Paul Haig Day II

The second annual Paul Haig Day is almost upon us (Here's last year's choice). As I'll be back to work tomorrow and won't be able to post until late in the day I'm going to post my selection now, a few hours early.

For those who don't know, Paul Haig Day came about from an idea by JC at the excellent Vinyl Villain blog.

This came about as a direct result of the law-unto-itself that is the DMCA. According to Wikpedia, "The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures (commonly known as digital rights management or DRM) that control access to copyrighted works. It also criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control, whether or not there is actual infringement of copyright itself. In addition, the DMCA heightens the penalties for copyright infringement on the Internet. Passed on October 12, 1998 by a unanimous vote in the United States Senate and signed into law by President Bill Clinton on October 28, 1998, the DMCA amended Title 17 of the United States Code to extend the reach of copyright, while limiting the liability of the providers of on-line services for copyright infringement by their users."

What this means, in English, is that this law is being used to not only remove the "offending" mp3s they consider to be posted illegally but the blogs hosting them aswell. The problem with this is that the DMCA is being used indiscriminantly to target people, including those who either own the songs they're linking to or have permission from those who own the tracks. This also means that America owns the Interweb, but you knew that, right?

Paul Haig has once again kindly given permission for one or more of his tracks to be posted on blogs and this year I've chosen the 12" mix of "The Only Truth", co-produced by Paul Haig, Bernard Sumner (New Order) and Donald Johnson (A Certain Ratio).

mp3: Paul Haig - The Only Truth 12"

Paul has also provided an exclusive remix of the opening track of his current album, "Relive" for your delectation.

mp3: Paul Haig - Trip Out The Rider Mix 2

By all means, download these tracks, that's what it's there for, but if it whets your appetite for more music from Scotland's best kept secret then go to his website and/or Amazon store, which are linked below. Paul Haig's Wikipedia page is pretty comprehensive and you can find out about "The Only Truth" HERE.

"Trip Out the Rider" will also be released as a 7" single later in the year and will feature a very special collaborator.

Links:

Paul Haig's official website
Paul Haig's MySpace
Paul Haig's Amazon Store

Other Blogs who took part last year and may do again this year are:

Condemned To Rock'n'Roll
Tracklister
Acid Ted
Exile On Moan Street
Across The Kitchen Table
17 Seconds
Love Shack, Baby
Castles In Space
Blogger's Delite
How Does That One Go Again?
Aye Tunes
Sexy Loser
Armagideon Time
A Sweet Unrest
The Songs That People Sing
Sunset Over Slawit
Manic Pop Thrills
Song, By Toad
London Cafe : The Best Of UK Indie
Helpless Dancer

A "Heaven Sent" idea.