What would cause a group of teachers in the States to “pretend” that there was a person in a school with guns trying to shoot their students, without giving notice that it was a prank or part of a ghost story event?
And then to have one teacher dress up in black and try to get through the locked door while the 6th graders cried under their desks … ?
I think poor judgement is an understatement here.
In a strange reaction to recent sales drops the recording industry seems to be going after a niche market – and one that hardly hurts their financial well being at first glance. As reported at Arstechnica, several states are enacting legislation that makes it very very difficult to buy and sell used CDs.
There is legislation already in effect that dictates that if I were to sell a used CD to a store I would only be able to receive store credit for that CD. The store would then have to hold that CD in limbo for at least 30 days before they are able to sell it back to someone. Scratch Florida off my list of potential future residences.
All this seems to be a way for the recording industry to stem off piracy I suppose – though I am not sure used CDs is really where piracy is striking. But the article mentions an interesting aspect to the story – the Doctrine of First Sale. The Doctrine comfortably fits into the physical realm with such things as CDs. When I buy a CD I also obtain the right to sell said copyrighted work. But how does this translate into the digital world?
If you read the fine print, when you buy a track from some of the online music subscription services, particularly if you subscribe and receive a certain number of songs per period, you are not really buying the rights to that work. You’re really only renting the songs. If you cancel your subscription your music purchases go away. But some stores do allow you to buy the song and keep it permanently. So how does the Doctrine of First Sale work then? With the CD there is the assumption that when you sell it you no longer have a copy for yourself. In the digital world this is not true. You can make unlimited lossless copies of any song you own and sell it (legally or not) without losing your copy.
This has got to be scary to the recording industry – their lifeblood is creating and selling copies of copyrighted work. If anyone in the world can now do the same thing – what business can they hope to keep? But what if they were to whittle away at the consumer’s right to sell what they buy? What if they were to get legislation into the books that says that when a consumer sells a copyrighted work that it is laborious, subject to strange rules, and does not allow them to receive cash for it? What if they were to chip away at this Doctrine of First Sale until it too has to be updated to work with digital works?
Sounds to me like they have a plan here folks. Now lets watch it in action as it unfolds. What can you do? Gee, I dunno, seems to me that if you disagree with this leglislation that somebody out there should be told about your objections and concerns. Maybe someone who works in politics, and who relies on your votes to do so?
Another take might be that this is an attack on the used CD stores themselves. There’s a massive bond that needs to be paid up front in order to be able to sell them. The laws make it prohibitively difficult for people to sell used CDs (fingerprinting? come on!). As a person in the “Internet Age”, why would I bother selling to the local store when I can just hit ebay and get normal, plain old cash without all the bother? Or I could head on over to lala.com and trade it with someone else for $1.00. I’m sadened at the idea that we may see used CD stores disappear from the retail landscape – I think they represent part of an important part of a local music scene and their presence would be sorely missed.
Plus my plans to open up a store that includes selling used CDs as a service (along with the vital music matching service that the store would provide as a market differentiator, of course) would go up in flames.
Anyone out there sick of the degrading, moronic, sexually drenched music of today’s popular artists? Music that talks about materialism and shallow relationships like they’re the greatest thing since sliced bread? You’re not alone: Alanis Morissette has crafted a parody of a certain song by the Black Eyed Peas that epitomizes the problem. She’s called it “My Humps” – enjoy.
I think it is sad that the RIAA is approaching their customers with lawsuits rather than with purchasing options that suit today’s digital media world. However I get incensed when I hear that they are not only suing a (then 7) ten year old girl, but also insisting on being given the chance to question her directly rather than through less confrontational methods usually used for children in court cases.
I strongly urge everyone to avoid supporting this evil conglomerate.
How do you know if you’re supporting them? The RIAA Radar website allows you to check a particular artist, album, label, etc. to see if they are part of the sinister corporation. Before buying your music, check out that radar and see if you’re going to be supporting this kind of company, or if perhaps you want to forgo that particular album.
P.S. I’m always happy to provide music suggestions if you’re not sure what non-RIAA music you’d like to listen to.
An interesting photo I stumbled across that speaks to how ubiquitous cellular and wireless communication is becoming. It also speaks to how inadequate the online “people finding” software is, I suppose.
Maybe it is the incessant rain, but I feel a little blue today. Nothing like some music to make me feel better however – and in that vein I did a little reminiscing with Wikipedia. We all remember the audio cassette, don’t we? How uncomplicated was that format!? Forget DRM. Forget lossless reproduction. Forget sound quality. I remember feeling good when I managed to grab a new song off the radio with the stupid DJ talking over top. I could at least listen to the song whenever I wanted!
Those were much simpler times.
Now go read the “Home Dubbing” part of that article and see if it sounds familiar at all. Flash back a few decades and the recording industry was warning us consumers about the same problem they are today – the end of music due to reproduction in the home. Maybe the music industry just takes a long, long, LONG time to die?
Resilient stuff, that music.
I just received a new CD on my To Buy list from my lovely daughter (she already knows the path to my heart – as if she needed one) and I have to say I am really impressed – good choice Marley!
Panurge is a new artist to me but I had heard/seen one of their songs/videos some months ago. and really liked what I heard/saw. If you like Gomez, you’ll want to check out this Vancouver band.
As a big fan of water I long ago learned about the dangers of drinking too much water. I remember learning about it in the context of psychiatric patients not being given unlimited access to water in their rooms for fear of their over imbibing. Apparently a few people at a radio station have never heard of it though … they held a contest to see who could drink the most water without going to the washroom. One lady tried so hard she ended up dying. Seriously – she went home complaining of headaches and died later that day. Sure, the station fired the people involved but come on – no medical supervision? Some people suggest that this contest is the same thing as poisoning a person inadvertently, through negligence. Is this a crime? Was this involuntary manslaughter?
After the contest, Strange called in sick to work, crying and saying she was heading home in terrible pain. About five hours later, Strange – who had three children – was found dead by her mother at her home
The news article mentions a similar frat party death from water a few years ago and the frat boy pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. Is this any different? In our litigious world I would not be surprised to hear about court cases surrounding this event. But from my perspective – what are her children going to do? She died trying to win them a Wii. How does one come to grips with this event on a personal level?
Last year this article about a father (allegedly) beating his 17 month old daughter to death for breaking his video game console would have made me grimace and shake my head. Today, reading it is a different experience.
This version of the story has a few more medical facts – though the two articles contradict one another somewhat.
“She pulled the cord and the whole game console fell over,” Spellman said in his statement, read by Homicide Detective John Cummings. “I thought it was broken. I popped her in the face. I picked her up and tossed her in a chair.”
Anger mismanagement doesn’t even enter into the picture here – this guy, provided he is guilty, needs to be “adjusted” to a better attitude.
Most of the references to this story seem to be from video game sites – strange that it was not picked up on regular news channels. Strange and, frankly, sad. Violence against children – video game related or not – is a crime that needs to be extinguished. Period.
Health Care is an interesting field to work in. So is Open Source. Combine the two and you might read an article titled Tivo Healthcare. What is Tivoization? I’m sure you’ve herad me mention DRM? This is a nice, complex topic that I think is going to become a massive, massive problem in our technologically-oriented health care industry. But that’s just me – what do I know.
What the Tivoization traps is the data, which for Tivo means movies and television shows recorded digitally. But what happens when the data that is trapped is infinitely more valuable? When we discuss DRM, we should be thinking of an EHR that has been Tivoized, (perhaps a health-Tivo) rather than a television recording device.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about – let’s talk! I’m serious about there being a looming problem in the health care industry. Well, I actually see two in the States – technology and policy. I’ve been meaning to post something about the “Choice Paralysis” idea since, well, the summer. I’m still reading a related book though so look for that in the future. I’ll link to this topic in that future post. You’ll read it in the future and the light will go on and you’ll sit back stunned and say “Good Lord … what are we doing to ourselves!?” You just wait, soon I promise.