YouTube Copyright Strikes: A Creative Plague

So, there I am on YouTube, and I see this video pop up in my subscriptions, so I watch it:

Now, I don't advocate skipping the video to read my response, but I understand if you do. However, it is a short video, so by all means, watch it. If you don't have time, I'll give you the gist of it: Listverse filed a bogus copyright claim on YouTube against a channel called Top 15s. Their claim? That the owner of Top 15s plagiarized Listverse's work for a reason that was never explained.

The odds are that Listverse filed a copyright claim based on a shitty top 10 list they did (which I won't list, because, you know, fuck those guys) which they felt looked similar to the video top 15's did. Of course, Listverse only listed 10 while Top 15s listed 15, but, you know, logic. In reality, all Top 15s was guilty of was listing the same names of a few of the drugs listed on Listverse's list (and not even all 10). It really isn't even sound logic because Listverse does not own a copyright on the names of these drugs. If Top 15s is guilty of plagiarism then so is Listverse because they clearly got their information from somewhere as well. That's neither here, nor there, though. That's just one example of YouTube's broken copyright system that's come out as of late.

Van Halen would have filed a copyright claim against Savage for
using their guitar in a music video, but they didn't want to admit
they were mentioned in this movie.

I think a lot of people probably know where I'm going with this. So, let's all just say it together: COOL CAT LOVES YOU! Actually, Derek Savage, creator of Cool Cat Loves You, also put out a large number of bogus copyright strikes on people that reviewed his movie. The most notable strike was against YouTuber IHateEverything.

You may think to yourself, "Well, this IHateEverything fella seems like a loving and nice guy, but he used clips from from Savage's movie, and what's fair is fair." In reality movie reviews and parody are protected under "fair use" laws, which allow for these things. In other words, Mr. Everything (or is it okay if I just call you IHate?) and the other reviewers weren't guilty of violating any copyright laws, but were still the victims of a copyright bully. That's kind of what happened with Top 15s.

There is good news for those that are dealing with copyright bullies. Thankfully YouTube is stepping up and protecting users from these unfair copyright strikes. So, don't worry, anyone that's been the victim of an unfair copyright strike. You're going to be safe. 

5 Reasons Star Trek is Better than Star Wars

Yes, you read that headline correctly. Star Trek is better than Star Wars, and there's no doubt in my mind about it. A lot of strengths and weaknesses of both franchises are completely subjective, I get it. However, I have come up with five reasons that Star Trek trumps Star Wars any day of the week.

When someone says Star Wars is better, so you have to give
them the Worf eye.

 Number 5: The Holodeck

There may not be a more interesting plot device in the Star Trek universe than the Holodeck. It was first introduced in Star Trek: The Next Generation as a leisure device used by the crew. Of course, it is Star Trek, so things couldn't just workout right for the crew of the USS Enterprise. That would be too simple.

The fact of the matter is, though, that this simple device created a simple, yet effective, way of making plot elements for the Star Trek universe. The crew could easily find themselves in another time and place with no need to come up with some complicated time travel story line. There's nothing in the Star Wars universe that's truly this interesting. 

What does Star Wars have that rivals this? The Republic? Boring. The clones? Stupid and completely not creative at all. 

Number 4: Star Trek has a Plot

I know what you're thinking, "But Star Wars has a plot, too!" Yeah, but not much of one. If you actually look at the Star Wars movies they have very little plot in between drawn out action scenes. 

Truth be told, there's very little in terms of story in the Star Wars universe. It's mostly filler. That's all the action scenes really feature. 

What exactly does Star Wars have in terms of a plot, though? Well, what little Star Wars does have has been ripped off...err, sorry, "been inspired by" countless movies, including The Hidden Fortress and Gladiator (think Episode II here), and old sci-fi serials from the 30's and 40's, particularly Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. There's nothing really original about the Star Wars franchise.

In Star Trek there is far more plot elements. There are far more stories being told. They may not always be the most unique, or interesting, but they're always there and there's plenty of story development to be found.

Number 3: Star Trek Featured a King

I know what you're thinking here, too. "Star Wars had plenty of royalty!" Yes, it did, and they were all fictional. Star Trek actually featured an actual king. The King of Jordan, King Abdullah II. This is more than just a superfan here, this is about royalty. Real life, honest to god royalty.

 In fact, King Abdullah II is such a big Star Trek fan that there's a Star Trek themed amusement park being created in Jordan right now. 

In other words, Star Trek is getting the royal treatment. Star Wars, not so much. 

Number 2: Star Trek would Win in a Fight

"BLASPHEMY!" you say. "There's no way, because Star Wars has the Jedi! Star Trek has nothing like that!" 

Well, I've actually heard that argument plenty of times, and let's start with this: the Jedi aren't invincible. They are very much beatable. I think some Star Wars fans, and even Star Trek fans, don't realize how strong some of the Star Trek villains have actually been. 

For example, Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise once had to deal with the Greek God Apollo in the episode "Who Mourns for Adonis?" In Star Trek V: The Final Frontier they did battle with God himself, or at least a giant space being that claimed to be God (there, so you hyper religious folk don't have to be offended. He was just a pretender). 

There's also one other thing Star Wars fans need to keep in mind. The Jedi are actually few and far in between, even when they were large in number. They were also taken out by non-Jedi rather easily. 

But, let's throw that aside. The technology in Star Trek is far superior to that of Star Wars. The ships in Star Wars don't have shields, nor do they have any kind of radar technology, or anything like that. 

The ships in Star Trek do. They have superior firepower as well. The Klingon Birds of Prey also have cloaking technology, which no ship in Star Wars could even detect. Also, the Klingons would whoop the Storm Troopers asses, even in a land battle. The Klingon even look cooler. 

Number 1: Jar Jar Binks

Yup. This dumb looking thing right here is the reason that Star Trek is just simply better. There is not a single character in Star Trek, any series or movie, quite this stupid.

The Word "Overrated" is Overrated

I couldn't think of a good image to use for "overrated," so here are
two bunnies.

Overrated. Is there any word that's more abused and thrown around on the internet? Probably not. It's more often than not misused and is a result of neckbeard and/or hipster internet rage. Frankly, there's no word I've grown to hate more thanks to the internet than "overrated." Yes, I hate it more than "BAE" and "YOLO."

Growing facial hair on your neck is sooooo overrated.
It was a lame trend started by the Amish.

Let's just be real here: Usually when people throw around the word "overrated" what they really mean is "I don't like that thing that a lot of other people do." It's all part of the internet's collective arrogance and stupidity. I never understood why people on the internet overuse and abuse words like this.

Let's face it, if something is popular, or hyped, or well loved by society then someone, somewhere on the internet is calling it overrated. The Fallout series?  Overrated. Seinfeld (either the show or Jerry himself)? Overrated. Even not so popular things, like when Spike TV listed Kevin Smith as one of the top 10 most overrated directors. Now, I mean no disrespect to Kevin Smith, because I honestly enjoy his work, but he's a cult film director with a small, but strong following. I think even he would agree that he isn't exactly a mainstream media darling.

And the worst part is that if you read anything anyone writes in regards to something being "overrated" it usually follows the same crappy formula. Someone takes something well loved and popular, then they nitpick any flaws (real or perceived) and blow them out of proportion as if those flaws somehow represent everything about it (you know, they can't see the forest for the trees), and they also typically use vague insults that are completely subjective (like calling something "boring").

I guess you could say that I'm saying the word "overrated" is overrated. Is that irony? Maybe. Actually, I wouldn't call the word "overrated," because in reality an opinion on something is purely subjective. The word "overrated" is truly a worthless word because of it, but it still thrown around left and right by a bunch of assholes who have nothing better to do than to try feeling superior by going against the grain. If you're one of those people, the only thing I have to say is that nothing is "overrated," and certainly not because you don't like it. People are allowed to like things that you don't, you hipster douchebag. Get over it.

The Five Funniest Things that Happened to Nickelback

Yahoo! News

Let's be real here: There's no band in the world more hated than Nickelback is. In fact, hating the band is a more popular trend than listening to Nickelback. I'm going to count down the five funniest things that has ever involved Nickelback. Well, this may be the five funniest, or the five saddest, if you're one of the three people that love Nickelback.

Frankly, I don't think Nickelback is the worst band in the world, but I'm not a fan of them, either. It isn't that they're talent-less, it's that they're boring, and bland. Maybe that's the reason they are so hated, though. They're just a generic, bland, corporate manufactured radio-rock band and no real rocker is into that. Only pop-music fans truly love Nickelback.

Anyways, it was hard enough just picking five things, but without further ado, here they are:

Number 5: The Twitter Meltdown

Ultimate Guitar

Have you ever been trolled online? Of course, we all have. Not many people have a complete nervous breakdown on Twitter that leads to more people jumping on them, but when they do hilarity ensues. This exact thing happened to Nickelback, who apparently thought they were having a war of words with people that didn't like them. In reality they just came across as whiny and thin skinned.

Sure, people have a right to use social media without being harassed, I can understand that. I am not
defending cyber-bullying of any kind, nor do I find it funny. However, as an artist criticism is something you face daily. Going on a warpath and not using people's criticism to make yourself better is just, well, douchey.




Number 4: Dave Grohl Attacks!

Since I'm not ready to leave the Twitterverse just yet, another instance of Nickelback hating comes to us from another post-grunge musician (one with actual talent, too), Mr. Dave Grohl. In case you've never seen it, here's the Tweet:

Yes, that does sound scary, but the insults didn't end there. Dave Grohl had more to say:

Of course, maybe this one isn't so "funny" because of the way Nickelback has been ruining music. It isn't like Dave Grohl is the only musician that has hated on Nickelback for their music. Patrick Carney of the Black Keys had this to say in an interview in Rolling Stone Magazine:

“Rock ’n’ roll is dying because people became OK with Nickelback being the biggest band in the world. Rock ’n’ roll is the music I feel most passionately about and I don’t like to see it f---ing ruined and spoon-fed down our throats in this watered-down, post-grunge crap, horrendous s—t. When people start lumping us into that kind of s—t, it’s like f—k you, honestly.”

Okay, so maybe the threat to music that is Nickelback should be taken seriously. After all, they are ruining rock n' roll for all of us. Oh, but this list isn't over yet.

Number 3: Nickelback Loses Popularity Contest to a Pickle

You read that right. Back in 2010 a Pickle received more Facebook "likes" than Nickelback did.

You might think to yourself, "But Facebook has pages that have a lot more "likes" than Nickelback. What does this prove?" The thing is this pickle was designed to get more Facebook "likes" than Nickelback, so it wasn't an accident.

Of course sense then Nickelback has gotten a lot more Facebook interactions. A lot of that can be credited to Facebook's growing community. The pickle has also since been lost from Facebook. What's happened to it? Who knows.

Actually, people started hating it once it
started calling itself "Pickleback".

Number 2: Australian Police Put Out a BOLO on Nickelback

Remember that first image that greeted you once you opened this blog? Yeah, that was a real thing. It was Tweeted by Queensland's Police Department in May of 2015. If you were wondering, no, this was not a parody account. This came from the official Twitter account of the Queensland Police.

Yes, Nickelback's music is so bad that police are putting out warnings when they come into town. For those that want to see the original Tweet, you can find it here.

Number 1: Chicago Mayor Forced to Deny Nickelback Fandom

NPR

Back in 2012 then Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel was accused of liking Nickelback by a protester during the teacher's strike. These charges were so severe that a spokesperson for Rahm Emanuel had to deny that he liked the band.

Politico reporter Daniel Strauss took to Twitter claiming that this attack had shown civility had "disappeared in Chicago Teachers Union protests."

You know your band is hated when listening you is considered a severe political attack.