Funeral For A Friend

Have you ever lost someone close to you? I’m not talking about a pet or someone you went to high school with but never actually talked to, I mean someone really close. One of those friends where, as the cliché goes, if your entire life was represented as a series of footprints on a beach this friend’s footprints would be beside yours the whole time except during the most difficult moments of your life. However, as it turns out, those difficult times where you thought your friend had abandoned you, this friend was, in fact, carrying you. Have you ever lost one of those friends? I did recently. In fact I’ve lost a few recently. I haven’t been dealing with the loss very well. These friends shared my love for violent movies, obnoxious noisy music and quality HBO programming. What’s better, this friend was always willing to share. If this friend had something, he was over to your place in no-time to share.

These dearly departed friends weren’t human per se, rather they were my favourite sites to download music and videos from. And they didn’t really die per se, but lawyers from organizations with initials for names shut them down. I said these friends carried me through the difficult times, that much was true. When the label refused to send us the top-secret advance album, Oink.cd was there and we were able to download it in under 10 minutes. When I had 30 minutes to kill, TV-Links.co.uk was there with the latest episode of 30 Rock. When I was too cheap to spring for anything but basic cable, Demonoid.org was there with the final episode of The Sopranos an hour after its dismal ending.

Losing someone close to the holidays is always difficult. The same is true for the loss of my beloved websites. Oink was always so giving around this time of year. You could download as much as you wanted and it was no problem. Oink didn’t even want anything back. But the worst part about losing friends like these if you have to go back and start hanging with friends you ditched when you met you better and cooler friends. The first phone call is always awkward as you reach out to those old friends who are slow and unreliable. Those old friends like to pull stupid pranks too. Like just when you think you’re downloading a movie that hasn’t been released in theatres yet, it turns out this friend renamed the most depraved porn you can imagine Juno or I’m Not There.

I just want to have every album, movie and television program I can think of at a moment’s notice and I don’t want to pay anything. But lawyers keep shitting on my party and shutting down sites that help me achieve this dream. Though it may feel like they’re winning a few battles, the war is ultimately a futile one. Okay, they want to make money, fair enough. Rather than fighting the most powerful marketing tool ever invented they should get with start rolling with the punches and realize there are plenty of lucrative ways to make money outside of selling CDs and tickets to movies. It’s old school thinking and it’s going to be dead soon. Companies can either smarten up or risk perishing themselves. If that mostly unfounded proclamation doesn’t change anyone’s mind, could you just change your ways out of pity for me? I’m running out of friends fast and I’m starting to get lonely. My hard drive won’t fill itself.