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Crass: Capitalist traitors using copyright laws against Anarcho-Punk.Net - 3000 albums deleted because of these greedy selfish sellout bastards

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Anarcho-Punk.net, Jul 18, 2012.

  1. Anarcho-Punk.net

    Anarcho-Punk.net Experienced Member Staff Member Uploader Admin Team Experienced member


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    2 days ago, Mediafire advised Anarcho-Punk.net that a complaint concerning a copyright law was filed against Anarcho-Punk.net at Mediafire related to 7 albums by Crass. We're talking about albums released 30 years ago and not the remastered stuff.

    [​IMG]

    In the result of this, Mediafire deleted all CRASS albums but they have also banned multiple accounts of Anarcho-Punk.net and Pirate-Punk.net. In total, over 3000 albums are now deleted because of their greed.

    The following albums are concerned by Crass complaint :
    Crass - 1978 - Reality Asylum (7'')
    Crass - 1978 - The Feeding Of The 5,000 (Lp)
    Crass - 1984 - You're Already Dead
    Crass - 1979 - Stations Of The Crass (Lp)
    Crass - 1980 - Nagasaki Nightmare (7'')
    Crass - 1979 - Peel Session (7'')
    Crass - 1981 - Penis Envy (Lp)

    [​IMG]

    Update : during the last hours this article have been shared a lot of time, including on Crass' and Southern Records' official Facebook pages. They deleted all posts and banned everyone who shared the link. Obviously, they don't want their fans to know that crass is a pro-copyright band, they prefer to lie and pretend to be fighting against capitalism. Crass, who used to be a band against censorship and fighting for freedom of speech, have betrayed their ideas again and they are now censoring everyone who dare to critise them.


    - A capitalist law

    Crass are using a capitalist law named Digital Millenium Copyright Act to close our Mediafire account. The anti-capitalist movement has been fighting against this law since its creation.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Mi ... yright_Act

    There is no more difference between the opportunistic methods of Crass and music industry's big labels like EMI, Sony or Universal.


    - Over 3000 albums deleted because of Crass

    After the copyright complaint by Crass, over 2000 albums are now deleted from Anarcho-Punk.net, a website built by anarcho-punks and where it's clearly written everywhere that bands can just contact us at any time to ask us to remove their albums. On top of all, 1000 other albums of french punk bands (who are also agreeing with file sharing) from Pirate-Punk.net were deleted because they were on the same Mediafire accounts.


    - The world's biggest anarcho-punk music database destroyed because of Crass

    Today, because of the band who is bragging about being the precursor of anarcho-punk, almost all albums of the world's biggest database of anarcho-punk music is destroyed. That's over 2000 albums from bands who were not against file sharing which are now offline because of the traitors from CRASS who have decided to use to their advantage the capitalist system they were fighting against.

    During the 4 years anarcho-punk.net has been online, hundreds of bands showed their support to our project and to file sharing - we could write a very big list and that would include a lot of cult bands from the anarcho-punk scene and beyond.
    But Crass decided to impose their opinion against file sharing to the majority of bands who supported it. Hundreds of bands just lost their right to be shared for free because of only one band who was against it.


    - Crass, a capitalist band who betrays what it always stood for

    Yes, I'm really talking about Crass, this anarcho-hypocritical band who's bragged about giving away albums for free in their biography during the '80's. They even produced a couple of albums specifically to give them away, including 20,000 free copies of the album "Sheep Farming". They've also bragged about never touching a single dollar of profit in the whole history of their band and always selling albums at the cost of production. If internet and file sharing existed in 1980, Crass would have supported it and they would have given their albums away for free through file sharing.

    Is that their definition of "fighting against capitalism" ? These people pretended to want an anarchist society but they can't even take a friendly agreement between anarchists without using capitalist laws and system. They pretend to fight for anarchism but they can't even act the same way we would in an anarchist society.

    Crass is now officially and undeniably a capitalist band who betrayed all of their ideals. They're now using capitalism to defend their own interests : personal profits, whatever is the price to pay, even if other bands should be penalized by their actions and even if it implies licking the asses of the bourgeoisie. We notice the same logic from the big capitalist companies that don't care about others in their ultimate quest for maximum profits.


    - Anarcho-Punk.Net, a website respecting artists where they can easily contact us to remove their albums

    Crass could have simply contacted Anarcho-Punk.Net and asked us to remove their albums. A friendly agreement could easily have been made and their albums would have been removed in less than 24 hours. It's clearly written on our website that Anarcho-Punk.Net will remove any album if the band or the label asks - the moderators have done this many times during the past. Instead of doing that, CRASS preferred to use the CAPITALIST SYSTEM and it's LAWS against anarchists who are supposed to be their comrades.

    In 4 years of existence, it is the first time that a band files a complaint against us at Mediafire, without even taking the time to contact us. They prefer to make an agreement with capitalists rather than seeking an agreement with anarchists. It's very ironic that the only band to ever use copyrights against us is the band who's selling the most albums among all those present on our website.


    - A personal revenge against a website who dared to critisize Crass

    The members of Anarcho-Punk.Net strongly critisized the change in Crass' attitude during the past few years. The criticism turned around the attitude of Steve Ignorant that had been doing an over-priced tour where he made tens of thousands of dollars in profits. $25 per ticket, 2000 tickets sold per show, and around 20 shows. Do the math. And that's not even including thousands more made off albums/merch sold. Members of the forum also critisized the price that Crass are selling their remastered albums for.

    We, at Anarcho-Punk Collective, think that it's understandable that some members are perplexed to see a band making so much money when they built their reputation on being a non-profit band. We also think it's understandable to question the price of a remastered album multiple times more expensive than the original used to be - specially when this band used to print "do not pay more than 3$" on their albums. On top of all, we feel that the other 2000 downloadable albums shouldn't have to pay the price for Crass' decision to fight file sharing. We also feel that because members of this forum critisized Crass, it isn't a valid reason to act the way they did and not even try to contact us to sincerely ask us to remove their albums.

    During the discussion with Crass (see below) our interlocutor insisted on the fact that members of Anarcho-Punk.Net forum "hates Crass anyway". All this makes us believe that they filed a copyright complaint against us because they had something against Anarcho-Punk.Net and wanted to take revenge because we dared to critisize their attitude - a strongly capitalist attitude, let's admit it.

    After we told Crass we were from Anarcho-Punk.Net during our discussion, they became somewhat antagonistic and then suddenly stopped answering us.

    That might explain why Crass acted like that against Anarcho-Punk.Net but doesn't do anything about the MILLIONS of other websites that are sharing their albums, a lot of them even making money from the music they share.


    - Crass pretend to be against copyrights laws

    If you visit Crass' official Facebook page, you will find out that 50% of the things the band "likes" on Facebook are anti-copyrights groups. For example, they have been strongly standing against SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) but on the other hand they told us that they believe an author should have absolute control over his work, which is exactly what SOPA aims to do. Actually, without laws like SOPA it wouldn't be possible for Crass to request their albums to be removed and they're claiming they should have the right to do it. But this right couldn't be possible without laws like SOPA, so it's pretty hypocrite for them to pretend to be fighting against it.


    - Discussion with Crass on Facebook

    I contacted the official Crass account on Facebook and I waited for their answer before posting this article. Here's their answer where they clearly admit having filed a complaint with Mediafire while supporting that artists should control their copyrights. They obviously have an huge grudge against Anarcho-Punk.Net because the community dared to strongly critisize their capitalist methods and the thousands of dollars of profit they are making from anarchism. Revolution for money, like they said.

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]



    - Lies

    Crass defend themselves with numerous lies, beginning by pretending that they have not been able to contact Anarcho-Punk.Net directly. Then they end up contradicting themselves while pretending to have contacted us via Southern Records. This is totally false, neither the band or the label contacted us a single time. If they did, we would have just deleted all of their albums like we have always done with similar cases in the past. We don't like what they have became and we would have agreed to remove their albums if they asked us, since it could only prove that they have become greedy.

    Crass also claim to be selling albums at production cost (a big lie when we see the price they are selling their new remastered albums). Do they seriously think people are stupid enough to believe that even 30 years after the publishing date of their albums they still have not sold enough albums to pay back their production cost during the '80's, which would justify their opposition to file sharing of albums released around 1980 ???

    They pretend that it's not their fault and Mediafire doesn't delete an account just because of a single complaint. Well, it's not a single complaint but SEVEN different complaints about SEVEN different Crass albums. I repeat it again : Crass is the ONLY BAND to EVER file a complaint against us in 4 years so THEY and ONLY THEY are responsible for the closing of our account and the removal of over 3000 anarcho-punk albums.

    Again, just to make it clear : WE NEVER RECEIVED A SINGLE MAIL FROM SOUTHERN. We never had any contact with Crass or Southern Records. If they asked us to remove their albums we would have done it. In fact, to be honest, they would have just given us an additional reason to prove what we are saying since 2 years : Crass and Southern took a capitalist turning. Removing their albums after a request would have just proven it, so we would have gladly done it as it would have proven our point.


    Consequences for Anarcho-Punk.Net

    We appealed our case on mediafire and they confirmed to us that our account will remain locked. Now we must move to a new kind of system that will be based on a torrent tracker or a FTP system. Either way, none of the albums will ever get deleted but it will cost us an around $200 for a new server, additionally to what we are already paying. We're not Crass, we're not full of money so we will need to find new ways of raising money since we can't just sell a bunch of overpriced remastered albums and sue people sharing them. That's the price to pay to stay true and authentic to what we believe in, but we're willing to pay the price. Unlike Crass, the ideals we believe in and what we stand for is worth way more than thousands of dollars.

    Want to help us ? Send a donation or buy a t-shirt from http://www.no-gods-no-masters.com


    - Spread the word about it

    To all of you, like me, that had huge respect for what Crass were, what they stood for, what they were fighting against... Here's what our "anarcho-punk heroes" have become, here's how low they have sunk, willing to do anything to make more money - exactly what they have always pretended to be the antithesis of. A band that used to make no profit at all has now become a band who's trying to make the maximum possible profit. If that's not your definition of anarchism then take a stand against it and let's show them that's not what anarcho-punk is all about.

    This article must be spread widely. Copy it in your blogs, post it on your facebook page, show it to your friends. We must spread the word about what Crass has become. This band doesn't have anything to do with anarchism anymore and it must stop being considered as an icon of the anarcho-punk scene but instead be considered as what they really are : traitors, impostors, capitalists and SELLOUTS.

    Let's give them the reputation they deserve.

    [video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HmQPkwW3pk[/video]
    ^^ Can you believe that's what they were fighting against 34 years ago ?


    Update : Crass also using copyright laws against Youtube users

    Other users reported that Crass are sending DMCA complaints to take down Crass audio and videos from Youtube :

    [​IMG]


    Other facts about Crass

    - Steve ignorant charged more for a ticket than big pop bands for his last gig at the Shepherds Bush Empire.
    http://www.anarcho-punk.net/viewtopic.p ... ire#p54118

    - Steve ignorant's tour was sponsored by Facebook
    http://www.anarcho-punk.net/viewtopic.p ... 07&start=0

    - Crass denied the right to Burnt Cross to use a cover of "banned from the roxy" on their new album for copyright issues. This information was given by their label.

    - Many users are reporting that both Crass and Southern Records facebook pages censor users very often. Many people were banned just for posting a link to crassunofficial.com or talking about this article

    - Crass asked their fans to give them 70,000 quid so they could buy the Dial House. Don't you find it strange that a band is asking their fans to buy their HOUSE ?

    - Crass doesn't even have a consensus about file sharing in their band. Pete Wright is clearly against the selling of remastered albums and was definatly not against file sharing. He even took it to the court but he gave up because legal actions were costing him too much money. Southern Records didn't even ask all the band members before taking a stance against file sharing in their names.

    - Southern Records produced the compilation "bullshit detector" and promised that the bands would get a percentage of the sales. None of the bands ever got paid, Crass ripped them off. Read the other pages of this topic, you can see that Ivanovich (a member of a band on Bullshit Detector) confirms that he never got any money from Southern.

    - Alliston from Southern Records filed a complainted about Conflict using Crass songs without paying them for the copyright. After Colin Jerwood revealed the facts to the public, Southern Records sent them legal threats and forced him to delete what he posted. Read the whole story from Colin Jerwood's mouth here:
    http://www.pirate-punk.net/message.php?t=15719

    - Pete Wright from Crass was against the re-mastered albums and revealed many interessing facts against Crass, read more here : http://www.crassunofficial.com

    - Southern Records threatened a band on their label to sue them for daring to put a track of their own on their homemade band website
    Source : http://crassunofficial.com/crass.pdf
     

  2. punkmar77

    punkmar77 Experienced Member Uploader Experienced member


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    From Our Friend Julio in L.A.

    Just hilarious and sad at the same time....
     
  3. sali(e)

    sali(e) Experienced Member Experienced member


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    So... The music will not be lost, is that what you said?
    At the extra cost of 200 bucks, a month? Or what?
     
  4. Mamelon

    Mamelon New Member New Member


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    Haha that's from me in fact i posted it on Crass's page.

    Anyway sad to see what has become of Crass. Didn't they used to put on their records that they shouldn't be bought more than ___$ ???
     
  5. punkmar77

    punkmar77 Experienced Member Uploader Experienced member


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    No, the music links are gone but we could re-upload everything (except Crass of course) and start using a
    private system but that will cost about $200 a month more to do...
     
  6. Bentheanarchist

    Bentheanarchist Experienced Member Uploader Experienced member


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    Fuck crass! Fuck copyright!
     
  7. alcoholocaust

    alcoholocaust Member New Member


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    Before anyone starts attacking me for what I'm going to say, let me just point out that this is my own opinion and you don't have to agree with me.

    You know, I don't think this occurred because of Crass as a whole but because of Southern and Steve Ignorant only. I don't think any of the other Crass members are involved with Southern and what they are doing with the Crass stuff now aside from the occasional liner notes from Penny. If anyone is to blame it should be Steve Ignorant (whom I think is the one in charge of the official Facebook) and the blokes at Southern who are trying to make money off of a band that fought against what just happened right now. I don't think it's right to drag down the entire band for the action of just one member especially if all the other members have actually declined or verbally opposed what that member has been doing with the band and the name to begin with. Hell, Crass isn't even a band and hasn't been since 1984. The only person doing anything related to Crass is Steve. Therefore these attacks should be directed at Steve Ignorant and Southern, not Crass. Fight Southern, not Crass.
     
  8. crustybeckham

    crustybeckham Experienced Member Uploader Experienced member Forum Member


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    I think you're pretty much in the right. The new, overpriced remastered versions and the whole reformation thing were Ignorant's ideas. I think many Crass members have nothing to do with it, and don't want to. I have heard accounts of Southern dodginess so I am hardly surprised.
     
  9. Ammon

    Ammon Experienced Member Experienced member Forum Member


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    i'm going to post this on steves facebook page
     
  10. ungovernable

    ungovernable Autonome Staff Member Uploader Admin Team Experienced member


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    Today a lot of people including myself were banned from CRASS facebook page as well as SOUTHERN RECORDS facebook page, just because we posted a link on this topic. They deleted all of our posts and banned users. Obviously they don't want you to know what happenned and how they turned their vest and stabbed us in the back. The hypocrisy is that Crass was a band that claimed to believe in freedom of speech for everyone and they are now censoring and reducing to silence everybody who critise them. HYPOCRITE BASTARDS.

    Anyway, this article is already going viral and there's nothing Crass can do about it. People will see who they really are.


    Yes.

    Don't worry, i have a copy of everything i posted on this website... I don't know about others.

    I can get everything back online, but we need a new system. Direct download isn't reliable enough.

    Yes they used to, on their original releases. But when they re-pressed the albums last year, for ten times the original price, the "pay no more than" notice was gone... Fucking hypocrites !!!


    I'm pretty sure the person i have been talking to from Crass account isn't Steve Ignorant. Steve isn't much active on Facebook.

    Today, Crass censored all our posts from their facebook page, but the links are still on Steve Ignorant's page. Proof that it isn't the same person managing the facebook 2 pages.

    Pretty sure the person from Crass facebook page is a member of Southern Records.

    It seems that Crass page is managed by someone named DAVID ROBB from Romford UK. He keeps bragging about being the admin of the page and post pictures of himself everywhere.
    https://www.facebook.com/david.robb.948

    Southern Records got the copyrights on all Crass stuff. It's them who's to blame.
     
  11. Dan.

    Dan. New Member New Member


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    Talking of Steve 'Ignorant' Williams, I just come across this picture of him on (of all places!) Garry Bushell's website for The Gonads: [​IMG]

    Just clock what he's wearing on the arm of his jacket :ecouteurs:

    Bushell has this to say on the subject: "Have a look at this geezer below. With that bald bonce and olive green flight jacket he could be auditioning for the cover of Strength Thru Oi! but it’s actually a 2011 shot of Steve Ignorant. We like the poppy on his sleeve but wonder if it quite fits in with ‘Sheep Farming In The Falklands’ ..."

    Oh, the fucking irony of it all!
     
  12. crustybeckham

    crustybeckham Experienced Member Uploader Experienced member Forum Member


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    We may have hit bottom there. I think I'll play Disorder's "Remembrance day" very loud.
     
  13. butcher

    butcher Experienced Member Uploader Experienced member Forum Member


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    yeah, it states pretty clearly on the Facebook page:
    sauce: http://www.facebook.com/crass/info
     
  14. THEBLACKNOVA

    THEBLACKNOVA Experienced Member Experienced member Forum Member


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    WOW. I can't believe they would do something so damaging to a community. WOW
     
  15. manvsmaritoni

    manvsmaritoni Active Member Forum Member


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    i will push for an anarchopunk.net benefit show at my house to take place in the near future. it would be great if at least a handful of users could do the same in their cities. i think it is of great importance that we do not let this website meet an early grave. i will always love crass' music and what they once stood for but i will never forget what they have become. more cash fucking terrorists. if you are around san diego, message me and i will let you know when the show is once we figure out a date. crass may enjoy having sex with money, but some of us still find it repulsive.
     
  16. ungovernable

    ungovernable Autonome Staff Member Uploader Admin Team Experienced member


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    I have been told from my friend who manage Burnt Cross label (Rusty Knife) that Crass denied Burnt Cross the right to use theit cover of "Banned From The Roxy" on their latest album because of copyrights issue with crass
     
  17. ungovernable

    ungovernable Autonome Staff Member Uploader Admin Team Experienced member


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    Look what i have found on Crass Facebook page. They pretend to be fighting against SOPA and copyrights, but on the other hand they use them to take down their albums from mediafire.

    50% of the pages that Crass "likes" on Facebook are anti-copyrights groups

    Fucking hypocrites !

    [​IMG]

    During our discussion with Crass, they clearly stated that an author should have total control on the distribution of their material. That's exactly what SOPA wants to do.
     
  18. punkmar77

    punkmar77 Experienced Member Uploader Experienced member


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    Not gonna attack you but you are sadly mistaken about half of your info, it was Penny that re-issued the records much to the chagrin of the rest of the band, as a matter of fact Crass is split right down the middle on all of these issues, it's well documented here on APN... as well as hundreds of e-mails between band members leading up to a total breakdown in relationships within the band, so to blame all of this on Steve is highly disingenuous...and all of this being aired out in the open on APN has led to half of the members of Crass carrying a little chip on their shoulders about us. So your assertion to fight Southern not Crass is invalid because we are trying to fight neither, we reserve the right as anarchists to criticize not only ourselves but anything and anybody, their are no sacred cows. The manner in which half of this band and their label have conducted themselves is indefensible within the anarchist community.

    If you have the time and really want to know all about what's going on with this band lately...read the e-mails here:
    http://www.crassunofficial.com
     
  19. alcoholocaust

    alcoholocaust Member New Member


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    Fair enough, I can agree to that. I had no idea that it was Penny who re-issued the records because every article I read it was Steve on the charge but that makes sense. I do know that the band is split over what has been going on (similar to, on a much lesser extent, the whole Antisect ordeal) like you mentioned and it's a damned shame (and very ironic) that members of this band have essentially turned into what they fought against and sang about 30 years ago.

    My whole gripe is that this whole ordeal was brought upon by Southern and whichever members are standing behind the reissues. They're the only ones that would have gone out of their way to contact mediafire to remove the albums, and they are the ones responsible for what this site now has to go through. I feel criticizing a band that hasn't existed in almost 30 years won't do us any good. Holding the real culprits responsible, exposing what they have done as well as taking action against them on the other hand makes more sense to me. The last thing I want to see are more ignorant drunk punx on the streets spouting nonsense about Crass and this whole ordeal just because they briefly glanced this page or heard from a friend who heard from a friend, etc.

    On another note, the whole benefit thing for this site sounds like a great idea. Though I haven't been on this site as long as some of you I do see it as an invaluable resource for many and for this site to go down because of one company's greed would be a travesty. I'm sure we as a community can do something to help keep this site afloat.
     
  20. Ivanovich

    Ivanovich Experienced Member Experienced member Forum Member


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    Get that comp out, that should raise some cash, then follow it up with one dedicated to Crass.
     

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