So Rage Against the Machine got the UK Christmas number one, beating the worst X-Factor song to date by a clear 50,000 sales, almost making up for last year’s dire Alexandra Burke Hallelujah cover beating both Leonard Cohen’s original and Jeff Buckley’s version to the top spot.

If we need a battle next year, I nominate Wire’s Mr Suit from Pink Flag. It’s a bit sweary and it has some nice relevant sentiment for Mr Cowell and company:

MR SUIT
I’m tired of being told what to think
I’m tired of being told what to do
I’m tired of f——ing phonies
That’s right, I’m tired of you

No, no, no, no, no, no, Mr Suit

You can take your f——ing money and shove it up your arse
‘Cause you think you understand, well it’s a f——ing farce
I’m tired of f——ing phonies
That’s right, I’m tired of you

No, no, no, no, no, no, Mr Suit

And if you turn and walk out that door
And take your f——ing money, let me tell you what it’s for
I’m tired of f——ing phonies
That’s right, I’m tired of you

No, no, no, no, no, no, Mr Suit

Happy holidays!

Digital Spy reports on Simon Cowell’s unhappiness regarding the fact his monopoly over the British Christmas number-one might end this year, due to a Facebook campaign to install Rage Against The Machine’s Killing In The Name instead.

The Sun claims Cowell moaned that “musical snobs have ganged up against Joe [McElderry]” and: “If you take me out of the equation, you have a teenager with his first single being attacked by a huge hate mob on Facebook.”

The thing is, you don’t have to be a music snob to be sickened by the factory line Cowell’s installed. X Factor is not about music—it’s a marketing exercise. Almost no-one that comes through it has enough longevity to survive in the industry for a year, and that’s in part because Cowell moves right on to the next cash cow. Secondly, if you take Cowell out of the equation, you have a teenager who wouldn’t be in that position anyway. Cowell installed him there. Without Cowell, he’s just another kid who can sing a bit.

And you know what? I don’t feel sorry for Joe in the slightest. He’s a kid who, at worst, will have a number-two single for relatively little effort. He’s not had to spend years of his life playing to a dozen people in crappy pubs all over the UK. He’s not had to battle to get A&Rs to listen to his music. He’s not had to do anything bar appear on a TV show.

Cowell also notes, without irony, that it’s “David versus Goliath,” clearly forgetting that as far as the British music industry goes, he’s the biggest Goliath of them all.

Great article on TorrentFreak: Copyright Drama Prevents Artist From Sharing Music on MySpace. The short version is this:

• Edwyn Collins pens and has a hit with A Girl Like You.
• Collins retains copyright and the licensing deal expires.
• Collins tries uploading the track to MySpace.
• MySpace yells NO! and sends Collins to a chilling REEDUCATION page.
• Detective work unearths the fact Warner claims rights to the song that Warner doesn’t have.
• Warner lawyers told to resolve the issue.
• Warner can’t be arsed to resolve the issue.

The article also notes: “Several big shot labels are still selling Collins’ track today even though their license to do so expired several years ago. This basically means that the labels are pirating his music, and making profit from these activities.” And while lots of idiots helpfully suggest Collins should sue or shut his whinging mouth (or words to that effect), it’s worth noting that it’s hardly simple to sue a massive record label, nor even keep track of ‘cease and desist’ notices and subsequent lawsuits if a whole bunch of labels are ripping you off.

I wonder whether Peter Mandelson and his Labour chums will cut off the internet access of all the major labels’ UK offices—in the manner they’re planning for individuals (Times Online: Can Peter Mandelson cast the internet pirates adrift?)—for such flagrant rights violations?

So, Lily Allen killed her blog, and the revisionism has begun. Almost everyone (including, worryingly, mainstream publications) is hailing her as some kind of hero, saying she suffered terrible ‘abuse’ and that’s why the blog died. Funny that no-one’s reporting that fact that she got busted for illegally sharing copyrighted music herself, which is what the vast majority of negative responses were down to. And the fact many of the comments were constructive shows how uninterested Allen was in a discussion (or, perhaps, that she was simply unable to have the discussion), given that she deleted everything.

So, to recap:

• Stealing music is wrong
• Stealing music isn’t wrong if you do it on the way to becoming famous and become famous.
• Stealing music is wrong if you do it on the way to becoming famous but don’t actually become famous.

Glad we cleared that up.

You might be aware that Lily Allen is now using her opinions on IP infringement to get herself press and further her career single-handedly saving the music industry by telling everyone that file-sharing is bad and evil (BBC News: Lily wades into file-sharing row).

However, here are some tips for you in the future, Lily, when you start arguing the toss about rights infringement and what other artists have to say about the subject:

1. Don’t misrepresent the opinions of your peers. When you referred to The Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) and claimed “These guys from huge bands said file-sharing music is fine,” you might want to ensure that’s actually what they said. If, for example, they said pretty much the complete opposite, you might end up looking a wee bit silly.
2. Don’t rip off other people’s content. When you’re on a crusade about IP infringment, it’s probably not a good idea to infringe someone else’s IP, by, for example, copying and pasting their blog posts. Do this and you might end up looking a wee bit silly.
3. Don’t infringe other people’s rights. When you’re informing people about the evils of rights infringement, it’s probably not a great idea to rip off other people’s IP by scanning in newspaper articles and posting them on your blog. Do so and you might end up looking a wee bit silly—doubly so when your Photobucket bandwidth is exceeded and said articles can’t actually be read. (Although I guess this at least deals with the IP issue, since the stuff you ripped can’t be seen when your account’s down. MAJOR WIN FOR COPYRIGHT!)

For the record, as someone who’s been smacked hard financially by file-sharing (albeit with books rather than music), I do have some sympathy regarding dealing with file-sharing in some manner. However, government proposals to boot people off the net won’t do it, nor will celebs on their high-horses.

Content providers need to figure out some way of monetising file-sharing, and, most importantly, to simply encourage more people to buy content instead of copying it. People should be rewarded for doing so, rather than—in many cases—being seen as potential criminals (such as with rights ads on DVDs that can’t be skipped) or gouged for every penny they have (as with £1.89 single-TV-episode downloads on iTunes).

Hat tip for some of this post: the ever-fragrant Gary Marshall on TechRadar.