Vivendi Universal is now negotiating in earnest with NBC and, "a group of industrial and financial investors headed by Cablevision, the New York region's main cable TV operator, and by Thomas H. Lee Partners, one of the world's biggest private equity funds, and led by Mr. Edgar Bronfman, Jr".

Bronfman, "may just be the most desperate billionaire around these days," says BusinessWeek online here.

"His decision in 2000 to sell Seagram Co., his family's liquor and entertainment company, to Vivendi Universal was supposed to protect the clan's future. But CEO Jean-Marie Messier brought the company close to bankruptcy. By the time he was ousted in July, the value of the Bronfmans' stake had shrunk from $6.5 billion to $3 billion - a huge loss for the family, even if only on paper."

Bronfman, you'll recall, is ceo of Polygram/MCA and was one of the people most bent on taking Napster down.

Napster 'distributed' music illicitly, said Bronfman and his friends and supporters - namely, Hollywood.

Interestingly, Canada's Bronfman clan itself became enormously wealthy via an indirect association with another form of illicit distribution.

During the alcohol prohibition era, large quantities of Seagram booze, legally available in Canada, mysteriously flowed across the border where another clan, this time American, made its fortune by making it available to the thirsty masses.

Be that as it may, "An association between NBC and VUE would form one of the world's largest media companies," says Vivendi, adding:

"Vivendi Universal is continuing to investigate an IPO for VUE, which would take place after the implementation of strategic alliances aimed at strengthening its television activities".

This story is frightening, worse than a bad dream. Once again, in the name of mega-mergers, corporate conglomerates, and limited voices in our media, we see what could potentially make a handful of people billionaires.

I urge everyone to start writing the FTC right this instant to protest any buyout, and to launch an anti-trust investigation before any deal is even sealed under the table. And for cryin out loud, don't anyone consider purchasing the stock should it come to an IPO!

Ethics are gone now. It is as antiquated as Latin.

I was really hoping that Vivendi would be sold to someone with vision and a little bit of concern for music. Ain't gonna happen though.

More vultures.

I have a vision of fat cats, boozed to the gills, rolling around in a Mercedes singing "Sue the World".

Life is fast becoming a big wrestling match..."In this corner, Music Conglomerates, Big Business, government (state and federal),Rich (old money and new money), and lawyers , and in the other corner, the majority of the American public"..and then the bookmakers are laying big numbers on the first group...

There's a saying "God must love the common man, because he made so many of them."

One spark of hope...in every country, from Louis and Antoinette in France to King George Jr. in this country, the ruling class falls eventually, and the common people just keep on going. Well, that's not that optimistic...keep on going is not too joyous....
LOL..as low as I am on money, I am boycotting just about everything and everyone so I KNOW I will be boycotting the right people.
~code

Now wait a minute here. GE is a conglomorate, they make jet engines, locomotives, medical equipment, and appliances. Heck, they may even own your mortgage. GE strives to be no 1 or no 2 in their respective industries. If you don't produce you are out of there. And most of their presidents are in their 40s.

If it is more profitable to go to a music fee or something similar they will do it. Expect to see changes in the music and how it is offered soon. They won't offer music for free but they may have a better idea than I-tunes.

^\surf

I agree surfside ... Big changes on the horizon ..

But you can bet the farm if the industry has anything to do with the change , it will be even worse.
WABBITMAN

I was thinking "outside the box" today and something struck me. The RIAA has filed all of these suits just to turn our heads away from something else. I bet they are planning something big. Something that no one can avoid. Either some form of taxation through the ISP's or something else.

More computers are being designed today to be fully integrated with your home entertainment system. Some kind of electronic juke box that costs an arm and a leg. With more and more Cable and Satellite companies offering "video on demand" allowing you to watch virtually any movie at any time. It wouldn't suprise me that they offered the ability to listen to any song at any time for a nominal fee. They all ready have music channels offered through the majority of the cable and satellite companies. High Quality streaming music, 24-7. No DJ's, no commercials, just music.

or...

Since a large percentage of households now own some kind of home theater system, this new tactic doesn't suprise me. Kind of like what the motion picture industry tried to do with the original DivX (not related to the codec used to bootleg movies). DivX allowed something like 5 uses and then you had to use the phone connection on the DivX player to order more viewings. The discs were considerably cheaper than DVD(something like 5 US Dollars for a movie), I can't remember how much it was to renew them. These DivX disks were not readable in other players (I.E. DVD Players).

Anyways, this idea flopped big time and companies like Circuit City lost quite a bit on this new technology. It wouldn't suprise me that the Recording Industry tries to pull the same stunt with music cd's. Buy a cd, it only plays in a particular player. The cd is considerably cheaper than a normal cd. Then charge the consumers a lot more money to renew the disk just so they can listen to it.

Either way, we will have to keep our eyes open to other things that are being passed through congress. Along with these mega-mergers. Keep an eye on what the major electronic companies are offering in the way of new technology.

All the more reason to boycott.

Crank up the boycott, boys, full speed ahead!

I don't care if they all go down in flames. It's time for more people to feel some heat.

Waiting to see what happens when college starts back up again in full swing.

Well... responding to Son of Liberty

They are trying to get DVD audio into the mix... nobody will notice the difference between it and cd/mp3... but they will need to get new audio players to play DVD audio... and it will also probably be the same size as CD(no miniaturization)

tasadar24...
I've read quite a bit about the DVD audio and from what I understand, a lot of studios are not wanting to go to this type of format (costs a lot up front for both the end-users and to produce). I was looking at the SACD, which plays in normal cd players. Here is some info...

http://www.disctronics.co.uk/technology/dvdaudio/dvdaud_sacd.htm

An uncle of mine is a Mac dealer and he told me about the new computer CD players. They can detect between a software cd and an audio cd. They come with a warning not to insert Audio CD's. If an audio cd is inserted, the CD player locks and there is no way to remove the CD. You have to ship it to the manufacturer and they have to remove the cd, which is something that isn't covered under warranty. Here is a some sites that I have found.

http://www.audiolockbox.com/

http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/7305

It looks like something is coming down the pipe. Better keep eyes open.

The CD-eating computer is a nice demonstartion of how rumors start. I presume its based on the problem with newer Mac computers and te key2audio protection. Dur to the lazyness of testers and pressure to be one of the first to market, key2audio wasn't properly tested. On some mac computers the invalid TOC will lock up the drive firmware. With the firmware locked, the CD wont eject. On rebooting, the drive reads the TOC before checking the eject button, so the disc is stuck. Removal is a simple procedure with a screwdriver, but invalidates the warranty.

Audiolockbox looks like nothing special. Just another form of protection, weak as all the rest.

SACD is a highly propritary format. Sony has it under a number of patents. Theres no doupt its copy protection is secure, its paranoid. Cant even read in a normal DVD drive, only a Sony SACD player. But the labels (Except those run by sony dont want to use something so propritary, and they are competing with the Sony entertainment division anyway.

DVD-audio is no more expensive to press than a video DVD. Most of the manufactureing expense of a CD or DVD is in the packageing and labeling. But its not going anywhere. Consumers dont have many DVD-audio players, so there is no demand and so no DVD-audio discs. Without DVD-audio discs noone will buy players. For the format to get popular consumers must get access to players, either through software players on PCs which can be very cheap or through combined DVD audio/video players. The DVD audio spec changes have been largely responsible for the delay. After DeCSS was released, the CSS2 protection system on DVD-audio was abandoned because of a complete lack of confidence in a CSS-like system and replaced with the CPPM system.