( Rolling Stone ) -- The digital archivist who restored the singles catalogs of the Smiths , Joy Division and New Order in a series of blog projects is being strongly discouraged from starting a similar project collecting R.E.M . 's earliest work . In a blog post on the nascent R.E.M.cycle site , the blogger known as Analog Loyalist explained that Universal , the record company that owns the band 's IRS Records catalog , issued a Digital Millennium Copyright Act ( DMCA ) takedown notice for an R.E.M . post on the writer 's sister site The Power of Independent Trucking featuring a restored version of the band 's first cassette demo , with early renditions of `` Radio Free Europe , '' `` Sitting Still '' and `` White Tornado . '' `` Tell me , what role does the IFPI ( of which Universal is obviously a member ) have to do with unreleased material recorded when the band had no record contract ? , '' Analog Loyalist writes , referring to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry . `` These were demos freely given away by the band . On low-fi C45 cassettes . And the IFPI thinks it 's their business how ? '' The blogger is now reconsidering the wisdom of pursuing the project . `` So you can see why I 'm very hesitant to move forward with this blog , only because I do n't want to see my efforts as a writer/archivist/engineer wasted , '' he writes . The site would in fact be a very labor-intensive process . As explained in the sidebar for the R.E.M. , Smiths and Joy Division/New Order sites , the tracks used are `` taken from the best/earliest possible sources to avoid modern mastering techniques which crush the dynamics , '' and the artwork is `` scanned at the highest possible resolution and the type was reset when possible using the original fonts . '' All works featured in these projects are from out-of-print sources , and some tracks have never been commercially released or reissued . See the full story at RollingStone.com . Copyright © 2011 Rolling Stone .
A digital archivist is being prevented from posting restored version of R.E.M 's first cassette demo . They issued a Digital Millennium Copyright Act ( DMCA ) takedown notice for on the Loyalist 's website . ` ` These were demos freely given away by the band . On low - fi C45 cassette , '' the notice said .