’m working on another system, which is my baby. It’s going to be released soon, actually, as it’s closing to finish. And that’s what’s been stealing most of my working time right now, besides all the ACTA, FRA demonstrations, interviews and legal matters.

To close off - yes, we’re not wearing suits to work, we’re just too in love with the internet and have too little time.

Nu satte jag en chockrubrik. Den stämmer. Stim har som ni alla vet försökt leka “good guys” genom att komma med ett förslag om att man via sitt bredband ska kunna fÃ¥ ladda ner all musik helt lagligt, för en liten kostnad. Det lÃ¥ter ju som en utopi och som nÃ¥got man sÃ¥klart vill göra. Genom säkra källor inom ISP-världen har jag fÃ¥tt reda pÃ¥ att den lilla summan är 40kr per mÃ¥nad, en summa som kan kännas helt ok för dom flesta. Att motsvarande summa förr porr skulle bli 1400kr och i slutändan ha samma möjligheter att bli lagstadgad är nÃ¥got som Stim ocksÃ¥ vägrar att prata om. Och nÃ¥gra andra saker är ocksÃ¥ lite luddiga hos Stim!

För att kunna ladda ner så måste någon dela ut. Det är inget som Stim ens valt att berätta om. Dom har helt enkelt undvikit frågan därför att dom inte vill göra det lagligt att dela ut. Dom vill kringgå lagstiftning för att få betalt och därigenom få 30% av pengarna som dom ju faktiskt tar för hantering av rättigheter - dvs 12kr per månad i detta fallet ska gå direkt till Stims organisation. Men det mest intressanta är ju iallafall vad Rasmus gjorde mig uppmärksam på: Enbart dom artister som själv väljer att vara med i systemet ska man få lov att ladda ner (fortfarande inte dela ut). Kika på länken över, ca 18 minuter in när Kenth Muldin själv uttalar sig om det. Vad är då hela förslaget? Jo, ett monopol på en digital musikbutik där Stim själva kan välja vad som säljs och på vilket sätt. Som dom lurat internetoperatörerna att vara ett bra alternativ till sättet att främja alla artister på genom att kalla det fildelning. Att man är tvungen att gå med i Stim är ju inget som dom sticker under stolen med åtminstone, lite cred ska dom få för det.

Playble är väl ungefär det som Stim vill härma, fast samtidigt kunna ta betalt direkt av slutkunderna, vilket inte ska ske på Playble. Kanske är det därför som Stim fortfarande inte har hört av sig, trots upprepade försök till kontakt, både på mail och telefon? Jag mailade mitt förra bloginlägg till min kontaktperson på Stim - och gissa, inte nåt svar på det mailet heller.

(Sorry, Swedish only again. I’ll try to make more posts in english)

I dagens GP så skriver bl.a. Kenth Muldin, VD på Stim, återigen om flatratesystem (nu kallar han det dock internetavgift, antagligen för att det ska låta mer neutralt).

Problemen med flatrate har jag tagit upp tidigare här, så jag tänker inte gå in på dom oändligt många felaktigheterna med att det skulle vara ett bra system.

Playble, däremot, kommer bli ett vettigt alternativ, som faktiskt har en form av flatratemedlemskap. Alltså något som Stim enligt sin artikel skulle tycka var positivt. Vi har jobbat på Playble ett tag och hoppas det snart släpps. Men hur jobbar vi då i Playble?

En av dom stora sakerna har varit att göra ett rimligt avtal och att underlätta så mycket som möjligt för artisterna. Till viss del så måste man ju då jobba ihop med Stim då en del artister har avtal med dem. Playble kommer betala ut pengar direkt till artisterna men har man Stim-avtal så måste man göra det via Stim - och då som artist ge bort ca 30% av inkomsterna för en onödig mellanhand som inte på något vis hjälper till att samla in dessa pengar. Men har man kontrakt så har man, och förhoppningen från min sida är ju att Stim ska göra ett avtal med oss om att de inte ska lägga sig i inkomster som hamnar i vårt system för att gynna artisterna; vilket ju är Stims ändamål. Och hur går då det?

Sedan Juni förra året har vi försökt få till nåt med Stim. Vår utsedda kontaktperson Maria Wande har inte en endaste gång ringt tillbaka till oss. Vi har flertalet gånger försökt skapa kontakt, försökt få dem att ha möte med oss, försökt att få löst nån form av avtal. Men inte en enda liten rad på mail eller ett enda telefonsamtal kommer i retur. Det verkade också svårt vid initiell kontakt att rucka på dom satta priserna per nerladdning - som är ett stort problem då det inte fungerar enligt vår dynamiska affärsmodell.

Att Maria Wande sitter i styrelsen för SACG (Svenska föreningen mot Piratkopiering) kanske har något med saken att göra. Att Stim egentligen inser att deras roll som onödig mellanhand görs mer tydlig i ett system som dom inte själva utvecklat kanske också är en anledning. Eller helt enkelt att vi inte är godkända av Stims samarbetspartners för vår roll som utmanare i ett establisemang där vi gjort oss ovälkomna genom att driva tekniken framåt.

Det kanske är dags att skippa Stim helt och hållet. Artisterna får uppmanas att avsluta sina Stimavtal om det ska fortsätta såhär.
Lagstiftningen bör ändras så att man får möjlighet att utveckla ny teknik, istället för att sitta kvar i en gammal värld där hjulen medvetet snurrar långsamt för att trötta ut nya aktörer och sitta på makt för profitens skull. Visa mig hur artisterna tjänar på ett såhär trögt system!

A swedish couple got kicked out of Germany for just having a PiratbyrÃ¥n t-shirt! Since it was the girl who had the t-shirt, I think we’re just going to give the guy his own so he can get kicked out if he goes alone as well.

HÃ¥kan Roswall has got an extension on the Pirate Bay case. For seriously weird reasons! PiratbyrÃ¥n is going to release a press release later today and invite for a press conference early next week. Maybe there’s a connection here somewhere, I think Roswall is starting to behave like the germans did 60 years ago..

Together with Magnus I went to Sound Days in Copenhagen today.
Magnus held a small seminar about the contexts of todays digital music, I participated in a debate with Martin Buck from MyMusic.dk and a guy called Ulrik (didn’t get his last name) from Tabu Records. The debate was about the future distribution of music and I was there partly as a representative of Playble and of The Pirate Bay.
The amount of people there … was very low. And basically no new innovative ideas on the agenda.
But anyhow; it was a very nice day, I got some sun at least. The best part about the debate was that it was outside.

With my good friends in Lamont I took the weekend “off” and went to Siesta! festivalen in Hässleholm.
A lot of good bands, a lot of beer, and even more tacos. In fact, we had to make our own remix of a song just to celebrate the tacos! Mr. Hank did his own version of the taco celebration..
Insteadofgoingintoallthebandsthatplayed (since I was basically backstage the whole time, doh) I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

Yesterday I went to Copenhagen and talked with Morten. He’s a really nice guy, I always get really excited when talking to him, it’s like he has the same ideas as me, same values and insight. It’s not many people I feel that way with so I’m happy to work with him in the future! We came up with some cool ventures and I’m confident it will work out!

I had SVT over again. Together with Magnus from PiratbyrÃ¥n they did some small shots and first interviews, rough cuts, for the upcoming documentary. It will be interesting. The new guy from SVT I haven’t met before looked exactly like Bosse Parnevik, just a fun trivia! (He’s not the guy on the pic..)

Today I’m leaving for Aarhus! I’m going to a festival called SPOT and I have no clue on what they want us to do. But it’s probably fun. I’ll hang out with some of the people from Piratgruppen DK so it’s bound to be good!

A lot of Denmark right now - Reboot is on this week!

Oh, and I have a new toy! It’s called NINTENDO WII.. And it’s fucking amazing! I woke up today with pain in my arms since I played so much last night…. that probably speaks for itself.

Cool news - seems like Swedish Television wants to do a real documentary about the copyfighters in Sweden! It looks like they actually got the funds to do it as well, and we’re working on a concept together with them.

Richard M. Stallman was in Gothenburg to talk about free software and todays copyright.

A very interesting talk, though he hasn’t thought everything through. For instance; the flat-rate system will not work, who wants to pay tax money for porn?
I had a quick talk with him afterwards - but he didn’t know about The Pirate Bay, PiratbyrÃ¥n or anything besides Piratpartiet. Can’t blame him, he’s a very busy person, it’s just weird that someone knows something about Piratpartiet and not the reason they could actually start.. and for someone thinking someone else is taking credit for what he did, it’s funny he actually gives all credit to Piratpartiet.

My brother and Henrik joined me at the Stallman-show and then we ate some indian food and went to a place called Lövgärdet where I lived as a kid. How the brain can fool you! I didn’t recognise nearly anything - besides the place where I buried my bird, and the place of my first kiss with Karolina!

I got back home and Fredrik did something not smart. I don’t want to say stupid, because I could have done something similar as well, and I’m not stupid. Anyhow, after 40 hours of pure hacking, we got the site up running again, almost as good as new.

Some more interesting news - I talk to alot of people that are somehow connected to other interesting people - one of them told me that the police officer in charge of the case against The Pirate Bay actually has _nothing_ to give the District Attorney. Still he’s pressing charges. Is that democracy or demo-crazy?

This weeks media links:
SR P3 Nyheter (Jon Gray talks FOR other people even though it’s all about his wallet)
PC För Alla - Pirates become nice? We’re always nice.

(I missed it last night but congratulations Norway on Syttende Mai! All we people from Bergen send our regards to the neighbour country of Norway)

Ok, so where to begin!

The Pirate Bay got hacked, I talked to a really amazing and beautiful girl that actually gave me some new insight to my life, I have argued with a manager at SONY BMG Music Entertainment that called me crazy things as usual. Some other people I talked to today about Playble seem really enthusiastic about the project, I’m very happy that people understand the concept and realise it’s the future.

I’ve also been sick a whole weekend with The Flu!

On other notes - I’m hiring! I need more people to my crew and we need people that are crazy and interesting! Not the normal types, we need exceptionally cool people with a laid back attitude that can fit with the persons we are in the current crew. Designers are the most needed types right now, we are really swamped with design work and it’s hard to find them. So if you know anyone, contact me!

Tomorrow I’m going to Richard M. Stallmans talk in Gothenburg (Sweden), about how copyright is not fit for todays society. I am guessing it will be a very interesting debate afterwards and that I’m probably going to talk to him alot. Also, I’m very sure that I’m going to hook up with the Creative Commons people that are located there, it will be interesting for sure! I might as well go to Birdie this weekend if I have the time.

Next week, my schedule is just boring besides an interesting meeting with Morten and that I’m very sure I’m going to get a lot of work done! It’s got to get the stuff away from the TODO-list sometimes!

I went to the new Malmö club called Debaser yesterday - Supposedly to play was some of my favorite dj’s Alan Braxe and Kris Menace. Neither of them showed up and it was really sad.
But instead, I met some other interesting people - as always Lamont is fun to hang out with, I met the guys from The Sounds, The Ark, Dennis Lyxzén from The International Noise Conspiracy, Nina from The Cardigans and of course the always cute and funny Cajsa from Swedish Radio P3. Hannes had a lot of nice friends from his work as well, they where really fun to hang out with!

Had a really nice time and a lot of interesting talks - the place wasn’t that crowded, so it was suitable for real discussions in fact.

We’re also releasing a new site today, hopefully. It will be named Eurovision Torrents and well.. I think you get the idea.

Now it’s time to go to the sun!

I took a long trip again. Long as in hectic, not really long term nor far away.
Went to Tel Aviv, Israel first for a couple of days.

Met up with some people I work with and had a very productive meeting about company structuring for the future. Interesting and very satisfied with this! It means I can work a bit more focused on the tasks at hand instead of the administration - I don’t do administrative work anymore, it takes too much time and I’m not organized at all. Actually I’m a firm believer in having my work as unstructured chaos to actually be able to commit and execute. Might sound strange, but time has proven the concept to work for me. Just need to have skilled people around me that can help out with the things that doesn’t work under that form of working.

After Israel we took a trip to Salamas beduin camp ‘Sawa’ (which means unity in the language of the Beduins), located in Sinai, on the Aqaba coast of Egypt. This is the third time I’m there and this time I stayed for 3 days and just chilled! I did almost nothing! Just ate, drank fresh juices and I read a danish book called Spin by Per Helge Sørensen - it was quite amusing.

I really enjoy being in Sinai. It’s the one of the most relaxing place in the world for me right now - paralleled only surprisingly by Central Park in New York. Something about that place just takes away all my stress.

After a total of 8 days away I’m now more eager to execute. Especially the Playble-project is getting more and more focus from me. Playble is already getting media attention and I’m afraid it’s getting too much right now - we haven’t really gone out with any press release or anything, I don’t want it to become a hype that noone will care about when it’s actually released. But I guess I will have to control that myself.