Details Revealed for Jim Jarmusch Collaboration with Boris, Sunn O))), and Earth; Spoiler: No New Tracks :(

By Mike McHugh on Apr 3 2009

In an age when corporate treasure holds are ever diminishing, music executives may now join their banking brethren in bereaving the loss of another piece of self-indulgent booty: the platinum record. Since no albums released in 2009’s first three months got even close to the one million mark, the RIAA won’t be doling out a single platinum record so far this year. In fact, only 39 releases sold more than 25,000 units in their opening week. Ouch.

The lack of platinum releases stands as a pale reflection of the sorry state of CD sales in general, which have dropped 20.3% from this time last year. While dwindling CD sales are nothing new by this point, labels now have to deal with store closings by credit-crunch ravaged retailers like Circuit City (RIP), Virgin Megatore, and Borders. Coupled with the ever increasing digital market (both legal and ehhh not so legal), I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that music industry may be in a bit of trouble. And as long as I’m making wacky theories, I don’t think newspapers are doing that great, either.

By Kat Gardiner on Apr 2 2009

The following stories were found washed up on the shore in Cambodia. Three sheets of paper stuffed in a Japanese sake bottle, written in Swedish. The man who found it (we'll call him King Kong) then loaded the bottle onto his computer, zipped and uploaded it onto a server site, made it into a .torrent, and dispensed it throughout the internet through a popular torrent sharing site that will go unnamed.

Upon uploading the file myself, I cracked the bottle open and distilled these news updates regarding the notorious and/or glorious internet BitTorrent site, The Pirate Bay. Now, just weeks away from the much anticipated verdict on the copyright infringement case against the four Pirate Bay associates at Stockolm district court, here's the latest:

- Torrents on Facebook

A small icon started appearing in The Pirates Bay's search results over the weekend. An "f" in a little blue box, and an option to share. That's right, The Pirate Bay has made it that much easier to share your intellectual found objects to your friends and internet family through popular social networking site, Facebook. With roughly three clicks, you can now share a link found on The Pirate Bay's site openly with the world. Some people may be sketched out by the sheer lack of anonymity inherent in this potential violation of copyrighted law, but by making it easy and giving it the legitimacy of mob mentality, it may just overwhelm the opposition and give BitTorrent sites more widespread acceptance and legitimacy.

- Paid Privacy Service IPREDator

For those unconvinced, (or just more careful), The Pirate Bay also began beta-testing out a new privacy service called IPREDator. It's a virtual private network (VPN) software that would enable a file-sharer to use the BitTorrent tracker without leaving a trace and costs about $7 a month (€5 to be precise). The IPREDator, named after IPRED (Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive) -- the EU's attempt to beef up the enforcement of anti-piracy laws in place -- is not to be confused with Apple's new iPredator, the chic new tiger-making device.

- Hackers Hack Pirate Bay Investigator

And finally, Jim Keyzer, the cop who led the investigation against The Pirate Bay, seems to have gotten attacked by one of the unseen uncontrollables that his investigation is seeking to control. And they attacked through his girlfriend, too. Harsh. A hacker under the name "Keyzer Defender" posted a torrent titled "Where did the money come from?" exposing some of the officer's passwords, account details, news of a newly purchased house, and whatever else this hacker dude dug up on his girlfriend's Hotmail account. Personally, I bet the whole hacking event looked a bit like that scene in Hackers when Angelia Jolie, Matthew Lillard, and their cyberpunk friends stand on top of a building and hack into the cities powergrid using what appears to be a PDA running exclusively on florescent DOS software. The reason for the dramatic headline of the torrent comes from the fact that Keyzer started working for Warner Bros. before The Pirate Bay investigation was closed, stayed there for a short while, and then left. The hacker is implying that this gave him the money to buy the new house. That has been yet to be proven, but one thing sure has: You don't mess around with these hackers and expect not to be messed with.