Source unknown
The next SOPA
“The MPAA studios hate us. They hate us with region locks and unskippable screens and encryption and criminalization of fair use. They see us as stupid eyeballs with wallets, and they are entitled to a constant stream of our money. They despise us, and they certainly don’t respect us.”
The future of albums
“While what the album contains will change, I think the concept of the album will live on for some time. The entire current music catalog is based on albums, and the change necessary to move to a different unit of music—other than the song—will take some time.”
Interesting. I agree with most of what the author says. An Album is just a name, it’s contents has changed throughout history but i find it hard to believe that the vast majority of the audio lovers would resign to purchasing individual musics stripped of any context or surrounding.
On a side note, i dream of a day where your hi-fi stereo system picks its music from a household central NAS while an upgraded iTunes app supplies the artwork, lyrics and any other extras that might have come with the album to your iPad/iPhone/other device so that you can have the same experience of a current album now. Sometimes reading through the lyrics, the authors message and just handling those images while listening to the music is what makes the album special.
Before Solving a Problem, Make Sure You’ve Got the Right one
“History shows us, again and again, that frontiers are lawless places, but that as they get richer and more settled, they join in the rule of law. American publishing, now the largest publishing industry in the world, began with piracy.”
A must read.
Insane Entitlement: EMI Sues Irish Gov’t For Not Passing SOPA-Like Censorship Law
“The sense of entitlement exhibited by the legacy players in the entertainment industry is now reaching positively insane levels — highlighted by the news that major record label EMI (in the process of being acquired by Universal Music to make it the largest record label by far) is suing the Irish government because it feels the Irish government is taking too long to pass a SOPA-like law that would require ISPs to censor the internet and block access to sites it doesn’t like. I’m not kidding.”
Alcohol and drug usage always was really high in the music business.
Cutting the Cord on Cable
“Dear Cable:
Before I say anything else: It’s not you. It’s me.
I’ve changed over the years. I’m hardly at home. And when I am, it’s not live television I’m watching. It’s stuff that’s been queued up on my DVR for weeks. But mostly, when I’m on my couch with a remote in my hand, I’ve been…streaming. I know how wrong that must sound. But everyone’s getting their shows and movies through the Internet these days. I’m sorry. It’s just the reality of things.”
Actually not being evil
Why GoDaddy hasn’t earned my forgiveness
“What GoDaddy did was support a bill that violates civil liberties and threatens the future of he Internet as we know it—the Internet that GoDaddy relies on for revenue. Supporting the bill demonstrates a major lack of understanding of how the Internet works, and a serious disregard for customers.
I’m sorry if I am not impressed that GoDaddy dropped its support for SOPA under duress. I’d rather do business with a domain registrar that didn’t have the audacity (stupidity) to support SOPA in the first place.”
Undermining your own business
Current Digital Rights Management approach and way of doing business by (big and small) Media Companies is simply moronic.
Yesterday, through John Gruber i arrived at this movie about an author which i had never heard of, but managed to collaborate and write many of my favourite shows and Science Fiction. ((not to be confused with cheap pulp “Sci-Fi”. ))
So i watched the youtube video, read a couple more things about him and thought “i would like to see this movie!”. So i went to the movie website and there was no indication of where i could buy it or watch it. So i resorted to my faithful Amazon.co.uk. And there i found this piece of info:
So if i managed to get to buy one of this dvds, i will probably pay import taxes AND still need a special DVD player or have to change mine region’s code every time i want to see it. Which i can only do 4 times, so i can only watch it 2?3?
And now for the other option: google: “dreams with sharp teeth” torrent
And that’s it. You will have the movie file in your computer in less than a hour. Without DRM hassle, without limitations, without having to worry about Region Codes in your DVD and if you are able to read it, and without having to wait for the “arriving in your country soon” date. And at zero cost for you and zero profit for the publishers.
So, as a consumer that is simply interested in having access to a product, what do you think most people will choose?