MySpace: Now theoritically more Canadian!

You may recall my recent screed about how crappy MySpace is, particularly if you are Canadian.

I set up a MySpace account a while back, as an exercise in soul-flagellation, but I have to confess I don’t check it much. But the other day, I got an e-mail alert saying that I’d received a MySpace message from my new “friend”, “Marlene”. So I logged in to check it out.

And thank goodness I did! “Marlene” said she was surfing around, was interested in my profile and wants to get to know me better! Which is great, because according to her picture, Marlene is a really attractive blonde!

Best of all, Marlene said likes the way I look. Which is funny, because this is my avatar:

There was some sort of promise that we could get to know each other better if I visited her website in Russia. But before I could get to know her better, they made Marlene disappear:

I guess she really was from Russia after all.

Anyhow, I did find something interesting when I was logging in. Before I could access my page, I was presented with this announcement/message/disclaimer from MySpace:

If that’s too hard to read, or if you can’t move your eyes past the blonde (which is NOT my long lost Marlene*) here’s what it says:

Hey folks

Welcome to the beta version of MySpace Canada. We’re featuring more Canadian music and some of the features should work better with local postal codes, etc.

Now that MySpace is beginning to look more Canadian, my lawyers told ME what I have to tell YOU: we are still running our site from the US, all your data still resides in the US, and that MySpace’s data management practices are still governed by US laws.

- Thx, Tom

Note: MySpace Canada is available in French and in English. However, MySpace remains a worldwide community. Your choice will not prevent you from making friends and viewing content from users in other countries or using another language.

Anyhow, I believe I can translate Tom’s disclaimer into Canajan:

Even though you claim in your profile to be from Bouvet Island, we aren’t stupid. We can read your I.P. address and know that you are Canadian. This means we think you are stupid, and if we feed you some automated ads and a clip of the Tea Party, you’ll believe MySpace is Canadian too. But it isn’t. So don’t try to access our corporate health plan, or send PayPal payments to Osama bin Laden through our site. Rupert Murdoch will personally kick your hockey-loving ass. Also, we now know how to use Babelfish. Zoot alors!

Still, I appreciate the effort. They’ve even got a new domain:

http://ca.myspace.com/

Actually, that’s a subdomain. Those are free. They still haven’t forked over the cash to buy out the schmuck that is using www.myspace.ca as his own blog. Actually, any self-respecting media agency would have just unleashed the legal hounds and just tried to extort any domain they wanted to own.

And MySpace Canada has a new logo, too:

Of course, this looks more like a logo for CanadaBETAmyspace… mmm, perhaps I’ll go register that domain myself. I’d appreciate a nasty lawyer letter, or a bucket full of money too! (I wonder what Joe Clark would say about that logo.)

They’ve certain made some improvements to the registration process, such as recognizing that Canada has “provinces” instead of “prefectures.” When you do register, they hit you again with the disclaimer: “…you consent to the transfer of your personal data to the U.S. , where your personal data will be subject to U.S. law and where the level of data protection is different compared to your country.” Which makes me really curious to know what particular data the Americans are so antsy about.

Anyhow… I was excited to check out this “more Canadian” content - fingers crossed for a video of Jason Priestley and Bonhomme getting married in the cockpit of the Avro Arrow!

Well, today’s “more Canadian” content includes:

-four videos (made by people in New York, Florida, Missouri and Mississippi)
-a band from Brooklyn
-an American ad
-and a Robbie Williams video (it’s the Brits who are obsessed with him. All others say “huh?”)

However, there are three Canadians in the “Cool New People” area. (That name always makes me laugh. New people? Like, infants? And how would you grade their “coolness”?):

Randall <3 (less than three? Certainly numerically confused: “Male, 21 years old”; “I’m a 17 year old senior.” Not senior citizen, presumably.)

Shortround (a Manitoba woman who chases ghosts)

Lady T aka Tamika (”Rootical Afrikan-Jamaican Womban”)

Well, colour me proud, with an extra “ou”.

And a Toronto charity, Skate4Cancer, apparently won some MySpace award, which may or may not be a coincidence. (This charity is insane: the dude skateboards across the continent whilst hopped up on painkillers and sleeping in ditches - but their website is absolutely stunning.)

Not a bad start, CanadaBETAmyspace. (If my name were Amy, I know what URL I’d register…) But now my colleagues are coercing me to join the dreaded Facebook (I see that Facebook.ca is already squatted. That sounded rude, didn’t it?)

I’m sure I’ll be squatting all over Facebook in a future post. Say, maybe that’s where Marlene went…

———————–

* I do appreciate the offer to “Find girls in Toronto” (not women, but girls!) Fortunately, I have two already, ages 3 and 5. But I’ll check this site if they are ever lost, and I need to find them. However, I’m betting the mostly-nekkid model probably resides in the US and is governed by US laws too. Pity.

Posted by: Paul Gorbould | 04-12-2007 | 01:04 AM
Posted in: Teh Internets