Music and Economics
July 15, 2008
-- Peter Gabriel recently discussed
the trend of people embracing music with depressing lyrics, providing
the perfect opportunity to examine a paper from 1995 that accurately
predicted the current state of the music industry, including
the lack of creativity. (Read
More)
Eliminating the Competition
July 8, 2008
-- I'm trying to imagine the reaction
of Trent Reznor or Thom Yorke the first time their computer tells
them that the ability to make a stereo mix has been disabled.
Okay, the first thing they'd do is probably laugh. But after
that... (Read
More)
Re-Mastering Hayden's Wall
July 2, 2008
-- Having lost a hard drive back-up,
I was forced to return to a second back-up set to retrieve the
Hayden's Wall material. I opened up one of the sessions and instantly
saw that I hadn't learned some of my best tricks when this CD
was mastered, including how to make decent-sounding mp3s.
The cool thing about digital
is that it's never too late to do it right.
For comparison purposes, I
give you both versions of "Road to Nowhere." I think
the difference may be enough to make remixing the entire thing
worthwhile.
Road to Nowhere -- Original
-- Remixed
RIAA's Argument Hits the Wall
June 30, 2008
-- With the presiding judge having
independently decided that the RIAA's only victory was an "error
of law," the RIAA counters with "No, it wasn't. And
by the way, we don't think we need any evidence, either."
(Read
More)
Making Your Own Incentive
June 29, 2008
-- Last week, I put the music
section of the site on "pause" while I tried to figure
out something, anything, to solve the problem of how to squeeze
a few bucks out of the audience without being all RIAA about
it. Realizing that I'm certainly not the only independent musician
with this dilemma, I've got an idea that seems easy enough to
implement and should work for everyone from the kids down the
street to Bruce Springsteen, without involving a record label,
plastic discs, selling songs, lying or whining. (Read
More)
 Things That No Longer Exist
June 27, 2008
-- Recently, the Associated Press
suffered some sort of brain aneurysm or a tumor or something
that caused it to suddenly decide that linking to their stories
or quoting from them comprised copyright infringement. Then their
disease progressed to the delusionary state, prompting them to
declare that the principle of fair
use is limited to exactly four words. Just prior to this
announcement, the guys over at TechCrunch made their own declaration
-- The AP no longer exists.
I've got a whole list of things
that don't exist, which includes pretty much every artist that
the RIAA represents. (Read
More)
Judge Awards Tanya Andersen $107,834
June 26, 2008 -- The RIAA's refusal to admit their
mistake in suing Tanya Andersen for copyright infringement (despite
a total lack of evidence), has resulted in a judge's decision
awarding almost $108,000 to Andersen for attorney's fees. U.S.
District Judge James A. Redden of Oregon wrote in his decision
that awarding attorney's fees to the prevailing party is "the
rule rather than the exception" under the Copyright Act,
and such fees "should be awarded routinely."
Will this change the RIAA's
practice of endless litigation to avoid admitting a mistake?
Probably not. But the incentive to demand they try to prove it
now has six digits to the left of the decimal point and "should
be awarded routinely" if they can't.
Considering the success of
the RIAA in this endeavor so far, if you receive a subpoena from
them, you may have already won $100,000.
The details
are here.
RIAA Claims Radio is Piracy
June 23, 2008 -- Once again failing to acknowledge
any legal decisions which they do not agree with, the RIAA has
decided to bring up the failed argument from 1922 that broadcasting
music is some sort of piracy. (Read
More)
MPAA Says Evidence Not Required
June 20, 2008 -- The MPAA, film's version of the
RIAA, has finally crossed the thin grey line separating delusion
from complete insanity today, as they suggested to a federal
judge that "intellectual-property holders should have the
right to collect damages, perhaps as much as $150,000 per copyright
violation, without having to prove infringement," according to Wired's Threat
Level blog.
The money quote comes from
their lawyer, who wrote, "Mandating such proof could thus
have the pernicious effect of depriving copyright owners of a
practical remedy against massive copyright infringement in many
instances."
Like when they have no evidence
at all. Or when they sue the wrong person. Or when they simply
start picking people randomly out of the phone book. To even
suggest that courts should start handing out $150,000 fines with
no evidence required to support the allegations is a more practical
remedy than the old "innocent until proven guilty"
perspective sounds bat-shiat crazy to me.
Clearly, they have departed
from the realm of logical thought.
Welcome to Bizarro World
June 19, 2008
-- In the comic books of my youth,
occasionally Superman would travel to Bizarro World, where nothing
made sense, people did the opposite of what was normal behavior,
and logic was a handicap. Bizarro Superman once characterized
up his job as, "It am not easy." At the time, he was
trying to put food on his family and had misunderestimated the
effectification of his strategery. It
seemed kind of silly back then. Now, I think I live there. (Read More)
More Photos
June 18, 2008 -- Today's offering: Edgar
Winter.
June 17, 2008 -- Step 1 -- Sue someone for "making
available." Step 2 -- Drop case before judge can make a
ruling. Step 3 -- Re-file same case listing "John Doe"
as defendant. Rinse. Repeat.
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