The not playing well with others theme continues to the joy of everyone in my path. Stella the horoscope lady on the radio said we’re in the grip of a very powerful full moon and Scorpio is biting Uranus, or something to that effect, and it’s making everyone a bit tetchy. I love astral outsourcing of personal accountability!

I toddled along again to the radio course last night for a session in broadcasting law. I have studied the concepts previously, so I thought I’d sit back and relax while trying not to gag from the nose-burning stench of someone’s tinea. My god, how the first warm night brings out the aroma of mating fungi, accumulated toe gap sweat and hints of low-budget parmesan. Gee, I might ask if I can host a wine tasting segment with my aptitude for describing yummy smells.

There was no time for dying in the reeking pong because Battle of the Idiots was being played to my left and right. We were discussing copyright and the brain-straining concepts of ‘if you don’t create something, it’s not yours to use without permission and, if you don’t own something, it’s not yours to use at all’.

So Contestant One pipes up and asks if he can play his Limewire downloads.

“Did you pay for the music?”

“No.”

“That’s easy. The answer is no.”

“Oh.”

Contestant Two didn’t take the hint that it was time to let it go rather than put his possibly smelly foot in his mouth.

He asked, “What about my .mp3 collection?”

Ooh, a collection!

“Did you pay for the music?”

“No.”

“Any format that’s downloaded without purchase doesn’t give you legal use, so, no.”

Contestant Two kept going.

“Does anyone check what we bring in?”

I hope he uses the illegal tunes guru persona when pitching a show concept to the programming committee. Less competition.

Crank-o-meter: paying artists for their work, what a concept