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(Don't worry if you "mess up" - I will come along and play "clean up" every couple of days or so.) --Shmoo

OBIT: Jeff Healey



RIP

OBIT: Reggae producer Joe Gibbs

Trent Reznor's first 9 of 36 songs from the new album are free.

Rest of album $5 to download, $10 for the standard double album CD. $300 for the super deluxe limited edition 4 vinyl LP boxed set.

How can he do this? Well, duh, he's no longer tied to the RIAA.

What the hell happened this weekend? I go to boycott-riaa and get Dmusic AND a big snootfull of malware! WTF?

All I know is that they were transferring data from the old server to a new server. As for why there was malware I haven't a clue. My guess is that it was some nasty stuff probably lingering on the old server? I noticed a few folks at DMusic complaining about malware at DMusic the other day (and I myself experienced malware a couple weeks ago.)

Check the DMusic forums. Jack or somebody there might know.

YouTube is supposedly improving the audio/video quality.

Right now I know DailyMotion, MetaCafe and others have them beat hands down.

Well, YouTube supposedly got around to re-encoding one of my band's vids. See if you can tell a difference:

old - http://youtube.com/watch?v=OY2Dkl7TbjE

new - http://youtube.com/watch?v=OY2Dkl7TbjE&fmt=18

I am listening thru crappy speakers right now and can't tell a difference. The picture looks a slight bit better tho maybe.

Microsoft creates reverse karaoke.

Microsoft Research presented a paper at CHI 2008 about MySong, an application that chooses chords to accompany melodies that a user sings into a microphone. You can change the chords by adjusting the "happy factor" and "jazz factor" sliders.

At Hunter College, professors are debating the ethics of a course in which an industry group paid for a class to develop a fake student who would write a fake blog to discourage other students from buying knockoff products.

The controversy involves both commercial interference with academic freedom and the ethics of 'guerilla marketing.

They are attempting to create a counterfeit person to persuade people to dislike counterfeit goods.

lol

Jill Sobule Turning to fans to finance CD

Contributors can choose a level of pledges ranging from the $10 "unpolished rock," which earns them a free digital download of her disc when it's made, to the $10,000 "weapons-grade plutonium level," where she promises "you get to come and sing on my CD. Don't worry if you can't sing — we can fix that on our end."

For the $500 "gold level," Sobule will mention your name in a song, maybe even rhyme with it. The $750 "gold doubloons level" is "exactly like the gold level, but you give me more money."

Warner to sell mp3's thru 7 digital in Europe.

Boycott!

Twitty's children sue Sony for royalties

The children of the late Conway Twitty have sued Sony/ATV for a share of royalties and publishing copyrights for the country artist's music.

Micheal Robertson at it again

SyncWizard software collects contacts, appointments, music, and documents online and makes it available on PCs, PDAs, and smartphones.

Unless Michael plays by RIAA rules this time I predict they will sue him yet AGAIN. I haven't researched the details of this SyncWizard endeavor, but he has a long history making the mistake of thinking that the RIAA's music is all that will "sell" via his ventures.

Mp3.com coulda been a contender ...but he HAD to go and poison it with that "MyLocker" crap and RIAA's "famous already" favoritism over the independent artists who GAVE him his shot years ago.

...and upon whom's backs he built his fortune.

What? Me? Bitter still?

lol

Why not? I bet he'd do it again in a heartbeat. Maybe they should make him the RIAA president... Now that could get interesting, unlike mp-snooze-3.com

Chillin' - that would be a cosimic joke...

...just imagine, Michael Robertson as CEO of the RIAA

(Y'know what? I think that's been his GOAL all along!)

LOL (with capitol letters!)

OMG...

now that I think about it...

...

...

...





...damn, this stuff I'm smoking is strong

A Note to the DMusic "regulars" (you SHOULD know who you are) is in the forums about the sucky site performance issues lately.

It's by ME and IMHO only.

(I can't/don't speak directly for leflaw ...but, I am on his side still and for now.)

READ IT!

Nine Inch Nails Sells Out Of $300 Deluxe Edition In Under Two Days

"Now, before some people start complaining that this will only work for big name bands, there's an easy response to that: these days, the way to become a big band is to get your music out there. Newer bands can easily give away music as a promotion to get attention, build up a following, and throw in these types of options as they get bigger. Besides, smaller, less-well-known acts still have plenty of other offerings they can use to make money, even as a smaller band."

I'm not complaining that Trent Reznor uses his fame to leverage this kind of success. Not at all! However, the fact remains that you do gotta have that kind of name recognition before you can sell on anything approaching that level.

My complaint is that the RIAA stands in the way as the gate-keeper. You STILL have to go thru them too often to get known. (And they continue trying to be the ONLY option using illegal, immoral, monopolistic tactics!) Radio and Tv and the trade magazines are SHUT! The internet is all that's left (and they want to dominate that too!)

It's why I fight.

Should RIAA Investigators Have to Disclose Evidence?

The issue at hand is whether the RIAA's investigator SafeNet now needs to disclose its digital files, validation methodology, testing procedures, failure rates, software manuals, protocols, packet logs, source code, and other materials, so that the validity of its methods can be evaluated by the defense. SafeNet and the RIAA say no, claiming that the information is 'proprietary and confidential'.

Facebook Scrabble Rip-off Capitalizes on Mattel's Lethargy

...according to an NYTimes article, 'Scrabulous has already brought Scrabble a newfound virtual popularity that none of the game companies could have anticipated,' and according to one consultant to the entertainment industry, 'If you're Hasbro or Mattel, it isn't in your interest to shut this down.'

Of squatters and filesharers:

http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/copyright-crusade.ars

another good Ars article.

Bjork pisses of China

...she shouted "Tibet, Tibet," after performing her song "Declare Independence"

The Last Things Pop Stars Need Is Singing Ability

George commented on this one briefly at AzOz, but I think he missed the point because the article's title leads you to believe that there is only one style of "singing ability."

The critic is defending certain singers (Bob Dylan for example) who may not "be able to sing well" - but who nevertheless are valid, and can be considered "good singers."

...and, the critic also points out the contrary. Someone like "Brittney Spears" may have once been able to sing well, but is NOT worthy as singer.

It's all a question of semantics.

Cheater's on YouTube?

For some odd reason, a fan-made video of unknown Brazilian band Cansei De Ser Sexy getting 40 million views on YouTube (and taking the #1 all time video spot) is making some people suspicious

US Air Force's use of the DMCA

If an artist puts out free mp3's, will fans still buy the album?

Society of Automotive Engineers kills DRM on its journal following MIT boycott

MIT dropped its subscription to the database of past articles from the Society of Automotive Engineer because SAE had was using anti-copying DRM technology on the papers that made them less useful for scientists and researchers. After a presentation from an MIT professor about the boycott, the SAE publication board eliminated DRM for its papers.

Boycott's work!

German Police Raid 51 CeBIT Stands Over Patent Claims

Most of the patents concerned were related to devices with MP3, MP4, and DVB standard functions for digital audio and video, blank CDs, and DVD copiers, police said."

Despite all the emphasis on protecting Olympic copyrights in China this year, the official web site of the Beijing Olympics features a Flash game that is a blatant copy of one of the games developed at The Pencil Farm.

An interview with Lessig

He talks about money, politics, money in politics, and his decision not to run for an open seat in Congress.

"One of the biggest targets of reform that we should be thinking about is how to blow up the FCC. The FCC was set up to protect business and to protect the dominant industries of communication at the time, and its history has been a history of protectionism — protecting the dominant industry against new forms of competition — and it continues to have that effect today. It becomes a sort of short circuit for lobbyists; you only have to convince a small number of commissioners, as opposed to convincing all of Congress. So I think there are a lot of places we have to think about radically changing the scope and footprint of government.

Most interesting to me was when I was doing research very early on about this, and I talked to someone who was in the Clinton administration. They were talking about Al Gore’s original proposal for Title VII of the Communications Act. Title II deals with telecom and Title VI deals with cable and Title VII was going to be an Internet title. And Title VII was going to basically say, no regulation except for minimal interconnect requirements — so it would be taking away both DSL and cable and putting them under one regulatory structure that minimized regulation of both. When this idea was floated on the Hill, it was shot down. The answer came back was, “We can’t do this! How are we going to raise money from these people if we’ve deregulated all of this?”"

------

"I think if you look across the history of regulation, you get this time after time. Look at copyright regulation. It is a massive invasion in the innovative process that has been pushed and extended by special interests inside Washington, who have done nothing more than try to use government to protect their business models against new forms of competition. And I think you can see this in a hundred different areas. "

Happy 10th birthday to the first commercial mp3 player!

:toot:

--the MPMan F10, manufactured by Korea's Saehan Information Systems with 32MB of Flash storage, enough for a handful of songs encoded at 128Kb/s.

Does Your Site Fall Short for Consumers?

When visitors come to your organization's Web site, are they finding what they're looking for? It may seem a basic question, but it's an urgent one: If visitors don't find what they need quickly and easily, your competitor's Web site is just a click away.

-----

an arguement for the "K.I.S.S" principle.

This has been a SLOW news week!

Book Publisher's phasing out DRM

Main reason they say?

"It just doesn't work!"

Re: Pop stars and singing ability

I didn't say it wasn't true. I've just been part of the host band at too many open mic nights to want to tell people that it doesn't matter if you can't sing.

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/news/2008/03/music_levy

RIAA wants ISP's to collect a 'piracy' tax for them.

Well, isn't that special.

They need to tell the RIAA where to go (somewhere where it never snows).

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/03/11/pirated-cd-seller-ab.html

A 38-year old mom in Arkansas went to court on a Thursday to plead innocent on charges of selling pirated music CDs at a local flea market. But the bailiff locked her up in solitary, then forgot about her and went home for the weekend.

Next phase: death penalty for uploading copyrighted files.

Canada's DMCA: unnecessary, ill-starred and doomed

Charlie Angus, a Member of Parliament with Canada's New Democratic Party, has written a blistering open letter to Industry Minister Jim Prentice over the issue of Prentice's proposal to ram through a Canadian version of the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Prentice has consistently refused to allow public consultation into his bill, and instead has drafted a kind of wish-list representing the fondest fantasies of US entertainment giants.

Congress to turn up the heat on FCC's Kevin Martin?

'This request has got to be turning the FCC completely upside down. Significantly, it appears to reflect a bipartisan discontent with Martin's performance. Democrats and some Republicans are upset over his recent move to relax one of the agency's key media ownership rules, as well as the rushed manner in which he handled the matter late last year. Other Republicans dislike what they see as Martin's persecution of the cable industry, especially Comcast.' The Committee originally announced its intention to investigate the FCC in January."

Ars Technica has an interview with Rick Cotton, the general counsel for NBC Universal who is best known for saying that piracy is a more serious offense than robbery.

...but NBC plans to use p2p themselves.

A suit was filed Wednesday against Apple over the possibility that the iTunes music store and iPod are 'illegally using a patented method for distributing digital media over the Internet.' ZapMedia Services filed the suit

The LA Times is reporting that the MPAA's Dan Glickman has taken another swipe against net neutrality

Glickman argued in his speech that neutrality regulations would bar the use of emerging tools that ISPs can use to prevent piracy. That's what some studio lobbyists have been telling lawmakers, too, in their efforts to derail neutrality legislation.

Activision Inc. has asked a federal court to declare that its popular "Guitar Hero" game does not violate a patent held by real-guitar maker Gibson Guitar Corp.

Gibson's 1999 patent covers a virtual-reality device that included a headset with speakers and that simulated participating in a concert, according to a complaint filed on Tuesday

Princeton University music theorist Dmitri Tymoczko has applied some string-theory math to the study of music and found that all possible chordal music can be represented in a higher-dimensional space.

Deep stuff!

"Glickman argued in his speech that neutrality regulations would bar the use of emerging tools that ISPs can use to prevent piracy. That's what some studio lobbyists have been telling lawmakers, too, in their efforts to derail neutrality legislation."

So, we Americans living in the land of the free, are supposed to accept the scuttling of net neutrality just because some developing fingerprinting technology might be useful for isps to reluctantly help thwart movie piracy on the web? Don't make me puke.
Clickman & company, you and your ilk are a crock of shit.

Re: "Is Media Sentry operating illegally in your state?"

MediaSentry is functioning on very shaky ground; it's an RIAA can of worms whose demise is imminent.

This should be fun:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080313-andersen-attorney-on-riaa-suit-they-cant-run-now.html

http://www.betanews.com/article/Defendant_in_RIAA_suit_files_amended_complaint/1205509900

Gfmlcka, the RIAA will most likely try to settle rather than have the discovery phase kick in.

Oh, I'm sure they will.
But don't be so pessimistic, God hath no wrath like a womans scorn. And Tanya is seriously pissed off at the RIAA.

That's a good one (I like it!)
telling pessimist not be pessimistic.

I suppose I could try to run counter to my nature occasionally . . .
but not in cases where probability or the prospect of reality is too strong. It's one thing for me to try to force an optimistic smile, but quite another to go against the odds. The RIAA has too much to lose to take the risk for what might be revealed during a discovery phase. I'll have to abide my usernamesake on this issue. Sorry.

House votes against telcom immunity for illegal wiretapping

Bush said he'd veto, but will he?

The Swedish Culture & Justice ministers are preparing to give new power to Swedish courts to let them force ISPs to give up subscriber IPs.

"The end goal is trying subscribers in court for copyright infringement. As the one-time home of the Pirate Bay, which is now internationally distributed, they face both US pressure and push-back at home. The Swedish arm of the Pirate Party is calling this move a 'sanctioned blackmailing operation', but hopefully the Swedish courts won't allow the IFPI to use as many tricks as the RIAA has in US courts."

Class Action Complaint Against RIAA Now Online

109 page .pdf document

The complaint includes federal and state RICO claims, as well as other legal theories, and alleges that "The world's four major recording studios had devised an illegal enterprise intent on maintaining their virtually complete monopoly over the distribution of recorded music."

I used to be disgusted, now I find I'm just amused. -- Elvis Costello

Sounds like something George might say.

Once Rock's Rebels,
South by Southwest
Becomes 'The Man'

The British heavy metal band Iron Maiden is allowing its new album "Somewhere Back in Time" to be downloaded for free on a trial basis.

Aww, the damn thing's DRM infected.

"Fans can listen to the music three times for free before the download expires. "

Wired magazine reports R.E.M.'s “Accelerate” will be available for listening and embedding starting March 24 through iLike.com

The album can be listened to free of charge, then embedded into other social networking sites. Having fans spread the word via embedding not only gives the album extra online promotion, but theoretically will heighten demand for paid downloads via iTunes and Amazon mp3 once “Accelerate” is officially released April 1.

In an evil joint effort by NBC and News Corp, Hulu launches with overhyped "YouTube Killer" acclaim.

What Type Of Web Video Ad Is Best?

Two types of online video ads have emerged as the clear leaders, though which one will lead the way is open to debate.

For at least a few years, the emerging online video advertising market will be dominated by TV-like video ads and by small text ads that appear near the bottom of a video as it plays.

Google so far has ruled against adding pre- and post-roll video ads to its YouTube and Google video sites. It says most consumers won't sit through a 30-second pre-roll ad to view a video online.

Instead, Google is selling overlay ads that are similar to the text ads it sells and places with search results.

China blocking YouTube again. Pissed at the Tibet protests.

OBIT: Ola Brunkert

The 62 year old ABBA drummer hit his head against a glass door in his dining room, shattering the glass and cutting himself in the neck. He managed to wrap a towel around his neck and left the house to seek help, but collapsed in the garden.

F**k, the god-damned Supreme Court to Hear FCC Indecency Case.

it will be hearing the FCC's appeal to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision that the FCC has changed its policy on fleeting expletives without adequate explanation. It's now on the FCC to explain to the Supreme Court why its policy has changed. This is also the first time the Supreme Court has heard a major 'broadcast indecency' case in 30 years.

Guy overdubs his atrocious guitar playing over famous guitar-god vids

Late last year a Finnish media artist named Santeri Ojala got a lot of attention for a series of hilarious YouTube videos in which he lifted concert footage of various guitar heroes and overdubbed his own intentionally awful playing. The bad musicianship was funny enough, but the verisimilitude made it even funnier: Ojala was great at matching each player’s hand movements and timing, and he sprinkled lukewarm applause and other sound effects throughout. The videos were like alternate-universe versions of rock-god cliches.

A month or two ago, YouTube yanked the videos and suspended Ojala’s YouTube account, apparently due to copyright complaints from several of the guitarists.

Duff from Velvet Revolver says they'll open for Zeppelin tour. Which is news to the guy from The Cult, who had said they would. Which is news to Zeppelin, who still have no plans to tour

Little-known law allowing homeowners to force brass bands to move along to be taken off the books in Britain

Hooray!

Off topic (or maybe not)

Americans have a right to own guns, Supreme Court justices declared Tuesday in a historic and lively debate that could lead to the most significant interpretation of the Second Amendment since its ratification two centuries ago.

...a majority of justices appeared ready to say that Americans have a "right to keep and bear arms" that goes beyond the amendment's reference to service in a militia.

It is my opinion that the REASON for the 2nd amendment (as set forth by our founding fathers) was so that the populace could rise up against the government if things ever got too extreme or dictatorial.

Turns out that Spitzer girl already posed nude... for Girls Gone Wild

Woman Sues RIAA For Racketeering, Spying

Go Tanya!

He laughed. “I'm often asked why I didn't try to patent the idea of communications satellites. My answer is always, ‘A patent is really a license to be sued.' ”

--Arthur C. Clarke, sadly in his last interview.

DRM free BitTorrent Movie Store in Sweden

download them as torrents (earn credits for seeding them)

AWSOME NEWS!

By the end of the year, EVERY issue of the Elf Quest comic will be online. FOR FREE!

Between it and Love & Rockets, BEST comic evar!

--Shmoo

aw crap... i forgot here it was url=...

Yeah Canada!

Reposted from Motmasa:

CBC-TV first in North America to release prime-time show on BitTorrent

CBC Television plans to release its Sunday episode of Canada's Next Great Prime Minister on BitTorrent, a file-sharing service that would allow users to copy and share the show.

The release, free and without ads or digital rights management (DRM) software, is believed to be the first release of a prime-time show in North America.

"We're very aware that the broadcasting environment is changing," said Tessa Sproule, executive in charge of digital programming for factual entertainment at CBC Television. "We want to explore new ways to do what we do."

Ok, gonna SPAM my own band's music now.



We actually found a drummer we like and recorded a few tunes with him Thursday. Unfortunately, DMusic is still fubar for uploads from MY band (other DMusic user's report that things are FINE with their upload capability ...but OUR'S still don't work.)

...so, long story short, I spent all night uploading new music to YouTube.

...and the links to our new stuff can be found HERE!

( http://electricgypsy.info/NewStuff.htm )



GO!

Dolly Parton releases album on own label

She has watched with interest as new technology has created opportunities without the big labels.

"Now the majors are what they used to think I was: history," she said.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080322/ap_en_mu/people_dolly_parton

Good for her. She's been an indie artist for quite some time now.

Oh, BTW. Andrea's brother-in-law, banjo master Gary Davis was who produced and played on her Halo's and Horns album a couple years ago. He is a member of her band the "Blueniques" and still plays at the Dixie Stampede in Pigeon Forge Tn.

Do a search on Gary (biscuit) Davis at YouTube if you want to hear a National Banjo champion!

The BD+ anti-copying system used by BluRay disks has been cracked.

BD+ has been held out as some kind of uncrackable answer to the DRM wars, and was cited by many pundits for BluRay's victory over HD-DVD in the recent format wars.

Larry Lessig has offcially launched Change Congress, his followup to Creative Commons

...a movement to end the corrupting influence of, well, influence on Congress:

Why your e-books are no longer yours.

when you "buy" "content" for Amazon's Kindle or the Sony Reader, are you buying a crippled license to intellectual property when you download, or are you buying a book? If the latter, then the first sale doctrine, which lets you hawk your old Harry Potter hardcovers on eBay, would apply. Some law students at Columbia took a swing at the question and Gizmodo reprints the "surprisingly readable" legal summary. Short answer: those restrictive licenses may very well be legal, and even if you had rights under the first sale doctrine, you might only be able to resell or give away your Kindle — not a copy of the work.

Gerard Kunkel, Comcast's senior VP of user experience, stated that the cable company is experimenting with different camera technologies built into its devices so it can know who's in your living room.

Comcast wouldn't ever do anything nefarious with this capability ...naw?