Nothing to do with banks, although it is related as licensing is a key part of banking, but Calvin Harris has just had a little Twitter rage incident.
What? Who?
Well, bearing in mind how easy it is to send that email you wish you hadn't (email is so last century), Calvin has just had a very public hissyfit against YouTube, Sony and the BPI who protect copyright laws in Britain.
Calvin is a massively successful DJ and mood mixer, with several mega hits in the UK and his own YouTube channel:
I created disco.
So here's a selection of tweets from his twitter stream over the last day (apologies for language which I've blanked):
Youtube just removed MY Fake Blood and High Contrast remixes of Ready For The Weekend due to a copyright claim from Sony Music (his own music label and management). What?! RAGE4:14 PM Jul 20th
Fake Blood and High Contrast mixes still havent been re-instated on Youtube, i'm still raging. Have to make do with this http://bit.ly/lKRw5about 17 hours ago from web
I suppose i could just re-upload the Fake Blood and High Contrast remixes couldn't I. Don't know why i didn't do that before, let's try thatabout 16 hours ago from web
Youtube have now removed the ORIGINAL mix and video of Ready For The Weekend, due to a 'copyright claim'.about 4 hours ago from web
IT'S MY F***ING SONG YOU ABSOLUTE B*****DSabout 4 hours ago from web
It's the f***ing BPI (the UK copyright licensing orgnisation). F*** YOU 'The BPI' what have you ever done for anybody you useless shower of ****sabout 4 hours ago from web
The BPI are the worst organisation to ever walk the earth and their setup is shambolic and their online employees are all massive retardsabout 4 hours ago from web
This is unbelievable, and it seems I am completely powerless to do anything. Sony (his management) have done nothing, the BPI have done nothingabout 4 hours ago from web
Why am I posting this?
Because, a bit like Zopa Italy, it shows that heavy-handed regulators get their fingers burnt publicly using the power of social media. In Zopa's case the blogosphere reacted. In Calvin's case, the twitterati.
He has over 50,000 followers and if you google Calvin Harris, 4 hours after this stream of issues, you find this picture:
The NME is one of our biggest media papers for music in the UK, and it's already been picked up by other media such as Techcrunch and more.
The power of social media strikes again.
Oh yes, and it amused me that his latest tweet is:
Ok I got a bit caught up in the heat of the moment. Sorry to employees of the BPI who aren't massive retards. But please put my video backabout 1 hour ago from TwitterBerry
Unfortunately, Calvin publicly used many worse words than 'retard' and no doubt his management, Sony, did do something suc
h as a telephone call:
"Shut up and stop tweeting that Sony, who pay you under a contract, and the BPI, who protect your royalty fees for record sales, are 'retards' or we'll have you in the dock before your know it."
Chris M Skinner
Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...
