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I'm not pushing an idealogical utopia that depends upon people willingly supporting artists just because, and that completely neglects others stealing the results of their creativity so I don't need supporting studies.

No, it's not utopia. It's current status quo.

Not on this planet. status quo is copyright relatively often being enforced. Whether you like it or not.

Relative increase of creative works over centuries exists solely due to improving technology like printing press, radio, personal computing, internet, etc. And also by insanely increased human population that has more time for creative endeavours due to increased efficiency brought by industrialization. Copyright actually slows things down, if people(try to) respect it. Any more or less vigorous copyright enforcement affecting individuals will be extremely unpopular and logistically unimplementable. So I'd say copyright itself is actually an utopia, not its abolition.

How does copyright slow things down? Would people miraculously plop down 100M to make a movie that will be ripped off after the first showing and widely distributed? Would authors work for years writing books to only have $0 at the end of the effort? None of these things happen today without the effects of copyright, which make investing such sums and payment ahead of time for authors (and musicians) possible to give them the leeway needed to create works. And to kill your KickStarter/Patreon example - remove all currently successful creators that benefited from the copyright system and see what's left. It won't be much.

Finally, as the ultimate counter example look at the well-documented case of Trent Reznor. He went outside the establishment for 1 or 2 albums and a tour. He signed with a label before releasing his next album, stating something loosely along the lines of the label does add value and is worth it. I'm 99% sure that given his track record and outspoken criticism of the industry, he's slightly more knowledgable than either of us about copyright and the system and how it works for artists considering he's tried all sides of it and even with his heavy skepticism has concluded it is better to have it than not. BTW, "skepticism" is a truly understated polite term about how he felt about the industry, read up if you're truly interested. I mention it to indicate how wrong your view is, as detailed by someone that has tried everything you propose and was relatively successful but still finds the current flawed system preferable to your proposed alternatives.

Perhaps, but R Kelly- who isn't homosexual as far as I'm aware (#)- used almost the same term in the name of a song almost 25 years ago, and it didn't stop *that* from becoming a hit.

(#) He's apparently more into the wholesome heterosexual act of urinating in the mouths of underage girls. (Link goes to music website article entitled "R. Kelly’s Alleged Sex Crimes Are Still Horrific 13 Years Later " in case you're wondering whether it's okay to click).

ur a dick

...that this is actually being funded by one of the top K-Pop factory producers?

Don't get me wrong, I would love to see a BigBang / 4Minute collabo shot on-location at Mare Crisium...or Girls' Generation / EXO...or Super Junior / Red Velvet *fades off into kpop-induced daydreams*

It's true, tho. Once you k-pop, you just...can't...stop...which is why this is my ringtone...and this is my alarm clock...etc, etc, etc ;-) :-S

A spokesperson for the agency told Billboard that the artists were "hesitant" to allow the song to appear in the film, given that it's plot, which features the assassination of Kim Jong-Un, is "very sensitive topic in Korea" at the moment. It seems that at this point Sony Pictures will be spared the brunt of the lawsuit, FeelGhoodMusic instead intends to take the agency who handled the negotiations with Sony, DFSB, to court instead.

I reviewed Bricolage for a webzine that I used to run, that was a little more than 2 years ago. We decided not to go with Bricolage.

Anyway, I'm not really out to bash Bricolage as such, but do you call this integrating?

You have basically linked "Forums" to a phpBB? The style, the menu, everything looks different.
Oh, yeah, it looks like you also posted the data from a feature into, not one, but several forums!?
Why have the same content in two different threads?

Again, not to bash Bricolage but you may want to give a better example of "integration" than that.

I reviewed Bricolage for a webzine that I used to run, that was a little more than 2 years ago. We decided not to go with Bricolage.

Anyway, I'm not really out to bash Bricolage as such, but do you call this integrating?

You have basically linked "Forums" to a phpBB? The style, the menu, everything looks different.
Oh, yeah, it looks like you also posted the data from a feature into, not one, but several forums!?
Why have the same content in two different threads?

Again, not to bash Bricolage but you may want to give a better example of "integration" than that.

I reviewed Bricolage for a webzine that I used to run, that was a little more than 2 years ago. We decided not to go with Bricolage.

Anyway, I'm not really out to bash Bricolage as such, but do you call this integrating?

You have basically linked "Forums" to a phpBB? The style, the menu, everything looks different.
Oh, yeah, it looks like you also posted the data from a feature into, not one, but several forums!?
Why have the same content in two different threads?

Again, not to bash Bricolage but you may want to give a better example of "integration" than that.

I reviewed Bricolage for a webzine that I used to run, that was a little more than 2 years ago. We decided not to go with Bricolage.

Anyway, I'm not really out to bash Bricolage as such, but do you call this integrating?

You have basically linked "Forums" to a phpBB? The style, the menu, everything looks different.
Oh, yeah, it looks like you also posted the data from a feature into, not one, but several forums!?
Why have the same content in two different threads?

Again, not to bash Bricolage but you may want to give a better example of "integration" than that.

But what do I know, i'm just some Slashdot schlub.

No, you have a valid point. There have been clients who have not been terribly happy about this. Many of them are expecting all sorts of front-end bells and whistles. As a result, we also provide consultation for those who want those bells and whistles but don't want to shell out the dough of some expensive front-end package.

For example, we recently did Spin.com. These folks came in, knew what they wanted and knew that there was no need to drop a quarter million+ for it (many of our competitors easily run into six figures.) In order to handle some of their front end needs, we integrated phpBB for the bulletin boards and Google Search as their search engine. They get the extras, but still no expensive framework to complicate things.

as someone who has met sherman, allow me to defend him little -- as part of his parole, he's only allowed to use computers whose logs are subject to search by his parole officer.

it's true that he plead guilty to the charges, it's what is called a plea bargin. he was facing 20 years if convicted and going to trial in a climate of "terrorists are everywhere." his attorney wasn't the greatest and the prosecutors offered one year in jail if he pleaded guilty. rather than risk spending the next 20 years in prison, he took the "safe" way out.

but what gets missed most of the time is that he wasn't the one who authored OR EVEN POSTED the reclaim guide (which is 1 part high school science, 1 part fantasy and 1 part pathetic attempt to be hard). he simply ran an explicitly political (anarchistic) website, raisethefist.com. the reclaim guide was actually posted there by someone who had an account on the site (much like you do on slashdot). that someone was a wealthy white kid from orange county. he was never charged. race and class might not have anything to do with why this was pinned on sherman (though my opinion is that the prosecutors didn't want to deal with the negative publicity associated with having to arrest a white kid from OC and ship him to prison for 20 years for posting info on a website).

the point is, just as Hemos or CmdrTaco shouldn't end up in jail for what you post on slashdot, sherman shouldn't have gone to jail for providing a tech resource and open publishing site. if the government had anyone to go after it was that kid in OC, not sherman.

there are lots of well-informed articles on the subject from major news organizations, i remember reading this one in spin magazine.

Now if you mean, why don't major artists like Michael Jackson take some of his Millions and start a label that is fair to artists (and not racist like Sony as he claims)? I don't know. Maybe they know that the chance of losing all of their investment is probable...

Michael Jackson still owns MJJ Productions and used to run MJJ Records. It initially was started so he could own all his own publishing under his own single roof, instead of under the various others that owned it at the time (Motown, Epic, etc.) The only semi-well-known act his A&R department signed was called Brownstone, kind of a Destiny's Child thing. That was in 1990 or so.

In a Spin Magazine article it was mentioned that he was selling MJJ Records. But every record he releases on his own is a co-production of his own "label" and production company with Sony / Epic Records. He certainly hasn't had any successes with MJJ Records since he started it, so I'm sure he knows pretty well (or his business managers do) how much money it costs to run it versus how much it will make.

Bottom line about artist-created labels: they are often created as a tax shelter so that when they make a billion dollars in record sales, which the IRS would definitely want a piece of, their "failing" record label can write off most of that through operating expenses. Happens alll the time, including Reprise, and Mariah Carey's new label, and Madonna's label, etc. The only labels that succeed are the ones that still play the major label game. Probably always will be.

I am not a fan of Michael Jackson, I just ended up hearing about a lotta this from Billboard, etc.

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