Gene Simmons Threatens Anonymous Again and Gets DDoS'd 403
BussyB writes "Rather than shutting him up, the 'Operation Payback' DDoS attack on his websites only made Simmons more angry and outspoken. None of those threats seemed to bother Anonymous, however, and the group promptly launched another DDoS attack on both of Simmons' websites and rendered them inaccessible once again."
Something I find interesting (Score:5, Interesting)
It always seems like it's the largest and most sucessful musicians that slam piracy and filesharing.
Weird. Don't they make most of their money by performing dozens of times a year, anyway? I thought income from record sales was minimal, compared to touring and merchandise...
Re:Something I find interesting (Score:5, Funny)
I noticed you didn't say "the most talented musicians"
Re:Something I find interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
Absolutely not. Without highly knowledgable producers/engineers, most mainstream artists wouldn't be given a glance.
When it comes to music, high production values and experience can trump talent.
Re:Something I find interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
Marketing triumphs high production values, experience, and talent.
Re:Something I find interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
Marketing triumphs high production values, experience, and talent.
Wouldn't it be great if artists became popular because they were good?
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Wow, you really don't know how this works in the real world, do you?
In the real world, anyone with actual talent quickly gets weeded out. Next goes actual production experience, in favor of mastering the album way too fucking loud so that everything clips out (yeah, looking at you Metallica [wsj.com], you fucking tone-deaf retards).
Next, if you don't have "the body" or "the look", forget it. Shitney Spears [youtube.com] and the teenybopper whores get millions despite being worthless and talentless, because the marketing machines p
Re:Something I find interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
Actual music is almost dead in America. As for the world, actual music is more endangered than the Panda.
If your talking about the big labels, and the top 40 machine, then you are absolutely correct on all your points, but, luckily, this is only a very small portion of modern music. Yes, it is the most visible, and has the highest share of public consciousness, but that scene still represents a tiny minority of the music that is out there.
Right now, in your town, there are hundreds (maybe thousands, depending on population and culture) of small bands, some of which are VERY good. Most are crap, but some of them are better than anything the major labels have churned out in years. Finding which ones are worth the time is a bit daunting (currently, in my town, we have an obnoxiously ubiquitous metal scene, which aspires to recapture the most idiotic parts of 90's metal...), but I guarantee that there is something out there that you will like.
Thanks to the internet, major labels are largely insignificant. It is trivial to find an acquire music from small labels, or individual bands, without ever touching the ancient media dinosaurs, this is now, and not in the future. Of the last 100 or so music purchases I've made in the last 5 years, only two were from major labels, this was completely accidental, I did not have the desire to "stick it to the man". The independent music is just better, at least to my taste.
I would recommended some bands that are awesome and have nothing to do with big labels, but taste is subjective.
I would guess that the big labels make around 90% of the profit, but only represent around 10% (if even) of the artists out there. In ten years they will be almost completely irrelevant. Yes, they are nice for marketing, and promotion. This is generally the case made against independently distributed music around here, small bands can't go on their own because they can't afford to be Lady Gaga (whose branding efforts might rival those of CocaCola and Nike). But who cares? If a band can't become huge without marketing they don't deserve to be huge. And small labels work wonders, insteading of having 10 labels with 10,000 artists, why not have 1,000 labels with 100 artists? Smaller labels have funds for promotion, and smaller labels allow more artist control (the only thing that matters). This is how things are going to develop.
Re:Something I find interesting (Score:4, Funny)
Our four ... no ... Amongst our triumphs ... Amongst the aspects which allow us to triumph ... are such elements as marketing, high production values ... I'll come in again.
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That's pretty much the case with me as well. There are a TON of "bedroom" and "local studio" musicians out there, putting out original and interesting music. I see no reason to line the pockets of rich fatcats who throw crumbs at the people that earn them money.
I'd much rather support only the musician.
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So, where do you find these new musicians? Where do you find the TIME to find them?
I mean...hell, I live in New Orleans...places play music down here, but during the week, I don't have the time to go out. I work a real job and try to hit the
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The age of mass comsumption of music is coming to an end (sort of). Many people still comsume from American Idol or Pop radio, but a growing group like the parent above and myself are becoming more focused on smaller acts, nniche genres, and local artists.
Perhaps this is just me getting older, but I personally have completely revamped how I digest music in the last 10 years, and am now far more focused on bands most people have never heard of (I dont mean this in a pretentious hipster kind of way, just in a
Re:Something I find interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
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Today? No one even cooks. Everyone orders Domino's or goes to Micky D's. Support what is left of culture
That's nonsense, or, at least, anecdotal. Here on the central coast of California, if it's a nice evening out, you can jog through my community and, depending on which part of town you are in, you can smell the rednecks BBQing hamburgers, the Mexicans BBQing carne asada, or all of the suburbanites cooking their latest Stoffer's stir fry packet. Plenty of people cook. There is plenty of culture left in America. I don't know why the area you grew up in is changing, but out here on the West Coast, in the smal
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I'd have to disagree with this. With sites like Last.FM and Pandora getting more and more popular, not to mention how most radio stations are streaming their broadcasts on the web, I think the mass consumption has just changed. People are starting to tolerate ads (and even paying for premium subscriptions) more because the medium is convenient, even more convenient than popping in a CD.
Re:Something I find interesting (Score:4, Funny)
10 bits of music
Now that is one hell of a compression algorithm!
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Yeah, but have you seen the executable?
Re:Something I find interesting (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Something I find interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
The largest and most successful musicians are the ones that most effectively act as employees of powerful record companies. Part of being an effective employee of those companies is believing them when they say "X is the reason why your sales are down".
Re:Something I find interesting (Score:5, Interesting)
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Again though, the amount of money earned from album sales is piss compared to everything else (merchandising, touring, etc.) Why be so vocal about something that doesn't bring in much money, yet risks pissing off your fans...you know, the people that buy your merchandise and go to your concerts.
Just doesn't make sense.
Re:Something I find interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
It doesn't make sense because it isn't a reasoned position, just an emotional one. Gene Simmons has gone as far as endorsing prison rape for file sharers. That's, simply put, psychotic. It used to be I didn't buy Kiss merchandise because I didn't particularly like Kiss (and I didn't and still don't infringe their copyright either). Now, the way Mr. Simmons is talking, I don't buy Kiss merchandise because I'm concerned he's so far over the edge he'll use the money to try and get draconian revenge, far beyond any proportionate concept of justice, on some kid he elects to make an example of.
Re:Something I find interesting (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't buy Kiss merchandise because I'm concerned he's so far over the edge he'll use the money to try and get draconian revenge,
Following that argument it would be really unethical to buy a Kiss CD. Good thing you never liked Kiss to begin with. Otherwise, if you really wanted to listen to Kiss, you would have very few options:
Great, the suffering will be a sign that you're doing the right thing. (As long as you're Catholic or Jewish.)
Great, you break the law for a reason, fight the system. (And also save some money while doing it.)
Great, you beat the system, you crafty anti-capitalist. (And support pop-culture addicted teens so they can buy more stuff)
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Gene Simmons has gone as far as endorsing prison rape for file sharers. That's, simply put, psychotic.
No, that's actually just heavy metal talk. As someone who has been involved in the punk, metal, and hardcore scenes for quite awhile, I can attest to that fact that metal-heads talk in these kinds of extremes pretty regularly. Saying the most outlandish, controversial, politically incorrect thing that comes to mind is pretty much par for the course of anyone speaking in the metal, punk, or hardcore languages. Hell...the Misfits wrote a song about raping mothers and killing babies....soooo, yeah, prison rap
Re:Something I find interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Something I find interesting (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Something I find interesting (Score:4, Funny)
Well, that and the lunchboxes, posters, cartoon shows, movies, guest appearances, fast-food tie-ins, TV specials, KISS Army fan club, clothing line, Halloween costumes, makeup line, books, toys, and probably a whole lot of other stuff I'm forgetting about.
Yeah, you forgot the KISS branded casket
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiss_Kasket [wikipedia.org]
Now if someone replicated on a 3-d printer, then ole Gene would be rightly annoyed. But copying the music? He doesn't lose any real money from that.
Re:Something I find interesting (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Something I find interesting (Score:5, Funny)
Sure as hell wasn't computers. Gene Simmons didn't have a computer growing up [toastytech.com] and look what happened to him.
Buy your kids a Banana Jr. 6000 today!
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Nonsense! With Kiss it used to be about the music, man! Well, that and the lunchboxes, posters, cartoon shows, movies, guest appearances, fast-food tie-ins, TV specials, KISS Army fan club, clothing line, Halloween costumes, makeup line, books, toys, and probably a whole lot of other stuff I'm forgetting about. But the music was in there somewhere, I'm sure of it.
The only real difference 30 years ago was at least the music was good and the voices were real. Other than that, your irony (and Hanna Montana) have only proven one thing; same shit, different decade.
Re:Something I find interesting (Score:5, Funny)
Don't they make most of their money by performing dozens of times a year, anyway?
That's not true! They're also paid quite well by the recording industry to speak out against piracy!
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Nothing against artists, but they really need to get out there and perform more. Earn a living like everyone else you lazy bums.
I wonder if Simmons pays royalties to the designers and builders of his website?
Re:Something I find interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
I think having been paid he will continue to design more cars or clothes in order to get paid again. I've been designing stuff all day today, and I got paid for it, just like I did yesterday and the day before. If I stop designing stuff tomorrow I'm fairly certain I'll stop getting paid...
Arguably I'm designing the wrong stuff, but to me it seems that 'art' is the only industry that gets away with being so far up it's own arse as to assume that everything these creative types create should be paid for by society forever. I'm willing to bet the guys who designed the Statue of Liberty, or the Viaduc de Millau Bridge, or the Aston Martin Vantage don't get paid every time someone looks at their work. It's not that I don't think they should get paid at all, it's just that they seem to expect to be paid regardless. I can't afford to buy a BMW M5, and at the moment I can't afford to buy £15 CD albums. If a friend had a car and lent it to me I wouldn't say no, and I certainly wouldn't expect to give BMW a royalty for the privilege. For some reason though if I borrow a friends CD and listen to it I should be paying someone though. If I sit in a pub listening to the radio on on a personal stereo that's fine, but if the pub has the radio playing they're supposed to pay royalties? If it was all about the music then they'd just play it. These guys are just like the bankers complaining about not getting bonuses when the economy collapses. We all could do with earning some more money, most of us seem to think we should work for it...
Re:Something I find interesting (Score:4, Insightful)
You don't have to pay them anything.
In fact you can completely shun them, and pay them nothing.
But you need to get a clue. 'Shun' means you don't listen to their music or pass copies of it around.
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All consumer goods, whether it be art, cars, electronics, furniture, clothing, or anything else, is produced on spec. On spec means that the costs of producing it (including design, facilities, equipment, overhead, materials, etc) is recouped on every single 'copy' of the thing sold. Every car sold has earned some money towards the design of the car. As long as that car is sold, the design of the car is earning profits. Same with every shirt sold. Same with every CD sold. Now, in many cases (cars for i
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He got paid based on EXPECTED FUTURE sales of the car he designed. The manufacturer (the people who paid him) will get that money back on the sale of EVERY car they ACTUALLY sell. If they sell more cars than they expected they get to keep the extra money as profits. The only difference is: do I get my money all at once NOW, or do I get it as the items are actually sold. If I get my money now, whoever paid me gets to keep all the profits. If I get paid when things are sold, I get to keep the money. Of
Re:Something I find interesting (Score:5, Informative)
I think a lot of the most successful musicians end up starting their own labels. Simmons certainly did, as referenced in the article. This gives them a stake in the game and even more reason to be anti-piracy.
Re:Something I find interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
That's the exact, pinpoint moment when they switch sides from the "let's be rebellious and brake a window" attitude to the "that window is expensive and I'm gonna sue your for all you got"...
Really? Take people's homes and cars over piracy?! Wish for jail rape for copying songs?! I wonder if this "big rock star" would have the same attitude if his kids (does he even have kids?) were doing it (if?! I'm yet to meet a teen nowadays that doesn't do it).
Or perhaps, maybe, that's his exact position regarding drug abuse... How's that? Take the cars and homes and wish for jail-rape, for all the people caught with drugs, or using drugs, or selling drugs, or enjoying drugs. Now that's a crime with *real* consequences for other people, stuff that people might actually *die* from. I bet the "big rock star" agrees with me.
Re:Something I find interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
That's the exact, pinpoint moment when they switch sides
Normally you are right, but not in this case. Gene Simmons was never in it for the music. Right from the start, it was a business venture to him (y'know, showBUSINESS) -- it was always about the money.
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How's that? Take the cars and homes and wish for jail-rape, for all the people caught with drugs, or using drugs, or selling drugs, or enjoying drugs. Now that's a crime with *real* consequences for other people
Selling certain drugs has consequenses for other people, but OTOH a runner is little different than a heroin junkie. Heroin only works becsuse it fits the brain's endorphin receptors and gives an almost identical high. However, I much prefer heroin junkies to runners, because the junkies don't run ou
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Source. [plagiarismtoday.com]
You can also do a Google search for Nick Simmons plagiarism and you'll get lots more on the story.
Re:Something I find interesting (Score:4, Insightful)
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All the more ironic given that this is probably because of his son's blatant plagiarism of popular Japanese comics.
But while you're on the subject, I've always found Metallica's opposition of filesharing to be most amusing, since it's widely understood that they gained initial popularity from the circulation of bootlegs of their live performances. (In fact, if I remember the documentary I saw correctly, this bit of information may have come directly from their own mouths.)
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Metallica encouraged tape trading of their shows and their demo tapes. Between songs during their sets, they told audiences to share their music. That is exactly how they got their record deal. They really didn't start giving a crap about people sharing their music until the whole napster thing. Even then, I think it's just Lars. I'm not convinced the rest care.
Lars was always kind of an ass. He's a crafty business man, though.
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It's in their best interest to keep the labels happy though. Sometimes the private jet, the pool, the mercedes, aren't actually owned by the musicians (though they'll say that they are on MTV Cribs) but are actually loaned out by the labels so that the band can live the high life while they're on their streak of popularity. You make the label money, they take care of their top money bags to keep them with the label. You fall off the charts? Want to switch labels? Well they're going to repo that car and give
Re:Something I find interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
Gene Simmons has always been a businessman first a performer second and an artist a distant third. He has stated in interviews he had ideas for merchandising KISS paraphernalia long before they had a record deal. It's not surprising at all that his instinct is to sue anything that hurts his enterprise.
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Since their last album they operate their own label (Kiss Records), the same is true of a lot of the big name, super successful, anti-piracy bands. Considering that is only one of their many albums though, it's probably true that they make more money touring, but if they self publish another couple of albums that might not be the case.
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Weird. Don't they make most of their money by performing dozens of times a year, anyway?
I'd rephrase it: Don't they make enough money anyway?
If someone is that rich does it really matter if not everyone buys his records? Isn't the free publicity worth more than earning even more money?
How to handle Anonymous (Score:3, Insightful)
Wait until they get bored of you and move on.
Doing anything else will extend the attacks, because your actions just make it that much lulzier.
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Re:How to handle Anonymous (Score:5, Insightful)
The RL equivilent would perhaps be announcing that every day one random person caught littering shall be executed - it's also hugely excessive as a punishment, but it's a whole lot cheaper than hireing enough police to give every litterer a small fine, and you can be sure that the streets would get a lot cleaner.
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Thus the only way to stop them is indimidation, or the Simmon's method: Pick a few at random, and totally destroy them. Take their money, destroy their careers, throw them in jail, and in general hit them with a punishment grossly disproportionate to their crime in order to scare others away.
You give Simmons too much credit... the *IAA came up with that tactic.
Amusingly, if it had worked for the *IAA, Simmons wouldn’t need to be working himself up over this...
Be careful about what you say (Score:3, Interesting)
He should have listened to his mother and watched that tongue.
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The other half of that quote is where he endorsed prison rape for file sharers. I'm not saying we should resort to vigilante justice over the disagreement, but let's be clear just what was said - what many of us don't necessarily agree with is a claim that file sharers deserve to be made some HIV infected murderer's bitch. Gee, I wonder why some people moved from polite disagreement to vigilante justice over a little thing such as that.
Re:Be careful about what you say (Score:4, Insightful)
(Now why won't my mother join the boycott of the RIAA?)
The most insightful thing in TFA (Score:2)
Not much more to say, really.
You're missing something here Gene... (Score:3, Interesting)
No I'm not doing this, I honestly didn't hear about these attempts until right now...and have never been a big fan of KISS's music from the get go...
Wrong. (Score:2)
His fanbase is comprised primarily of people in the generations that still buy records. "Anonymous" probably never bought a single Kiss album. I can be pretty sure if they bought "Dressed to Kill" they aren't DDOS'sing anybody.
Gene should really love Anonymous (Score:5, Insightful)
What is it about old rock stars who disavow their youthful ways?
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Re:Gene should really love Anonymous (Score:4, Insightful)
What is it about old rock stars who disavow their youthful ways?
Money, and the pursuit for more of it. Plus an inflated ego. Everyone must love Gene!
This genuinely isn't Gene's fault. It's yours. You're the ones thinking that his youthful endeavors were EVER about anything other than becoming a successful, AND WEALTHY, musical icon.
He doesn't lead the choir at his local church here, folks. He's a rock legend. The distinction is greatly about how far you're willing to go to make a buck.
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Isn't that basically what I said? He wants money and fame? And how is it my fault? I don't even like the band, never purchased their music, never went to their shows, never bought any merchandise. Heck, I've never even downloaded one of their tracks.
I thought you were replying to someone else and clicked mine by mistake. But you quoted me.
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What is it about old rock stars who disavow their youthful ways?
Massive financial success.
He'll have to learn the hard way... (Score:5, Insightful)
You simply don't win an argument with a group of trolls by feeding them.
Follow Gandalf's strategy instead (Score:5, Funny)
The way to defeat trolls is to keep them arguing with each other all night long, until daylight arrives and they're no longer a threat. (ok, in this case it's because their mothers have sent them off to school, but the idea is similar)
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Internet Terrorism (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Internet Terrorism (Score:5, Insightful)
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Anonymous doesn't care. They are doing it for the lulz. To assume they have any agenda besides lulz gives them too much credit. Honestly, have you ever visited 4chan? Does that user base strike you as political or activist?
The issue, though, is that 'Anonymous' is a myth. These are real people committing actual crimes, and since they're being so brazen about the conflict, there's an excellent chance that someone WILL take the fall for all of it. It would be one thing to launch an attack at a site unannounced, but to repeatedly use the same methods at the same target, that's just stupid. A scapegoat will be produced if this continues, I promise you that.
So agenda or not, Parent is right. This is not the way to prove Gene w
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The "real-world" equivalent to a DDoS isn't blowing up a building, but simply having a large amount of people in front of a building. The causes are the same (lots of people trying to get into the building/site) and the results are the same (few people can get in the site/buildin
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Anonymous is not a homogeneous group of people, they are more like your random person in the street, anonymous can be a small group of 13 year olds having fun with DDossing a douchebag in this case.
If you rise up high in this world, there is always the risk to fall deep, especially when one has a big mouth, a lot of people tend to have problems with big mouths.
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You do realize that the internet is an international community, and pointing out certain actors in your local village really fails to convey any meaning to that far greater number of people who really don't know or care who this person you mention is, right? Believe it or not there are more people in the world who don't know this Glenn Beck than people who do.
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Believe it or not there are more people in the world who don't know this Glenn Beck than people who do.
yes, and I envy them for it
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This is not true at all, although your attempt to turn this into a "class struggle" has been noted.
The government is actually whoring itself out to only a select few "rich" people. There are quite a few wealthy individuals that want nothing to do with the government, have not lobbied the government, have not contributed to political campaigns, etc. Tarring everyone with the same brush merely cements the foundation of your argument in ignorance.
"They have don't nothing but profit on the suffering and labors
Richard Simmons (Score:3, Funny)
The KISS of death (Score:4, Funny)
You keep on dossin' and the net gets hot
You drive us batty, we'll sue your ass
You say you wanna go for a spin
The party's just begun, we'll let you in
You kill our blog, we'll drive a spike to your chin
You keep on shoutin', you keep on shoutin
I wanna kick Simmons ass all nite and blog every day!
I wanna kick Simmons ass all nite and blog every day!
Kiss goooood...pirates baaaad (Score:5, Interesting)
Sadly Gene is about 5 years behind Metallica in learning that biting the hand that feeds you hurts you more in the end. I've got a friend that would buy every piece of Kiss crap that hit the shelves from CD's to action figures. He got sick of Gene's crap last year over this kind of thing and has been slowly selling his entire collection on ebay. It doesn't help that the album prices for digital downloads are nearly 50% higher than buying the CD. Take Kiss Alive II for example, at Wal-Mart and Best Buy its $9.99 while on Amazon and Itunes its $13.99, who in their right mind would buy the digital version when they can buy the disk and just rip it? I dont use a cd player anymore, but still buy CD's for this specific purpose....but according to Gene im a pirate for it. I realize your an old man Gene but you pretend to be hip and relevant try and at least understand the technology and why people do what they do, maybe then you could be part of the solution rather than a contributor to the problem. I dont think Gene realizes that the same people he is wanting to sue are the same people willing to buy Kiss caskets and trinkets, with his known level of greed you would think he would be more concerned with the revenue stream than someone downloading a copy of a song they have likely already purchased on Vinyl, Cassette and CD.
Inaccessable? (Score:3, Funny)
Was anyone even trying to access them in the first place?
Didn't he do a lot of drugs? (Score:2)
What's going on here. He's over 60, and a musician, didn't he do a lot of drugs in his youth? Why isn't he dead yet?
I was kind of hoping darwin would have taken care of these old pro-RIAA musicians already with a gentle dose of death.
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What's going on here. He's over 60, and a musician, didn't he do a lot of drugs in his youth? Why isn't he dead yet?
I was kind of hoping darwin would have taken care of these old pro-RIAA musicians already with a gentle dose of death.
Did you ever consider that the ENTIRE thing was a front? Not just the costumes, but the drug lifestyle and the whole thing? Real junkies-turned-rockstars OD early. As do rockstars-turned-junkies. But there's really only a certain personality type or two that would genuinely flush everything down the toilet like that. It isn't as common as you've been led to believe, and it selects contrary to the traits that make someone a rock legend.
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Not without some precedent though.
Eric Clapton, George Harrison, The Stones, Aerosmith, Motley Crue, Guns and Roses, Kurt Cobain, CCR ... probably countless I can't even think of off the top of my
Re:Didn't he do a lot of drugs? (Score:5, Interesting)
Doesn't drink. Doesn't smoke. Doesn't do drugs. Says he never did, nobody has ever contradicted him on that.
Also claims to have humped everything that ever came along, which you can take with a grain of salt. I'm sure his own count is inflated, but I'm sure he's never wanted for willing females.
Gene Simmons is a nice Jewish boy who has always been about making money and selling his brand. He's not your typical aging rocker -- having watched a couple episodes of his TV show, he's an out of date old fool of a narcissist who is obsessed with his own image and making money in the worst possible way.
In short, he's absolutely part of the problem with the RIAA mindset. As has been pointed out in this thread, advocating prison rape for file sharers (or Anonymous, or whomever he was referring to) goes to demonstrate he's a bit of a loon, and has way crossed the line.
I thought he was irrelevant before his TV series. Now he's irrelevant, pathetic, and a lot more lame than I ever thought he was. At least his son seems to treat him like the old troll that he is.
Gene, you may want to stay quiet (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Gene, you may want to stay quiet (Score:5, Interesting)
It's the guy who told one of the best interviewers [wikipedia.org] in the country that she should welcome him with "open legs". I don't think intelligence and good sense are part of his skill set.
Love Gun (Score:5, Insightful)
Something for every business to keep in mind (Score:3, Insightful)
There is no law on the Internet, except the "Law of the Internet".
The Law of the Internet is simple: you can get away with anything as long as you don't brag about it. Oh, and if you piss someone off you may face unimaginable consequences.
So, there are two lessons from this:
Don't brag about your exploits as you will be punished if you do.
The thing to realize about point 2 is that you are always going to piss people off. It is unavoidable if you have any interaction on the Internet. Posting a picture of your dog on Facebook will piss people off that hate dogs. Posting a picture of a cat on Facebook will piss people off that hate cats. There is no escape from this. All you can hope is that the pissed-off person has better things to do than make your life hell.
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Shouting louder isn't a legitimate way to win an argument.
Cheers,
Ian
YES IT IS!
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Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
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No, Microsoft did it.
Has Anonymous really prevented him from speaking? It seems to me that right now, Anonymous is in the part of the conversation where the more childish of the two tries to shout down the other party. Gene Simmons will still be able to speak (even though he might sound like an asshat).
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In fact it’s more that they do believe in free speech.
Free speech has a dark side... if everyone speaks at once, who do you listen to? Who do you answer?
They’re dousing his sites’ server with a shitstorm of so much free speech that it can’t figure out who to listen to and who to ignore...
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So, in effect, Anonymous is proving that they don't believe in free speech. Brilliant.
Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from the consequences of that speech. I don't approve of file "sharing" or Anonymous's DDOS methods here, but I think it is important to make the distinction. A better way would be to boycott Kiss, call your local radio stations and say "I won't listen to your station any more until you stop playing Kiss", stop drinking Dr. Pepper, etc. if you disagree with what he's saying.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't be ridiculous, of course they believe in Free Speech. They just place some conditions on that speech.
Free Speech requires the following for Anonymous to support it:
*It must be done Anonymously, otherwise you're obviously a shill or something
*It must be obnoxious and ultimately without purpose
*It must be done by somebody who isn't rich, famous, educated, poor, unknown or uneducated... all of those groups are stupid (see first bullet)
*It must not criticize Anonymous in any way, ever, for any reason, doi