Copyfighting nerd rapper Dan Bull's latest track is "Bye Bye BPI." He created the video by asking his musician Facebook fans to submit photos of themselves holding messages to the British Phonographic Institute (the UK equivalent of the RIAA or IFPI). Here's Thomas "CommandLine" Gideon commenting on Bull's astonishing production process:

It is astonishing how fast he assembles these videos, from that first call to distributing the lines he wants each person to capture right on through to the finished product. In the case of the subjects this pair of videos cover the volunteer participation really drives the message home that much more, especially considering he got far more offers judging by the number of comments on the original post than he could possible use unless he did something like a single letter per person. The quotes he includes from Stephen Fry, Thom Yorke and Joss Stone, among others, don’t hurt either.

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I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: Business • Copyfight • corporatism • crowdsourced • happy mutants • music • uk • video • youtube

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http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

I’m not normally into straight-up rap – but I really like Dan Bull, his messages are clear and well articulated and the tracks are catchy.

I certainly don’t need the BPI.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_SMJ2ZDACFDSMSYE3OEWDDNX7ZA Neal McCarten

Not a single artist he mentioned is even British….
garyg2

I was with him till he advocated piracy of VSTs (Virtual Studio Technology, software instruments and effects) (well, I think he did…)

No, most composers don’t endorse piracy of music software, it’s hardly a big market in relation to the music industry as a whole, many examples of developers (often one man operations) throwing in the towel because of piracy which benefits no one.

Also, *so* much incredible freeware out there that anyone who insists they need to pirate the expensive stuff to produce really is a talentless wannabe.
- tlwest
  
  I find the message rather incoherent. It indicates that the works BPI members produce are irrelevant to the future of music and then demands the right to pirate said works!
  
  I’m fine with him advocating that artists abandon the labels and I agree that trying to block sampling is pretty stupid if the final works are really different from the sampled songs.
  
  But I find the “if I want it, I have the right to steal it” attitude evinced in the song to no better than the usual narcissism found in piracy discussion.
  - Jay Miller
    
    It seems like you’ve missed the point. It’s not that everyone should be able to pirate all music forever. Rather, it’s that the BPI and similar organizations have unreasonably set up piracy as a major threat to art and civilization and are willing to up-end the law and the Internet in order to stop it.
    - tlwest
      
      Well, having re-listened to the musc, I suppose it depends on which part of the song you are paying attention to. Certainly some of the talking sections made it pretty clear that they felt they had the right to pirate.
      
      Honestly, I don’t have a lot of problem with people who do pirate. I *do* have a problem with people who believe they have the *right* to do so. (The difference between speeding and claiming that the state has no right to tell me how fast to drive.)

Copyfighting rapper Dan Bull to record industry: Bye Bye BPI

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