I took a listen to the song Ride On by AC/DC at YouTube today, I song I thought I knew fairly well and enjoyed.

While the track was playing, I began thinking, “Did I really used to like this song?“, and “What the hell is wrong with Bon Scott’s voice?“, and “Did Bon Scott have an addiction to helium that perhaps nobody mentioned?”

I played it again. And then it hit me.

To circumvent the hashing technology used by YouTube, a technology they use to protect copyright owners from folk who attempt to profit from the work of others, some dork has ruined a perfectly good song – for no other reason than to cash in on the ad revenue I assume.

At least that’s the only reason I can see for going to the trouble of altering the pitch and creating Bon Scott, the lost member of Alvin and the Chipmunks.

It’s the first time I’ve noticed it. It could be widespread practice for all I know.

Here’s Ride On, as performed by AC/DC, with Bon Scott reincarnated as a lost member of Alvin and the Chipmunks.

 

Here’s the original at Vimeo.

 

 

Some people eh?

Rest in peace Bon Scott.  You were legendary. I’ll attempt to deal with that YouTube Chipmunk pitch altering punk to thank you for the sick tune.

Ride On. Sorry, please read on, because the next copyright problem is far more important and something you can actually help with.

You could be breaking the law every day and not even realise it

If you’re still reading and want to sink your teeth into helping to solve some of the worlds greatest problems in relation to copyright and copyright law, please take a brief moment to read over the Fair Copyright website and consider adding your voice to help tell our lawmakers here in parliament to bring Australia up to speed with copyright law that isn’t seriously outdated.

Why is this important? What the hell is fair usage? Why should you care?

Copyright law can be a complex topic, and while I am certainly no copyright lawyer, I reckon I have a pretty good grasp of most of the law surrounding it.

I’m happy to answer any questions you may have or pass them on to the experts if required.

Who said I should care?

Chances are, many of you possibly be breaking the law every single day by doing things like forwarding emails, quoting the work of others, creating and sharing memes, even using cloud storage, and you may not even know the law is being broken.

The Geelong Facebook Page was one such project that relied heavily on copyright law in regards to fair usage, enabling us to do many of the things that the page became known for.

Don’t just take my word for it though.

Wikipedia, one of the largest websites in the world, has jumped onboard and began making some serious noise on the topic of Australia’s outdated copyright law.

My good friends over at Electronic Frontiers Australia are right behind the push closer to home to help bring copyright law in Australia up to date and in line with many other countries around the world.

Please visit the Fair Copyright website for more detailed information.