Marek

Two years ago, I wrote a piece published in Computerworld called “Disinformation as a service? DaaS not good!,” in which I predicted the the rise of Disinformation as a service that would target businesses.

My prediction has now come true, unfortunately.

ZDNet Senior Reporter Danny Palmer wrote a piece published yesterday called “The dark web’s latest offering: Disinformation as a service.”

He reported that new disinformation services are being advertised now to businesses. He writes that it’s “the first time underground forums have been found to be offering commercial disinformation services.”

The article continues:

“For as little as a few hundred dollars, members of the criminal forums will craft full-scale disinformation campaigns which organisations can use to falsely generated positive propaganda about themselves – or to generate negative disinformation campaigns designed to tarnish rivals with lies and malicious material.”

This is not a good development, but it probably always was an inevitable one.

For years I asked, pleaded for a chance to own my work. Instead I was given an opportunity to sign back up to Big Machine Records and ‘earn’ one album back at a time, one for every new one I turned in. I walked away because I knew once I signed that contract, Scott Borchetta would sell the label, thereby selling me and my future. I had to make the excruciating choice to leave behind my past. Music I wrote on my bedroom floor and videos I dreamed up and paid for from the money I earned playing in bars, then clubs, then arenas, then stadiums. 

Some fun facts about today’s news: I learned about Scooter Braun’s purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world. All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years. 

Like when Kim Kardashian orchestrated an illegally recorded snippet of a phone call to be leaked and then Scooter got his two clients together to bully me online about it. (See photo) Or when his client, Kanye West, organized a revenge porn music video which strips my body naked. Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy. Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.

This is my worst case scenario. This is what happens when you sign a deal at fifteen to someone for whom the term ‘loyalty’ is clearly just a contractual concept. And when that man says ‘Music has value’, he means its value is beholden to men who had no part in creating it. 

When I left my masters in Scott’s hands, I made peace with the fact that eventually he would sell them. Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine the buyer would be Scooter. Any time Scott Borchetta has heard the words ‘Scooter Braun’ escape my lips, it was when I was either crying or trying not to. He knew what he was doing; they both did. Controlling a woman who didn’t want to be associated with them. In perpetuity. That means forever. 

Thankfully, I am now signed to a label that believes I should own anything I create. Thankfully, I left my past in Scott’s hands and not my future. And hopefully, young artists or kids with musical dreams will read this and learn about how to better protect themselves in a negotiation. You deserve to own the art you make.

I will always be proud of my past work. But for a healthier option, Lover will be out August 23. 

Sad and grossed out,

💔

Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving)

How the 9/11 attacks were reported on front pages around the world

On the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, here’s a look at front-page coverage by newspapers and magazines around the world. (Yahoo News)