Analysis #1  A few weeks ago, the "axis of evil" (a.k.a. the RIAA, MPAA and IFPI) urged major companies to crack down on employees' downloading activities or else risk being essentially sued out of business.

This is what may be known as "throwing kerosene over a burning fire." Moreover, while this may be fine for distrustful workplaces that constantly spy on their employees' computer activities, it certainly would make a bad situation worse — insofar as a recent article by Jeffrey Pfeffer in Business 2.0 that was encapsulated in the Feb. 28, 2003 issue of The Week. Mr. Pfeffer's article noted that in workplaces where bosses monitor every aspect of their workers' E-mail and Internet use (which, I suppose, would also included the dreaded "D"-word), this "Big Brother approach" (he can say that again) has led to a doubling of worker absenteeism, a lowering of job satisfaction, and a drop in productivity. "Act as though you distrust people, and you create employees who are, in fact, less trustworthy," he wrote. And with the RIAA-MPAA-IFPI gauntlet, this trend may actually worsen. In short, Berman, Rosen, Valenti et al. couldn't care less that their police-state tacticology is doing much more harm than good in every level of our society.

Analysis #2  A recent article, datelined Barcelona, Spain, reported about efforts to determine a hit song by "mathematical properties" of certain music. A company called Polyphonic HMI has developed "artificial intelligence" applications – known as "Hit Song Service" (HSS) – to determine the hit potential of music before it ever reaches the radio. The major record labels in both the U.S. and Great Britain, like lemmings, have latched onto this methodology as part of a desperate bid to reverse the sales slide.

In short, more "genetically engineered" music. We've already had "genetically engineered" corn, pigs and cows shoved down our throats in the food chain already, and now this?! Yet another example of how individuality and old-fashioned instinct are being tossed out the window, and the prospect of pop music sounding even more alike and even more indistinguishable from one another. And then they wonder why more and more people are staying away from their tripe?

A Random Thought  As you know, Norah Jones won a passel of Grammy Awards last week. Yet you're not likely to hear any of her music – not even the Song of the Year, "Don't Know Why" – on, say, the kiddie-orientated "Radio Disney," which had some conflict-of-interest questions raised by some individuals over their incessant push of some number called "I Can't Wait" by Hilary Duff – who, by some strange coincidence, stars in the Disney Channel/ABC-TV series Lizzie McGuire. And that number was only played on one non-Disney radio station in the entire country – in Albuquerque, New Mexico! (Not that this info really matters in the real world, anyway . . . )

Wow. The Industries are really going to screw things up for the country. "The problem is greed." - Tom Petty (2002)

A word on the Random Thought. I believe Norah Jones winning all those Grammy's was nothing more than a setup on the part of the record companies so they could have an excuse to raise the prices on her music. They'll also push to have her song overplayed on the radio, which I feel is already being done by the independent radio station that represents my market. Everytime I play that station, it's either Norah Jones or some song with Ja Rule in the backgroud (ever notice how he's in every song anymore?)

Ja who? I haven't turned on a radio in forever and a day... My computer keeps me plenty busy with all the free MP3's I can get while I can still get them... As for Norah Jones, I found her on the internet through a certain P2P file-sharing system (begins with K and ends with azaa!) and loved her music so much I bought the CD... From radio listeners I've heard, the one 'hit' song she's had is overplayed, but that's pop radio everywhere you go... But many listeners are worse than a spouse trying to change a habit about their significant other... In neither case does nagging do any good... Make a proactive change; let the radio stations know you've stopped listening to them because so much of the music they play is overplayed, and tell them you've switched to a radio station with variety...

A few years back Disney was caught in a sweat shop scandal, using underpaid children to make Disney teeshirts. It was reported on most news channels, but for some reason ABC ignored it

I dont listen to music radio much, I prefer radio 4.

The RIAA is obviously going to go after easy targets in its fight against p2p. Offices and education are easy targets. Occasionally they will make an example of someone (that navy place). But all they can do is buy time. The only hope for any attempt to stop p2p is to get the ISPs to block it. We need to make clients harder to block.

So, hypothetically speaking, what if none of the businesses comply? What are they going to do then? Sue every business in America out of existenence? Just imagine all the outrage there would be then.

That scenario would probably never happen though. Naturally some companies will comply while others will not. I wonder if they're going to crack down on their own employess, or any of the people who are associated with the big five. I would think that they wouldn't since they believe they are above the law.

To 'NiceGuy2003' about Ja Rule:

Sounds like deja vu all over again. Remember in the late 1970's-early '80's period when every pop song seemed to have either Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks or the Doobie Brothers' Michael McDonald on backing vocals - but never, you noticed, both on the same song?

Meanwhile, I've pretty much tuned out the "modern" music scene myself. I'll go for my vast collection of LP's, 45's and 78's if I wanted to listen to anything, thank you very much.

Personally, I thought that final "random thought" was intended as a somewhat sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek piece - a little levity to break the tension, if you will. Especially now, in a climate where if you merely have a computer and CD burner -- regardless of whether your burner is only used for data storage backup or if you're a musician performing your own songs -- you are automatically presumed guilty of "piracy" by the Big Brother-esque RIAA-IFPI Goliaths. Such people (computer users, that is), it could be argued in some quarters, are today as much vilified, reviled and despised (in their own way) as the Boy Scouts, the Catholic Church, and so on.

Just thank all that's holy that Avril Lasagna didn't win a single damn thing....
wahoooo!!!

Here's a hypothetical: How many record industry employees do you suppose are downloading and/or storing music either at home or work? Only stands to reason that someone in the business would be the one storing/downloading/listening to the most music. What position on the list do you think these companies will be getting sued?