voltaire dramarama

[amezri]

The whole Voltaire thing has turned into a debacle, though maybe only in my mind. Remember when I wrote about those random comments? And my e-mail to Voltaire asking him what his opinion was on posting streaming versions of his songs. Well, another comment and digging later, I find out that he links to one of my Vox uploads in a MySpace blog. About Robot Chicken. And at the bottom, he snarks about how he knew that there would be an illegal copy up somewhere:

For the record, I'm not even sure what the fuck this site is that has my monologues up on it.... I certainly didn't authorize it. But somehow I figured that if I did a search for the monologue name I'd find it living illegally SOMEWHERE....

Okay. Fine.

So I e-mail Voltaire for whatever reason to let him know that I just saw his blog and I'm sorry I hadn't asked permission first, but I didn't think he would mind since they were streaming only and I had linked to his site (which, he said himself is okay!) and I hope that it's okay. That's his opportunity to tell me he'd rather that I take them down. He didn't.

My email:

Voltaire,

Via various comments left on my page to have your clips taken down, I discovered that you'd linked to one of my files on your myspace blog.

I had posted those files for my friends in the 501st because they'd been hearing me talk about you, your monologs, and your Star Wars song all weekend at con. I didn't really intend for anyone else to have general, publicly-linked access to the files. When I posted them, I had put a link to voltaire.net on them so that the guys who were interested could go to your page. It's been months since I posted them and somewhere along the way, Vox lost the description.

Yesterday I e-mailed you to ask your opinion on posting streaming files online. I apologize for not asking before I put them up. It was not my intention to take money from you, but rather to promote your work.

The files are still there, still streaming only and not downloadable, and I have amended the description with an apology and a link to your myspace page. I hope this is still okay with you and I'm sorry for any trouble.

regards,

What I get back is this:

I remember you email about Cantina several days ago.

So what you're telling me is that you decided to ask me for permission
months after you put these up? And only because you realized I caught
wind of them?

shady.

v

Yeah, actually, that e-mail was a hypothetical as it started with, "IN YOUR OPINION" and went on with, "if I were to..." But whatever.

Also... wtf calling ME shady? Huh.

I wrote back with:

Uh. Sorry? When I e-mailed you yesterday, I had absolutely no idea that you had hotlinked my file from your blog -- I don't even read your blog. I have worked with other musicians and they've never minded streaming files as long as it's not the whole album, it's not downloadable, I'm not making money off it, and I link back. Vox ate my link at some point. I'm sorry. I actually don't check it all that often.

When people started leaving comments on my blog as if they were an official spokesperson or whatever, I decided to email you and ask your opinion because I didn't think you were one to get all bothered over it -- I admit that it was wrong of me to assume. I just found out about the blog post today at 9:00 this morning. I felt bad, apologized on my blog, apologized to one of the comments, and sent a letter of apology to you.

Sorry if it seemed "shady." If you had a problem with it, you could have just left me a comment or sent an email asking me to take it down. Instead, you used it in a blog post along with another "illegal" clip from YouTube on an unrelated topic and then made some off-hand comment about the availability of illegal copies. That is, in my opinion, rather hypocritical. Either condemn the entire practice or just don't bring it up whilst using said illegal clips to illustrate your point.

I am not out to rip you off or cheat you out of profits. I spend $40-60 easy every time I see you at ICON, nevermind occasionally buying things when you offered them online. I own all of your CDs and I have gotten several other people to purchase your CDs.

I have not posted any other files elsewhere and these files were really just meant for my friends in the 501st because I thought they'd find it amusing and be willing to check out a "Goth" musician once they heard some tracks. If you want me to take down those files I will and once again, I apologize.

What I get back from him is a long ass e-mail basically trying to come down on me. Uh. Whatever, dude. It's freakin' long, so I'm taking snippets.

Mentioning that is like saying, "hey I bought your house so I guess it's
okay if I steal your car"

No, actually, mentioning that I buy all your shit is me letting you know that I am a fan and I'm trying to support you. The car analogy makes no sense. Let me fix it. It's actually like saying, "hey, I just bought this awesome house this guy built! Come check it out. Stay in some rooms and see how it feels. Go buy a house from him!" Especially since none of the files were downloadable so I wasn't giving anything away for free.

All things said, the only point I was trying to make is that you should
ask the artist FIRST.. not AFTER you get caught with your hand in the
cookie jar.

Did he even read my e-mail? I said that I didn't know anything about his stupid blog post because I don't read his freaking CrackSpace. Get it through your gel-covered skull -- I had no clue about your blog post until one of your fans mentioned it while telling me to take down files -- even though you didn't -- AFTER I told them I e-mailed Voltaire already.

(Emphasis below is mine.)

For the record, I'm FINE with people putting stuff up for stream-only.
I think you should be able to see/hear absolutely anything you want to on
the internet. It's just when people make your stuff available for download
that it turns not so good for me. Because doing this stuff is how I feed
my child. So naturally people giving it away means he doesn't eat. It's
really that simple.

Yeah, I know, jackass. That's why I posted them as streaming files and didn't just upload the MP3s to my server or MegaUpload or sendspace or yousendit or any of the other dozens of file sharing sites out there. He just said -- right there -- that he has no problem with streaming-only and that's what it is! Show me where there's a download link on Vox for that. Show. Me.

As for me being a hypocrite, I don't put up ANYONE's stuff EVER!!!! I may
point to something that's up... but Cartoon Network is free to pull it at
any time. It's their right and believe me, they do it frequently. They
tool off the songs of mine that were on Youtube. And hey, that's fair.
They have the right to make that decision. I won't cry about it.

Actually, the hypocritical part comes in where he says, "I think you should be able to see/hear absolutely anything you want to on the internet." By that reasoning, I ought to be able to post those streaming files that did initially include a link to his site, without him snarking on his blog about it. Of course, finally he coughed up the point that I should have asked first. Look. Sorry. In hindsight I guess I could have asked first. But realistically who thinks to do that when they're posting stuff for their friends? I wanted someone to hear it, so I put it up there. By his own admission, I should be able to do that!

This entire thing could have been avoided if he didn't make that snarky comment on his blog about being able to find illegal copies via Google, then hotlinking my vox file, and not bothering to comment if it was that big of a deal. He could have just said, "I don't know what this site is or why my monologue is there, but they could have just asked first." Instead he's got crusading fantards coming after me.

The fact that the blog wasn't even about the illegal uploading of his files just makes it more annoying because if it were, I'd fire off an "oops, sorry" e-mail and take them down. Now I'm just going to leave them up and be bitchy.

All things said, the only point I was trying to make is that you should
ask the artist FIRST.. not AFTER you get caught with your hand in the
cookie jar.

Yeah. Fine. Except I DIDN'T have a damn clue he knew. I didn't think he was one to be concerned with people promoting him in a way that did not involve posting full MP3 downloads everywhere. So I initially e-mailed him to double check so I could write those morons back and tell them Voltaire was fine with it. He admits that he is! So stop trying to make me feel guilty, you wanker. As far as I'm concerned, it's more akin to discovering that someone is spinning your CD on a local indie station. What's the blog post for that going to look like? "Who's this fuck playing my songs on the radio? I didn't say he could." Get a grip.

It was just the semblance of subterfuge that bothered me.
Do you know what I mean?

"Semblance of subterfuge"?! Whatever.

Maybe I should have put it this way:
I'm glad you like the music! i'm glad you shared it with your friends!
Next time please just ask first being making it available. cool?

Yeah. Probably would have been a better idea.

I replied to that whole e-mail with:

Okay, I understand. I'm sorry for the confusion, any trouble, and for calling you a hypocrite. I won't be promoting your music in such a manner again.

By "hypocrite," I mean "I should have called you a cheap Hot Topic goth." And by "promoting your music in such a manner again" I mean "promoting your music ever again."

I didn't get any sort of reply to that. Which is fine.

Honestly, it's not even what he said, but how he said it. If he had asked me to take the files down, I would have -- even if he was a jackhole about it. I offered; gave him an opening to tell me to take them down and he didn't. Instead he bitched that I didn't ask first. Okay, fine. I GET IT. I could have done without the bitching, though.

I know I'm being petty and I'm not exactly 100% (or even 60%) on the moral high ground. But, seriously? For an artist who depends so much on word of mouth, he was being rather jerky. With a money-shelling fan. Nice one. ... All I'm saying is that he could have been slightly more diplomatic.

I'm still getting residual comments from his fantards telling me to take down the tracks and referring to his blog. You know what? Voltaire didn't ask me to take them down, so I'm not taking them down. And frankly, this is all making me very, very cranky (if you haven't already picked up on that, being at the end of this rant).

Here's a lovely one I got today:

The link goes to your site--otherwise I would have never found it.

Hence, Voltaire was pissed that you put his work on your site without permission. Especially since Voltaire is generally pretty easygoing with people using his work when they ask him about it, provided they credit him.

Hey, if you've gotten permission since 26 October 2007 (so, within the week), brilliant.

But the fact remains that you originally put it up without his permission, and it annoyed him.

I was just making you aware of the fact that, as far as Voltaire was concerned, at that point in time, he didn't give you permission to post his material.

Yeah. Thanks. Whatever.

If Voltaire was that upset about it, I think he and his net-savvy self could have figured out how to use the comment button or found an e-mail link to tell me to take it down. So piss off, Voltaire fantards. If he hasn't asked me to take them down, I'm not going to so you can all keep your comments to yourself.

Comments

[veracity]

He's been at Dragon*Con the past two years I was, and I looked at him and went "Well, he'll be a dedicated asshole. Pass!"

You admitted it wasn't the smartest move, but you were attempting to correct the assumption. And you weren't putting it up for random downloads. For crying out loud. Seems to me maybe he didn't get any this month and is pissed off about it. Being a jerk about it isn't necessary.

[amezri.livejournal.com]

The sad thing is, I do and will probably continue to find his live shows rather amusing. But I don't think I'll be spending any more money at his merch table.

That's what gets me. I apologised more times than I really needed to, but he was still being a jagoff about it. Inside, I'm starting to feel a little bad about the whole thing then I think, "wait, why do I feel bad?"

So, yes. Thank you for you comment :) Makes me feel less bad.

[veracity]

And see, to me, acting like a jerk for a minor infraction that you'd be willing to fix if he'd not be a musical Anne Rice jerk. I just wanna go snap his little twig body in half. I only knew who he was from my friend's friend pointing him out. When someone needs to bully online to that extreme, well, it doesn't say much for them, does it?

*hugs* Don't feel bad. He really had no reason to be a hypocritical jackhole, not in that extreme. Especially since you were streaming it, which he clearly indicates is okay.

[crzydemona.livejournal.com]

I suddenly have the urge to pass out some free tunes. :P

what a hypocritical fucktard. i'll not be purchasing anything more of his in the future.

:: hugs ::

don't feel bad because he's so high that he doesn't remember what his own rules are.

[amezri.livejournal.com]

HAHA! I won't stop you :-P

Thanks! You guys are making me feel better about posting this big giant bitchfest XD He just... could have been more diplomatic about it all. You can't believe the Internet should be a free for all in terms of exposure and then tell me to ask you first. wtf?

[wodhaund.livejournal.com]

I got linked here--The mention of Voltaire caught my eye.

The lack of logic caught me next. (First he says he thinks streaming is awesome, then he says, in effect, how dare you do it? What?)

Gotta say, in view of the back-and-forth you two had, my opinion of him has dropped a bit. It's not even that he expresses that he wishes you had asked permission first (can't fault him there), it's the flip-flopping, and saying things are fine but no they aren't, but yes they are, but no they aren't....

(What the hell is a semblance of subterfuge? Did you dress up as a ninja/thief/bank robber/CEO for Halloween or something?)

Dear Voltaire,
Whine whine bitch moan whine contradictory arguments whine.

Hey, I know CDs I won't be buying anytime soon.

[amezri.livejournal.com]

Hello there!

Thanks for the comment! And yes, think you've pin-pointed exactly what my problem was with the whole thing. With the flip-flopping.

Dear Voltaire,
Whine whine bitch moan whine contradictory arguments whine.

That would have made a far better reply! :D