ArtistBlog.ME

Honestly, I’ve never been that shocked in my life as I’ve been the last hour and a half. This documentaire discusses the different aspects of animal cruelty for our own behalf.

Just like we are a group of social living creatures; animals sure deserve “their place” on this large world too! We should think better before slaying animals with pain just for religion or fashion.

We often don’t see what happens before with those clothes we wear, the dinner we eat and the pet we got. This movie is a strong outline of what would happen if all of these production facilities would have glass walls.

Do think, is it really worth it that much to be wearing the latest fashion linked with often dozens of minutes of pain? I’m not asking you to become veggie; although; do mind the steak you are trowing away might have been a real painsteak before!

If you can’t do something about it, think about it, because by ignoring this fact the horror will continue till there is no link anymore between us, humanity and the rest of this beautiful world!

When GB started having cards to save points I’ve lost one card. Because the card was used together with my partner, I’ve ordered a new one as soon as Happy Days was introduced. I have never received any disclaimer until last week.

As any good citizen, I fill in the new form at GB for the transfer of the old cards to the new card. The new card was activated and the old cards were terminated. I’ve again received no rules and no mentioning about termination dates, till today at the phone.

These saved points were not transferred after 5 months which made me demand more information by phone. Both cards were lost in their administration, although I’ve had a copy with the barcode which saved my account. Finally they fixed the malignant balance with the one card I’ve had in copy. First time I’ve lost points with Happy Days but cheer up, it won’t happen again, will it?

Today, I’ve decided to transfer my old card and all tickets which I’ve saved under the spare GB card to the new Happy Days card; which I’ve registered just a week ago with a brand new package, including 2 cards, a paper form and a disclaimer; certainly something new afterall.

The lady at the phone responded both my 2 old cards were terminated. The +1400 points could not be recovered. Not only the card was terminated but 80% of my tickets were scrap because, if you don’t shop your account gets terminated after 6 months.

Conclusions of me?

1. You have to shop inbetween 6 months or you are terminated.
2. There goes my trip which took more than a year before!
3. The lady could see the identity was missing on the previous card but cannot see the balance?
4. I’ve put 2 weeks of labor to transfer my old GB cards to the new Happy Days card and my identity is missing?
5. Happy Days lost 1 of the 2 old GB cards!
6. The lady mentioned every GB ticket mentions the 6 months invalidation but none does!
7. I should be mentioned by the cashier about the expiration terms was the next answer…
8. I received no disclaimer till past week mentioning me expiration dates of cards.
9. I’ve lost over 4 years of saving because of rules which are created without the customer knowing?
10. Happy Days lost my points before, which of one card was retained using a copy!
11. I’ve been deliberately waiting because I wanted to get everything done in one step, to avoid too much administrative hassle (like before with GB to Happy Days!), this together with my partners card.
12. So practically, I saved all that time for nothing!

Because of database cleanups I have become virtually non-existant unless I use their stores inside their terms. Great!

Happy-Days, thanks for putting years faith in you
I’ll sure remember you .. RIP in my wallet!

Yesterday I went to the local electronics store where stuff gets sold for audio, video, oscilloscopes, multimeters, solder, crocodile clamps and lots more…

I needed to make a cable for the Fluke CableIQ qualification tester to check pin by pin; since this cable was not in stock at the dealer and it would probably cost 100x more anyways. I went in the store in a hurry, got the equipment with me and we had the following dialog:

[me] Hi, I see you got fluke in your etalage, do you sell these testleads?
[shopkeeper] No I’m afraid we don’t have these.
[me] do you got any test leads which I can use to make a cable for this device here? <while taking out manual>
[shopkeeper] I don’t got any separate leads.
[me] Do you got any colored crocodile clamps? I want to be able to make this cable, I already got the connector to go to the device but I’d like a nicer solution for the ending leads
[shopkeeper] Let me see what I got
… <after a time> …
[shopkeeper] I got these crocodile clamps, but only in red and black.
[me] That’s better than nothing, how many of these you got? I’d like to have 5 of each.
<to be sure because these things do break around the plastic too>
… <after a time> …
[shopkeeper] I got 5 of these and 4 of these.
… <In the whiletime an older man with a beard comes in> …
[me] Where is the time when you had these in colored?
[shopkeeper] That time is already gone for long, it’s not being sold anymore…
[me] But you do still sell soldering irons I hope
[shopkeeper] No, as a matter of fact even Dynatek is stopping with multimeters. Soldering irons do not get sold anymore, everything is getting micro-smd etc..
[me] Where is the time when we learned about these things, using resistors, capacitators, making stuff?
[shopkeeper] Now they learn to draw in schools, but most of the electronic parts we have abandoned because it does not sell anymore.
[me] That’s bad, we with the soldering irons are getting extinct, so everyone just throws everything away??
[shopkeeper] Basically yes, most stuff cannot be repaired or gets swapped with modules.
[me] Do you still got those packages with many 5 or 10 testleads in one?
[shopkeeper] Yes let me see.
[guy with beard] The challenge seems to be gone for most around us, it’s sad, although not everything is new and small and smd
[shopkeeper] I have these?
[me] <while looking> yes, these are a lot better and are which I search for, I want two packages of these.
[shopkeeper] that will me 8 euro 70 cents together please.
… <taking my money and paying< …
[guy with beard] Also a package of test leads please and pays up

Moral of story ..
Do we need to throw everything away when it still can be fixed just for the sake of having the newest model or type on our desk?

Sorry, this entry is only available in Nederlands.

My soulmate wanted to rip the CD to put on his Archos Jukebox, since he is not using CD’s anymore but still buys them to be legal and to have the full version.

Since I have put in the CD I can’t run my company invoice system anymore, can’t do anything at all with that cdrom drive, can’t even play a game. Every time I put in the CD it cannot be recognized by my system.

I already tried to uninstall the software but the problem stays, which forces me to reinstall the PC completely (which I definitely don’t have the time for now at the moment and will cost me days to get my invoicing and updates done).

Is this legal ? Can this be allowed ? I am literally loosing money now just because I wanted to rip that legal and bought cd for him straight to his Archos. It’s not even music I like to listen to… (no offense intended to all fans around here) …

Apparantly it is legal folks ..
CD’s that demolish your PC ready to reinstall!…

I am really starting to get even more annoyed since I do not know which CD’s I can even TRUST anymore without the need to re-install my PC? To stay on topic ; A lot of data is on backup but also a lot of data (my vinyl and protected CD’s ripped to WAV format) will be lost after this re-install.

These copyprotections are taking more time than I have; to be even more specific, certain CD’s like Solid Sounds I need to rip manually to be able to USE this CD in my older car cd player and pro Denon DJ CD player!!! Since I am DJ and using vinyl and CD’s a lot I find this unacceptable. Put in this pro-DJ player and you got to wait up to 6 minutes before the CD *might* get read; which is too long for a clubDJ to mix to the next song; unless I have a 8-10 minute song running from vinyl…

Is this copyprotection a convenience only for the record company or should the audio CD be a convenience for the listener? Where’s the time you put in the CD in your favorite cd player you like to listen to the music you like ? The time of putting your cd in your car cdplayer, cd-rom drive or professional CD player is over and it’s only getting worse, looking to this example of the latest CD I tried to rip for my friend.

And this is not even the end, my soulmate has bought 2 other CD’s, which one of them is the new Faithless CD (the other one I can’t remember because we have a different taste (and yet the same) of music) and he can’t rip it to use on his MP3 player *and* he can’t use it on his home CD player (unreadable disks).

I used to buy 2 to 5 cd’s a month, since I am not sure anymore which cd’s work or not I started buying more vinyl again, but hell, I do not want to buy ANY releases of the same producers that cripple the audio CD’s I have bought for 20 EURO or more!

The recording industry has lost at least 600 EURO last year only because I do not want to buy or use cd’s anymore.. what’s the use to buy a cd if I can’t use it?

I have built up a nice record collection of +30000 vinyl records and +2000 cd’s. Probably the collection of my cd’s will not be updated anymore as I protest to this kind of behavior towards the consumer. I currently have about 62 cd’s of the last 2 years that I cannot use at all unless I rip it and copy it. This is about 1200 EURO/$ I have lost because I cannot use them as DJ.

This will conclude the recording industry will not get MY money of minimally 720 EURO/$ per year anymore, which I will spend on independent vinyl recording companies which are not related to the ones that cripple MY cd’s I have bought with my well-deserved money which I pay my taxes on.

For so far my rant … for the ones that care ; I started to care a lot since I have lost my cd-rom drive on a very mysterious way

Saturday night, 14th may 2004, me, Pi (my soulmate) and Jo (a good friend who wanted a ride to central station) went to my car. At the other end of the street there are 2 heavy men with black uniforms walking towards us.

Jo wanted to close the door while I was already standing at the door of the drivers side. Suddenly the 2 guys jump to the door of Jo, pull it open and the guys start to bash Jo in my car by kicking in his face with combats.

Pi was sitting in the back all safe, Jo tried to protect himself and I did not know what was happening when I saw it happening through my window of the car. Jo and Pi heard them shouting “vuile flikker” (which means “filthy faggot”).

I was getting very scared they where going to kick Jo to death and tried to intervene. One of the guys went to me and started kicking with his fists on my face, nose and throat, kicking inbetween the groin, …

I ran away (else I was being severely beaten) and the 2 guys ran out of the street. A mate I see when I go out saw everything happening in front of his car; I asked him to follow these guys directly. 15 minutes we have been following both guys till they splitted. Another 7 minutes we have been following one of the guys around the Katoennatie in Antwerpen.

That man tried everything to shake us off, trying to run back, crawling behind a bus, waiting on the corner and running like hell, ….

While we where following I was waiting +7 minutes in hold on the policeline (which is a scandal to my opinion) to hear they do not have any policeman available to help us. I had to redial 4 times because there were still no agents available.

After 22 minutes we saw a policecar passing by (which was FREE and not even knowing what was going on!?!) and I jumped out (the still driving car) and started shouting and holding the police that they needed to arrest the guy we where following. That guy was arrested and currently already back on the streets.

When one of the guys was hitting me on the throat I pulled away and that guy hitted me on not even a centimeter next to my adamsappel. After the doctor examined me it seemed that he aimed on a deadly spot. (I’M ALIVE !!!!!!!!!!!). I didn’t even feel the kick in my groin (UGH?) and I also wonder if this wasn’t “a attempt of murder”. Considering how they where kicking with boots in Jo’s face and tried to kick me straight on my adamsappel.

I had a little cut in my throat causing me to bleed inside (which is going a little bit too far to my opinion). My car is broken on my brake, cellular phone, gearshift, outside.

They did it probably for fun, the kick, because we did not have any contact with these guys, we didn’t even know them.

I really wanted atleast 1 guy to be taken into custody, he’s Belgian and the 2nd one I don’t know anything about. The other guy had a black shirt with round logo on his back, short hair and is for as far as I know not been found. One is arrested at the Katoennatie.

Jo was quite beaten on his head, his hips where fully blue and there were 3 minor cuts on his head and a brain-shake. I had a blue eye, my throat was damaged, head, nose and inbetween my legs.

I think I hereby informed enough about the current condition of:

(1) how this society is these days and
(2) what the current condition of my health is.

I have difficulties living in such demotivating society where you NEED to learn how to beat to survive.

updates:

25 may 2004 – 29 may 2004
At night I was getting very sick. Vomiting blood, oversensitive (pain) for light and sounds and fevers of 39 degrees celcius. This probably because of infection in my throat.

30 may 2004
my fever has dropped to normal levels, 37-37.5 celcius, my head still hurts like hell and I am less sensitive to light and sounds. I am still caughing up blood.

well .. this update is one year later 2 september 2005 … The guys got free from everything, the lady justice has her blindfold on proving she is really blind!

ZKboi

I am writing this article as a “cry for attention”, because I don’t really feel home anymore in this society. I see a lot of things changing and I don’t find it positive at all.

I see lack of respect, lack of principles, lack of safety, less friendlyness between people, more and more egoistic people (on the road), more demand to power and money, more criminality, more trash, discrimination and I see a society that’s really killing eachother …

I hope by writing this article to reach certain (groups of) people who might think “this is true” or “yes, I could help to change this”, maybe that little step could be a big change in society to get it living again…

People are very easy influenced, some are influenced by talking, discussions and some are influenced by media like movies, television, newspapers, books, etc… A lot of people are thinking like a collective, there is a leading party and they just follow. I can understand a lot of people are less individual and counting on the support of the society, but, is that support really there when you really need it? Or do you feel accepted if you are (a bit) different in certain views or actions?

“The lack of individualism is destroying the society !”

A lot of people are currently living in their “protected environment” called society .. but is it really that safe? Are you really protected or could it be you can be a danger for other people by thinking like that? Are you protected by the society? In a certain way you feel very protected, you feel you have help whenever you need to but what if “the bug” of society hits you in the face?

If you think very deep about it you might find your answer. Below here I am going to give a few examples and I only ask you, think about it, but look at it very sober, without pink-glasses …

You can tell “look at it on the bright side” but what if that side is not bright at all? Why would I need to believe and look to an illusion? Sometimes I wonder if I am the only person seeing all these changes but then, sometimes I find somebody who is also thinking the same and even understanding me … These people make me feel better because I am not the only one and there is a problem …

The problem is growing bigger and bigger and as a single individual I could not change this, a lot of individuals could change this.

Do not ask me to change myself to “the” society and change my basic principles I grew up with because I simply cannot do that, they are me, my personality, my strength and my believe. I believe in myself, I believe in what I do and I believe in 100% respect for anything on this world, sure for humans, animals and the rest of the nature. A lot of people are not having that 100% respect or do not think straight enough about the consequences …

Hence, a lot of people seem to not live their live but let others control their live! How pathetic and cynical does the word “living” mean to them?

Some examples …

1. I see lack of respectThese days I see a lot of lack of respect for animals, the nature and mainly for other humans. A lot of people are not being listened to, fights … Having respect for somebody or something is caring for that somebody/something as if it is your own blood, your own property. I respect everybody, even my worst enemy, for 100%. I will still try to understand, talk, take care of problems with respect in a decent way. I will not go fighting over something that can be solved by talking, neither I will use somebodies property for purposes it should not be used for …
2. lack of principlesPrinciples are for me the basic rules in life. One of my principles is that I will not hurt anybody, no humans, animals or objects (which cannot be hurt but rather broken).
   I will not bring somebody in danger, I will care about anybody I see and I will help wherever really needed.

   Another principle is that I will respect anybody or anything for 100%, I will not change that respect. This does not mean I trust anybody I see. My trust is 50/50 with people, some people deserve my trust and some not; partially because it’s my life and my safety.

   Discrimination is another principle, I will never discriminate in colors, size, race, or whatever you can discriminate on. Everybody is equal in my book. Somebody trying to hurt me in one or another way will not get my trust and I will protect myself but I will never look to a group of people as it if would be “their fault”. It’s not because there are Belgian criminals every Belgian citizen is a criminal.

   I have a lot of principles and certain principles are literally being broken by others. This feels very bad. My principle in safety is continuesly being broken on the road, in my life by other people … This feels even worse than bad!

   I really start to wonder how much people really do have principles in their life in these dark times …

   I wonder even more how many people are really keeping themselves on their principles, not breaking them all the time …

3. lack of safetyLook at the roads, how many people are actually still using their direction lights? How many people think about you while you want to pass by with your car? How many people are so egoistic thinking the road is only for them only while driving ONLY on the left lane while the right lane is completely free? A lot of these people are causing a lot of danger on the roads, safety is a oxymoron if you do not participate with it … Enough said about the road…Safety between people is also a problem these days, for example in sex. More and more people are doing unsafe sex infecting other people while mostly not even knowing this.A lot of people think “everything will be allright” but it won’t be allright by itself, nature will not help you in safety, YOU will be the piece in the chain of safety to help in a better and safer future …
4. less friendliness between peopleHow many people say thank you these days? Or how many people greet you on the street? Do you say goodmorning at your baker? Do you talk to your neightbours or do you really care about your friends? I have a very friendly pharmasist who says “hi” every time I see him and I say “hi” back. This because we do exist and we like that both, that can be expressed by simply saying a “hi” to your neighbour…Customer support is also getting scarce, it seems to be the customer is no longer the king but the corporations want to be the king. Do not forget that corporations ONLY exist if there are customers … Treat them right and you will keep them but treat them wrong and eventually your business will die….
5. more and more egoistic people (on the road)As I told in the “safety” chapter, people are getting more and more egoistic… I added the “on the road” part because I see that problem mostly on the road, in the car, on the streets, at the sidewalk …People are thinking more and more about themselves and their property only. Their selfimportance. I can only say one thing to all the people…“Take care of your fellow human and that fellow human will take care of you, be egoistic and you create egoism back”What will it be if the world will be full of egoism? Thinking only about their own goal, vision, property?

   I can tell, it will die, slowly, with pain, humans are made to be with eachother, to interact with eachother, not to fight or to only protect your own property but also to protect eachother … To care about eachother – the least you can do!

6. more demand to power and moneyBecause of egoism there is more and more demand for power and money. Currently there are leaders at the top of their country and citizens using their power on a wrong way. They want more power or want to use it for wrong purposes.Mostly this power is connected with money, more power is more money. Look at the mega-corporations, scams, criminality and maybe your government…Do you still believe you are not being influenced by people who are really having the power in influencing you? Mostly because of money ? The “economy” rules the world this time.
7. more criminalityThere is more and more criminality these days, less respect means harder crimes. Living is getting expensive, power is expensive and money is for some people a problem. Does this mean society is blowing up itself?
8. more trashIf I look outside I see shit lying on the curbs, I see trash lying in my street, this while I am living in the better areas of the city of Antwerpen. If more people would care about their fellow-citizens the cities would be a lot cleaner to live in. I need to watch my step or I have dirty shoes.
9. discriminationDiscrimination is a very bad bug in society. It’s getting worse and worse in time. There is getting a difference between poor and rich, black and white, heterosexual and homosexual, Christian and Moslim, Belgian and Hollander, …Why is there a difference while we are all humans? What makes me different of being a Belgian? Why do you need to be having money before you can be part of society? Why would I be different because I have a white skin instead of a black skin?We are all different, unique, but being white or black is not the difference, your thinking, feelings and expression is the difference … Please people, think about this, think about your fellow human… It will only be better to like eachother instead of hating eachother just because that color or that one difference …

I hope to have reached somebody and something by writing this article, I translated it to dutch especially to reach the most people …

Please think about it.. ok?

ZKboi

Hillary Rosen, the CEO of the RIAA (Records Industry Association of America) wants ISP’s and telecommunication companies to pay a fee for giving customers access to music swapping software.

This way the RIAA wants to recoup all lost sales and money because of music piracy. Next to that Hillary mentioned on the Midem music conference that more CD’s should be protected against piracy and licensing restrictions and download services by subscription should also be taken care about; She urged this to the major record labels like BMG, Sony music, Warner music, EMI and Universal.

More information can be found in these articles:
at News.com.
at Yahoo news.

What does this mean ?

This means the RIAA, a private company is already enforcing taxes on empty CD’s, MD’s, DAT’s and tapes. They want another “Internet tax” even on the heads of people that do not even touch any bit of music or P2P software on the Internet. Next to this they want a tax on memory cards (which get mostly used in cameras but also MP3 players), MP3 players and MP3 software.

Taxes by the corporations ?
Taxes are food for the government and not for the corporations. This is another point-of-evidence the corporations are taking over the world instead of the government.

You are a criminal ?
The last few years the RIAA, MPAA and other organisations are considering everybody to be a criminal. Even if you only use CDR’s or MD’s for your own productions or if you don’t even use these for music but only for data: you need to pay the extra amount of money that goes to the RIAA and not to the artists. This is to fill up the pockets of the executives of these cartels (or “Industry Associations” if you want to call it like that).

Because you have a PC, CD-WRITER and CD-ROM drive you are a criminal; you need to pay these extra fees (taxes) because you are automatically a music pirate according their analogy.

If I understand correctly you can be called a criminal by having:

• several knives (because you can kill people with them)
• a firearm (because you can shoot people with it)
• a car (because you can drive over people or property with it)
• a camera (because you could make illegal porn with it)
• a videorecorder (because you can record shows/movies with it)…

Where is the world going to ? These are taxes because of crimes a minority of people commit by sharing music illegaly!

Similarities ?

1. This way Microsoft should be also able to enforce taxes to the people because people pirate software.
2. Pirate cd’s get transported, the RIAA should put up road taxes because they loose revenue because CD’s get transported over the road, train, boats, …

What could really help ?
Currently a CD could cost up to 25 EUROS in Belgium.

Let’s make a quick calculation per CD …

1 EURO (box, inlay, cover)
2 EUROS (cd + pressing + marketing)
2 EUROS (goes to artist)

The rest of the 20 Euros goes to the RIAA, MPAA, SABAM, whatever cartel (or “Industry Organisation”).

If CD’s would be having a price tag of let’s say 12 EUROS more people will buy CD’s because they are cheaper. 50% of the CD’s is crap on the market anyway and you need to pay up to 25 EUROS for that piece of plastic. Sometimes there is only one or two numbers that are good on a CD and yet .. 25 EUROS !

Where goes the rest of the money to?
It goes straight to the pockets of these associations. Why? To enforce taxes, pay their lawyers, for their executives, … Worth to mention: the money does not arrive at the artist!

What can I do ?
Currently I have the feeling corporations are going to rule the world. They are imposing taxes on everything they can. The money of these taxes goes straight to these associations. Protections are being added not to protect the customer but to protect their pockets; against the customers.

CD’s getting useless …
The last 10 CD’s I have bought there are 3 CD’s useless in my car cd player, cannot play 4 of them in my computer CD-rom drive and 2 CD’s continuesly give problems in my (older) professional DENON players.

This is a problem for me, as DJ. I needed to get all these tracks from the Internet to burn to CD (from MP3) and get all the records; ADDITIONALLY next to buying the CD; to be able to use the music I have given money for !!!

I have lost 50 EUROS because I cannot play them decently in a old DENON cd player. I have lost 100 EUROS (in total) because I cannot play them in my laptop/PC CD player which is the only cd player in this room and my office !

Where does this end?

The RIAA and the MPAA (Motion Pictures Association of America or best said Hollywood) is also enforcing lots of restrains to the current PC manufacturers/owners to enforce DRM (Digital Right Management) so the PC gets theoretically their property instead of your property.

Next to that CD protections get added so you cannot play them on your PC/LAPTOP CDROM drive. Some of these protections do not allow these CD’s to be played in older CD drives like CAR CD drives because these use the same construction as a CDROM drive. The professional Denon 2500 series (worth about 2000 EUROS) cannot play some of these cd’s because the tracks skip …

If you buy a MP3 player in Canada you need to pay the MP3 player + you need to pay an extra for the internal harddrive. 21$ per gig; If you buy a Ipod MP3 player with 20 gigs you will pay 440$ on top of the price of the unit !!!

DVD writable disks you need to pay 2.27$ more per disk, what will you pay if any high resolution disk with four times more storage comes out? 9$ ???

Indeed .. where does it end?

I know MP3’s, am I a criminal ?
I buy my CD’s legally. I buy my VINYL legally. Why? Because I play it in public and I have the best quality. When downloading MP3’s the quality is mostly too bad to use in a discotheque.

I download MP3’s because I need to pre-listen. If I need to buy every CD I would now be bankrupt and be living on the streets. Thanks to MP3’s I can first listen to certain songs and if I like these I start to search around for a CD compilation or VINYL records. This way I minimize my expenses and get a maximum of quality music I can play.

Is this illegal? *NO* because I pay for the music by buying the CD’s and VINYL. Do I use these MP3’s ? *NO* because they are mostly crap anyway to use/handle decently; next to this VINYL is a lot easier to handle than mp3’s or their burned equivalent (with distortion or bad recordings).

I am not a criminal by prelistening my tracks!

DVD’s and CD’s …
You can get a full DVD with movie, commentary, special features and extras for about 20 EUROS.

You can get a soundtrack of a movie for 25 EUROS without any extras.

Where is the f*ck*ng difference? You pay 5 EUROS *MORE* for a piece of plastic that is worth LESS! The prices of CD’s are outragious higher than of a DVD while a DVD costs more to make!

Endnote …
I am worried to grow up in a world where citizens do not run the government anymore but corporations have all ropes in their hands … corporations run the government and the people.

I am worried as a citizen, I am worried about my government,

I am worried about my voice and rights because if I look to the USA ..

the rights of their citizens are almost all taken away …
Why ? For the sake of terrorism (the newest buzzword), piracy (the second newest buzzword) and extortion …

I hope more people will understand their rights are subconsiously taken away and I hope more people will fight for their rights and their privacy …

What will you do if Microsoft, the RIAA, MPIAA and other major corporations run YOUR house, property and laws?

Other links available:

• BMG decides to make copyprotected CD’s only!
• RIAA allowed to hack?
• Napster down, others to follow!
• Leave your comments down here!
  

Bertelsmann (BMG Music) will stop to sell uncrippled CD’s. This means such cd’s will not play at certain older & newer CD players, certain car players and will not play in your computer. This for the price of 20US$ to 22US$ per CD !

As DJ I am very worried because one scratch crashes my CD into oblivion. The copyprotection does not let me play half of my cd’s on my old cd players in my house (and I have three of those).

The protection on these cd’s is the Cactus Data Shield from Midbar. The protection is currently only being used on EUROPEAN cd’s. A lot of the cd’s being used in Europe are not available in the US what leaves only one option, buying them here and praying they do not get damaged + work in the CD players you use at that time.

The error is in your player, not in our copyprotected cd’s.
BMG distributes a lot of the cd’s that are currently being used by me as DJ and shows no respect for their customers whatsoever by creating CD’s that work on only 80% of the home/pro audio equipment. Additionally they say “the error is your player’s, and not in our CD’s”.

I am at a very moral dillemma because every time I buy music I first search the MP3’s and then write down the titles I want to find. Some of these titles are only to be found on CD’s and some of ‘m are only to be found on vinyl.

legally bought music is working against me now!
I used to go to the recordstore and get about 20-30 records whereof 1 or 2 where usable. Whenever I go to the recordstore now I give 20 titles and get 15 useful numbers out of it. I currently have over 800 CD’s and over 22.000 records of vinyl. Currently I am buying more on CD because carrying all the vinyl is breaking my back

Since I cannot use the cd’s wherever I want and 1 scratch can kill the CD because of this lousy copy protection I need to buy the CD *and* burn the same MP3’s to seperate CD’s to be sure I can keep using the music I want to play legally!

The secret agent not working everywhere!
I have bought the CD of James Bond (Universal) and it seems not to work in my PC (where I play the most of my music, my PC speakers are the best in my house!) and they seem not to work in my old cd players of my own DJ equipment! Next to that the shop does not want to take the Bond CD back. With the line of defence BMG has by saying “their cd’s are fully redbook compliant and it’s your player’s fault” they also tell you you can bugger off by bringing it back to the shop where you bought your precious CD.

I have bought several other CD’s like “Solid Sounds” which is giving me errors as well. Currently I am trying to recover one of the legally bought CD’s by searching the MP3’s and burning them in the same order on another CD because I cannot just copy it and the CD is damaged by (over)usage as DJ.

BMG’s reply of one of their CD’s
Whenever you send a note to BMG you get the following mail back (unaltered):

“we are sorry you have troubles with our copy protection technology. The copy protection reacts on the special new technology that is build in in burners. Unfortunately htis technics was built in many new CD players, even if they can’t copy a cd.
“The copy protection yet does not recognize wheather that burner technics is build in a cd player or in a burner. That’s why the cd playern might not play a copy protected CD. Since burner technics are also built in car radios, this may be the reason, why you can’t listen to a copyprotected cd in your car.
“As far as we were adviced, our copy protection is according to the Red Book Standart as well as all labelling on the cd.
“A standart home CD player is one that has no burner technics built in. Our Cds play on all Cd players without burner technics.
“There will be no cd manufactured without copyprotection any more.”

This seems to limit a lot of options and costs me a lot more to find the numbers, import these from wherever possible and find them on mp3 to have a backup CD of my original CD! Of’course they tell “we are sorry” though they also tell us “the fault is in our bought players and there will be no cd’s manufactured without protection anymore”… I wish I should not have read this blasphamy towards a lot of customers!

Moral dillema, I am for the music, not against!
Because I am a DJ I cannot tolerate (for myself) to be using illegal material! I live by the music and I live FOR the music and not AGAINST. Seems to be BMG has the same reason but not only FOR the music but to protect their precious wallet!

What about radio stations ?
A lot of radiostations use MP3 jukebox software hooked up to the mixing board. A lot of bars/discotheques use that same kind of software. This means CD’s cannot be used for these kinds of commercial purposes anymore.

More information here
BMG’s line of defence can be found here. Another news article can be found here.

Please, sign the petition at petitiononline if you are also worried or if you do agree with this article.

A older article from me about this matter can be found here and if you wish to give your comments to the guestbook, please leave them here

With a sad heart I am actually writing this article. The time has come to write something that has been on my stumach for way too long.

Antwerpen seems to be getting a ghost town at certain ways and seems to be alive at other ways …

I am living in the “cleaner” neightbourhoods of Antwerpen; the old center of Antwerpen. Almost 5 years ago I decided to live in Antwerpen both because it is “the city” (in Dutch “‘t stad”) and because it appeared to be a good city.

These days I am less proud of living in Antwerpen though. It happens to be I have over 20 parking tickets whereof there are over 15 to be wrong. I have a card that allows me to park for free at certain areas of the city and police seems to be blind because I am getting parking tickets a-volonte.

Dog shit is another reason that happens to be hate-factor number two. People do not watch where their dogs shit and leave it lying there in the middle of the street or right in front of your door instead of cleaning it up. Not only dog poop is loitering around in the streets but garbage, paper, shoes, furniture, everything you might not imagine is being strew around in the neightbourhoods.

Tourists are passing by my street daily showing the beautifull side of Antwerpen though the buildings may be in full beauty but the streets are a complete mess.

Parking signs get added and at the same day police puts a fine under the windshield wiper while Belgian law requires signs to be added 48 hours in front.

I am sad to write this article with so much negative critisism but it is wat I feel as good citizen of Antwerpen.

Is the city dieing ? What’s happening ? Is the city not able to keep their territory clean anymore ? Is the city getting unmanagable ?

The crime is also getting sky high. Every window of my car has been replaced at least once. The door of my company has been burglared at least 3 times. My neightbours upstairs got robbed while sleeping and burglars tried to break in while I was sleeping leaving my door everything but undamaged.

What happened to the city I liked that much ? What happened with the feeling that I liked to be “Antwerpenaar” ? To be proud of the city you live in …

I do not trust the police nor the city management anymore because of these bad issues. I have catched 2 14yr old criminals doing parking-automat thefth, called the police and they where not found.

A few hours later the alarm of the company goes off and I go look downstairs. Those 2 kids where trying to break in the company with a screwdriver. Anyway … The kids where arrested and released not even a few hours later.

I have been robbed 4 times whereof 2 times successfull. These days I do fight back, if somebody tries to hurt me I will hurt them back with a double rate.

Don’t go to the police though or they tell you need to stay in the country because of possession of forbidden weapons because I hit them back with a pair of handcuffs and the second time with material I had in my back of my car *AFTER* being hit with a 4 inch pipe on the back !! What the hell happened to self defence?

There is a big issue going on in Antwerpen and things will need to change because living in a ghost city is something nobody likes. Not even the proud citizens of Antwerpen … ‘t Stad.

I currently am citizen of a city where you cannot sleep quietly on 2 ears … I cannot walk through the streets while looking down without stepping in dogpoop or other stuff loitering around on the streets and the worst … I cannot make a walk without being bothered or being robbed in my own town. Not only this but I am getting robbed by that same city with parking fines that are not even grounded or not lawfully written.

Yet again, I am feeling very bad to write this negative critisism about the city I live in but as you probably might know .. it are feelings and feelings can be considered true.

I pay taxes to my city, country, … and the only thing I see in return is crime, death and decay … Sadly but true …

Do you want to leave a comment about this subject? down here!

These days you cannot go out without checking your glass two times in a row before putting it on your lips to drink the schweet stuff you have ordered from the bar. I had it myself, somebody putting “Roche” in my glass while I was talking to somebody else in Groningen. This “rape drug” renders you almost unconciounce and unable to move. It’s like “GHB” and any derivates around there.

Good I have seen it, I did let the guy drink my glass or I would notify the security. He did drink it and he went under influence. He looked like he had drunk too much; which is his own damn fault because he tried to do it with me without knowing any of his intentions.

These days there are also tongue-kissing criminals in Amsterdam. I have read a story of somebody in Amsterdam who has been robbed after meeting the guy of his dreams. He started kissing with him, tasted a bitter taste a few times and went awake after 9 hours missing his wallet, money, dvd, stereoset and everything that had any value.

The police in Amsterdam is searching for the suspects of these crimes. This guy is not the only one but one of many that have been robbed this way.

This means these days you cannot trust anybody anymore. Not only unsafe sex is getting high-rates, syphylis and HIV has been raised by 40 to 60% in the major capital cities of Europe. Syphylis, HIV, ghonorroe and a lot of STD’s are pestering the capital cities.

Don’t destroy your life, don’t trust anybody you see, how cute the guy or girl may look like … looks can betray, and if you are not sure about yourself, get tested. You still have a choice to live on, right now …

…Live to the maximum or die unresponsible…