Corporate Thuggery

The Globe and Mail has more today on the saga of illegalsigns.ca versus Clear Channel (Clear Channel tried to sue the site's owner for having the temerity to inform the city that Clear Channel's billboards might be illegal). Spacing's Dale Duncan expands on the theme here.

Really I'm disgusted by Clear Channel. Get out of Toronto, Clear Channel, we don't want your bullying here. Also, I've heard from Americans that your radio stations suck - so there.

Edit: I just saw that Astral, another billboard conglomerate that wants to bid on Toronto's street furniture is also wanting to sue illegalsigns.ca. Astral, you aren't any better.

Fiddling while the Industry Burns

Atrios has a pair of posts on how badly the music industry has been doing over the past couple of years. His analysis:

"Instead of exploiting the desire of people on the internet to promote their stuff for free, they're obsessed with royalties and DRM. It's bizarre to me that an industry notorious for its payola scandals - paying radio stations to pay their crap so that people can hear it for free - simultaneously obsesses about the possibility that people might actually throw up a song on the internet so that people can hear it for free."

I'd never thought of music sharing in the context of payola, but it's a hell of a contradiction, isn't it? Besides, these days so much of radio is repression by boredom - but maybe that's what the industry wants. There's no reason to embed this video here:

Corporate Graffiti Part II: Sue me, you bastards

Via Saskboy, today I find out that Clear Channel wants to sue anyone who has the temerity to point out that their signs are illegal. The reason that Clear Channel uses is that its licensing agreements are between itself and private property owners, therefore its no one else's business if the signs are in fact contravening by-laws.

This is the prevailing attitude among those who want to put up ads on every square-inch of Toronto - they think it's their God-given right to do so. Clear Channel has already ruined radio, I'd prefer that they not ruin my city.