We are looking for links that are of interest to independent musicians, fans, and those who give a damn about copyright/music biz issues.

Please provide us with a link and brief summary of the articles and items you share, but try to keep lengthy comments to a minimum when using the "In The News" thread.

To make your link "clickable" simply use this format: [url= (complete url goes here) ] (plain-text goes here) [ /url]

REMOVE all spaces between ALL the brackets:

[ (No spaces here) ]

before posting! (The plain text CAN have spaces, but nothing else in the string can or it will not work right!)

Try it out! (Don't worry, I will come back and delete/fix any broken links when I have the time.) --Shmoo

Last months version of "In The News"

http://www.boycott-riaa.com/article/28808

Man runs into burning home to rescue vintage Les Paul guitar, escapes safely

I can't say I blame him. I'd have likely done the same to save mine.

Third undersea cable cut, this time near Dubai

hmm... are terrorists responsible, or is it the record companies who want to kill the Internet? (Or, is there a difference?)

As if you didn't already know, RealPlayer sucks!

RealPlayer dinged by software watchdog group

Why Newspapers are hurting in the Internet age.

In short, it's the same as with the RIAA labels - failure to adapt from an anti-competitive business model.

Galactic Civilizations II: big budget game, no DRM

"The link containts their no nonsense understanding that to truly avert piracy, you must make your product worth buying, not loaded up with non user friendly DRM. These guys really deserve some credit. The game, a Turn Based, RTS strategy hybrid set in space, looks fantastic too."

I don't play many video games, but this sounds like the sort of game I'd enjoy! Might end up buying it. --Shmoo

Death sentence for downloading?

Authorities in Afghanistan have sentenced a 23-year-old journalism student to death for having downloaded and shared copies of a report criticizing the oppressive treatment of women in some Islamic societies.

Actually, newspaper is a lot more competitive than the music biz. Without reading the actual article, newspapers' problem is that we just got tired of reading yesterday's news.

Web Trend Map 2008

I didn't see DMusic Networks on there, so I submitted it.

Sony kills DRM stores -- your DRM music will only last until your next upgrade

The Sony 'Connect' DRM-tastic music store is closing shop on March 31, 2008. Another failed experiment in DRM is leaving its paying customers out in the cold with soon-to-be unusable content (unless you violate the DMCA) in the form of audio files DRM locked to Sony's ATRAC media players. Yet another in a seemingly endless stream of examples of how media companies are punishing their paying, legitimate customers for the RIAA's own infuriating technological shortsightedness.

Seems like I have to post a version of this story every year:

For 200 members of the Immanuel Bible Church and their friends, the annual Super Bowl party is over thanks to the NFL

Federal copyright law includes an exemption for sports bars, according to NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy, but churches are out of luck. Churchgoers who aren't adverse to a little drinking-and-driving still have the opportunity to see the game together in public on a screen bigger than 55 inches.

"an exemption for sports bars"

Really? Don't these kind of bars automatically have to pay for a license (even if they for some reason don't want to air any NFL?)

A mandatory license is not an "exemption" ...it's like a tax

...or, rather more yet like "protection insurance" paid to the mafia.

Google translated article ...showing that a new Italian copyright law would authorize users to publish and freely share copyrighted music (p2p included). The new law, already approved by both legislative houses, indeed says that one is allowed to publish freely, through the Internet, free of charge, images and music at low resolution or "degraded," for scientific or educational use, and only when such use is not for profit. As Monti says in the interview, those who wrote it didn't realize that the word "degraded" is technical, with a very precise meaning, which includes MP3s, which are compressed with an algorithm that ensures a quality loss. The law will be effective after the appropriate decree of the ministry, and will probably have an impact on pending p2p judicial cases.

Flash price drop spurring innovation

A massive decline in the price of NAND flash memory, the chips that store photos in digital cameras and music in iPods, is prompting innovation among companies trying to increase sales.

Breakthrough in striking writers talks?

...no specific details on the possible agreement, but I have a feeling the writers are going to give in too easily.

Is Time Warner cable f**king with iTunes downloads in the same way Comcast has been messing with p2p traffic?

Damnit! We need the FCC to get its' ass in gear and start doing its' job!

(Guess we are gonna have to wait for Obama to appoint a new chair.)

Yet another undersea cable cut.

Yahoo music users going to RealNetworks

Yahoo Inc. will cease operating its online music subscription service and switch its customers to RealNetworks Inc.'s Rhapsody music service as part of a new deal between the companies that calls for Yahoo to promote Rhapsody on its site.

WOW:

http://www.douglaskarr.com/2007/06/23/2008-elections-by-server/

Only the cool candidates use Linux - the dopes use Microsoft 2003 server!!!

Did Fox infringe the copyright of Arcade Fire on NFL and Superbowl ads?

"Turns out Fox never even asked the band if they could use their song, and they certainly weren't given permission to do so."

Study finds U.S. music awash in booze and drugs

"Primack's team used charts in Billboard magazine, a trade publication covering the music business, to identify the most popular songs of 2005 based on sales and airplay."

So, the RIAA is to blame. lol

AT&T hikes broadband prices

"Steven Levy at the Washington post suggests Time-Warner's real aim is to hobble iTunes, raising the cost of a movie download by $10 (or $30 for a high-definition movie). Eyeing Time-Warner's experiment, Comcast cable also says they're evaluating a pay-per-gigabyte model."

CNet asks: "In '08 presidential race, who's the most tech-friendly?"

With a quick to read chart.

Only Barack Obama and Ron Paul gave forthright replies, and they deserve credit for their directness.

Send Brian to the Grammys. Follow the link and then vote for him.

Total Bullshit.

http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/02/report-doj-serv.html

Customs agents have begun using their authority to insist on copying data brought to the border on laptop computers, cell phones and other devices.

The government claims that this intelligence-gathering by Customs is the same as looking in a suitcase. In response the EFF is filing a lawsuit attempting to force the government to reveal its policies on border searches. 'The question of whether border agents have a right to search electronic devices at all without suspicion of a crime is already under review in the federal courts. The lawsuit was inspired by some two dozen cases, 15 of which involved searches of cellphones, laptops, MP3 players and other electronics.

...and if that don't work, just wait until the RIAA gets word that one of their songs was copied.

A 5th undersea cable has been cut!!!

Somebody REALLY hates the Internet.

Somebody REALLY hates the Internet.

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

Here's someone who DOES hate the Internet:

Comcast has changed its Terms of Service to include policies on traffic management.

"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."

(ROFL!)

George at his best.

Re: Comcast

In some ways, they're horses' asses; I endure them because where I live there is no other choice (it's either Comcast or dial-up). My older son is in the same boat, and he hates them too.

Should You Watch Sunday Night's Grammy Awards?

Actually, there is ONE compelling reason to watch the Grammys this year.

Let George tell ya why: http://azoz.com

DefectiveByDesign.org will be taking action this Saturday at the Boston Public Library to demand that they remove DRM technology from their collection! We will be gathering outside the entrance at the main branch of the Boston Public Library (700 Boylston St., Boston MA 02116) at 1PM on Saturday, February 9th, 2008. Please, Sign-up if you are attending.

* Location: 700 Boylston St., Boston MA 02116
* Time: 1:00--3:00PM on Saturday, February 9th, 2008

EFF filed a motion
for judgment on the pleadings asking a U.S. District Court
judge to throw out a copyright infringement suit brought by
talk show host Michael Savage against the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Savage sued CAIR in
December, alleging that CAIR infringed the copyright in his
show when it posted brief excerpts from Savage's radio
program in order to criticize Savage's remarks.

Link

Mellencamp songs off McCain's playlist

Mellencamp: "Hey McCain, if you are trying to portray yourself as a conservative Republican, why you wanna use songs by a liberal Democrat. I supported Edwards!"

Metallica and U2 are headliners at Bonnaroo this year.

Don't go. They both hate you.

Deal reached in Writer's Strike?

The new Hotmail update (deliberately?) don't work with Firefox 2.0

hmm... doesn't M$ own Hotmail?

First Amendment ruling in favor of Trolls.

I don't like trolls, but I like government censorship even less.

A recent ruling by the Court of Appeal of the State of California (PDF) in Krinsky v. Doe H030767 overturned a lower court ruling (.pdf file)

Go Ray!!

http://www.p2pnet.net/story/14902

BOC to have a monkey on cowbell.

lol

Yoko suing Lennon Murphy over the use of his name.

"Getting Sued by Yoko
Current mood: angry
Category: Music

Yoko Ono filed what is for the most part a law suit with the Trademark and Trial Board of the US Patent & Trademark office this past week. You can read the filing yourself by clicking on the link below. Yoko waited 8 years until 2 days before the statue of limitations ran out to file this complaint. 5 lawyers including 2 trademark experts we have spoken with agree that Yoko has no grounds for these claims and is just trying to push Lennon around and make her spend money she doesn't have. Yoko seeks to gain the rights to the Trademark "LENNON" which Lennon Murphy has owned since 2003. This lady is a scum bag and so is her lawyer Peter Shukat who first became aware of Lennon in 2000 when approached by Arista records for consent by Yoko and the John Lennon estate to release Lennon's debut 5:30 Saturday Morning CD under the name "LENNON." They made no objections at that time, nor did they for the next 8 years. Now everything Lennon has worked for is on the line, if Yoko prevails, Lennon might never be able to tour or release records using the name Lennon."

http://www.johngaltentertainment.com/lennonyoko.pdf

In other Beatle-related news. OBIT:

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a guru to the Beatles who introduced the West to transcendental meditation, died today at his home in the Dutch town of Vlodrop, a spokesman said. He was thought to be 91 years old.

McCain Received $100,000 From Convicted Felon Jack Abramoff

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/12/mccain-received-100000-_n_86245.html

Classical artists embrace digital culture

When British violinist Tasmin Little announced in January that she would be giving away her "Naked Violin" album as a free download, she tapped into a growing trend: classical music artists and retailers utilizing digital formats and business models.

the telecom companies are one step closer to getting off the hook for their illegal collusion with the US government.

Best government that money can buy.

Blog, social network buzz correlates to better album salesBlog, social network buzz correlates to better album sales

The blogosphere appeared to be most strongly correlated to better album sales—if 40 or more legitimate (written by normal people and not by marketers) blog posts were made before an album's release, sales ended up being three times the average.

Does chatter matter? (further reading for the above link.)

"Best government that money can buy."

And best corporations that government can enable.


Our government is crappy.
Mega-corporations are crappy.
The future of this country looks crappy.


Where does realism end and pessimism begin?
Or can they be an overlapping Venn diagram?

Canon Files For DSLR Iris Registration Patent

Canon has filed for a patent for using iris watermarking (as in the iris of your eye) to take photographer's copyright protection to the next level. You set up the camera to capture an image of your eye through the viewfinder. Once captured, this biological reference is embedded as metadata into every photo you take. Canon claims this will help with copyright infringement of photos online.

Governments and corporations have a very contagious form of copyright mania. It infects all those with vested interests, and even makes the uninvolved sick to their stomaches.

"sick to their stomachs"
or gives them stomach-aches


I hate oppressive governments (like the U.S.'s) and invasive cartels (like the RIAA & the MPAA)!

And I also hate how too many people are unaware or don't care.

[gnashed teeth]

You've been pumping my retard, I'm the Ferangi in your yard, with sawdust and yoda! lmao!

No, I'm not smoking anything I shouldn't be ... but you might want to consider it before watching this shit lol ... your gonna piss yer pants laughing trust me lol

Better Graphics, Worse Audio:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fSpI4oZoDc

Better Audio, Worse Graphics:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdG_fey4_ow

Hell, watch both. lol

But this is funny, seriously. lol

I *really* needed to share this. lol ... and seeing as Dahler Mendi isn't an RIAA Artist, I'm sure he wouldn't mind it!

-Dave

Hmm...

From: Michael Moniz
To: Bob Lefsetz
Subject: Grammy Comment(My Grammy Moment)

"One more thing I can't believe no one caught on to, which further make
the Grammys a fucking joke, was the "My Grammy Moment". The way the
contest was structured, you would think it's meant for non-established
performing musicians to get a chance in the pseudo spotlight. The winner
last night? Ann Marie Calhoun. Now you may ask who the hell she is.
She's currently in fucking Ringo Starr's touring/promo band for his
new album! Alarm bells went off in my head when I saw her as one of the
final three. I had just seen her a couple weeks before as part of
Ringo's band on the Craig Ferguson Late Late Show. Add to that, her
performing on a Dave Matthews record, and touring with Jethro Tull and Steve
Vai!! (check out her site and Wikipedia entry). Pretty much a scam to
the actual amateur musicians from around the country who submitted to
this contest thinking they actually had a real shot. And for the
record, I watched to see what kind of train wreck the show was gonna be, and
for comedic value, by an hour and a half in, I'd taken all the
punishment I could take and flipped off the tv."

EFF fighting for Digital Rights in Europe

Support EFF at this Weekend's ShmooCon!

Going to ShmooCon? Donate during the T-shirt Charity Drive
and support EFF! Charitable attendees pay to receive a
shirt and a poker chip to give to a charity of choice. On
the last day of the conference, SchmooCon organizers will
convert the chips into monetary donations for your favorite
non-profits.

ShmooCon is an annual East coast hacker convention
hell-bent on offering three days of an interesting
atmosphere for demonstrating technology exploitation,
inventive software & hardware solutions, and open
discussions of critical infosec issues.

For more about ShmooCon:
http://www.shmoocon.org/

For more about the ShmooCon contests and events:
http://www.shmoocon.org/contests.html

=======

No relation.

Lawrence Lessig to run for Congress?

With the unfortunate passing of Congressman Tom Lantos, parts of Silicon Valley and San Francisco will be holding a special election in June to send a replacement to Congress. Given the area, it would be great to have someone who is both tech- and policy-aware fill the seat — and it looks like that just might happen. Lawrence Lessig has apparently bought 'change-congress.com.' A 'Draft Lessig' group is forming on Facebook, featuring some of Lessig's old co-workers at Harvard and Jimmy Wales, among others. No word from Lessig himself yet, but he's been increasingly vocal about politics of late. If it happens, it would be a huge step forward for the representation of technology in Washington.

Comcast's FCC Filing Called Unfair, Not Good Enough

"What Comcast is really doing wasn't at all comparable to limiting the number of cars that enter a highway. Instead, it was more like a horse race where the cable company owns one of the horses and the racetrack itself." --Vuse

Oklahoma State U bows to the RIAA

Hours after a federal court judge ordered Oklahoma State University to show cause why it shouldn't be held in contempt for failing to respond to an RIAA subpoena, attorneys for the school e-mailed a list of students' names to the RIAA's attorneys. But now that the RIAA has what it wanted, the group is unsure about how to go about sending out its pre-litigation settlement letters. Some of the students are represented by an attorney, meaning that the RIAA is barred from contacting them directly.

US to use spy satellites on US citizens.

Probably already are doing so. (Possibly why they are gonna try shooting down the one falling on us soon. The don't want no evidence if the hard-drives onboard survive re-entry ya know.)

tin-foil hat

New Net Neutrality legislation.

http://www.freepress.net/docs/markey_086_xml.pdf

it would add a section to the 'Broadband Policy' section of the Communications Act which spells out principles the FCC is expected to uphold, in addition to having them hold summits which would 'assess competition, consumer protection, and consumer choice issues related to broadband Internet access services' and make it easy for citizens to submit comments or complaints online.

I apologize to Yoko.

http://www.boycott-riaa.com/article/29294

Australia set to give the go-ahead for Creative Commons licensing for public sector information.

HEY, WAIT! Shouldn't "public sector" info be public domain anyways???

I hate Clear Channel, but this ain't right:

Great White concert fire that killed 100 costs Clear Channel $22 million.

For advertising the concert.

And the format winner is: Blu-ray.
Walmart to sell that format exclusively, game over HD.

Linky

http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/15/technology/wal-mart_blu-ray/index.htm?cnn=yes
so much for posting a link.

[url =http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/15/technology/wal-mart_blu-ray/index.htm?cnn=yes ]Linky[ /url]

Removing the 3 spaces will get you:

Linky

Porn producer Vivid wants Google to make porn harder to find.

It's for the sake of the children...

(yeah, right.)

Violinist: Fall fractures $1M fiddle

OUCH!

The chief songwriter and founder of the band Boston has more than a feeling that he's being ripped off by Mike Huckabee.

In a letter to the Republican presidential hopeful, Tom Scholz complains that Huckabee is using his 1970s smash hit song "More Than a Feeling" without his permission.

Google plans to enter the online music market in China for the first time, as it steps up its battle with local incumbent Baidu.com

The integrity of "American Idol" as a contest for raw, undiscovered talent was called into question again after an Irish singer who once had a major-label deal, and solo album that flopped, advanced to the top rung of the competition this week.

I'm not sure she was actually signed with anyone or not, but our own Brian Fitzgerald was beat out by Ann Marie Calhoun at the Grammy's.

http://www.annmariecalhoun.com/

She's got a lot of prior "big name" affiliation but I, myself am not complaining much about it, even tho some folk are crying foul.

(Not Brian tho. He's as gracious as can be! And, from all reports, had a great time!)

Except for Ann being the one who got to stand up during the "solo" with the Foo Fighters, all three of the finalists seemed to get about equal "face-time" during the Grammy's.

But I guess the "question" is:

Are these big music industry "seek-a-star" contests "rigged"

or

is it that truly talented individuals who enter ALSO are likely to have a prior history of working (or trying to crack into) the music biz?

We know Brian is "true indie" through and through (unless he took any wooden nickels this past week or so, lol.)

-----------

Long story short. I feel "cheated" because I wanted our friend to win, but I see no evidence that Ann Marie's win was "in the fix"

(She IS very good, AND cute as hell to boot!)

So, why am I going on and on about it?

(Lingering doubt and mistrust.)



lol

(Hey, it's in my nature! I'm that friggin' Boycott-Riaa guy after all ain't I?)

Folks, you GOTTA check out this new vid by Leaving Cash (Brian's band!)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=gGWiTbj3F1Y

OMG!!!

Well, it appears that Boycott-Riaa's data has finally been transfered to the new server along with DMusic.

We lost a lot of articles and links that I posted over the past week or more, but I should have a bunch of new stuff by Tuesday or so. (A new "In The News" thread will be posted Monday morning when I am able to log into the admin section. -- knock on wood.)

Time to get back to work spreading our very important message.