An MP3 Update

There's been a number of things happening of late in the MP3 world - first off, MP3.com has complied with the Federal Court ruling by silencing (their term) major label albums. They're still including classical and indie tracks, but not much major label stuff. Also, ZD is carrying a story about Dr. Dre gearing up to ask Napster to ban users a la Metallica. I also got an e-mail from folks at SpeakOut who are trying to help out people hit by the Metallica/Napster deal - so, if you got banned check it out.

Comments

Re:Text of email sent to members

[DrEldarion]

We will continue our efforts to restore your music as soon as possible

I *love* the way they phrased that. Restore your music. The RIAA needs to realize this... It's *OUR* music, let us listen to it the way we want, damnit.

-- Dr. Eldarion --
It's not what it is, it's something else.

Seattle concert

[adpowers]

Both Metallica and Dr. Dre are coming to do a concert in Seattle. They will appear in the same concert celebrating the opening of the Experience Music Project. Sounds like a good opertunity to say what I think of there little napster stunt. Muhahahahahahaha. First, though, I must get my anti-RIAA stickers from thinkgeek.

The grim, dark history of MP3

[lbrlove]

Rome fell, not because of barbarian hoards, but because of the MP3s these uncivilized men listened to...

When the Titanic went down, the last thing heard was the bubbly drowning of the captain's MP3s playing...

When Hitler was in art school in the 1920's, he heard music in MP3 format, and the rest is history...

Based on everything you read nowadays, I have to believe that the MP3 technology is the proverbial anti-christ, and all because it keeps the members of Metallica from buying more houses. Why did the RIAA not resist the incursion of CD-Rs? These have had the potential for years of costing them huge money. Why do they not resist tape players having a "record" button? That is the easiest way to reproduce music.

I think the whole MP3 thing just shows how afraid people are of computer technology. Because it is on a computer, it must be a more insidious evil. I agree that it is easier to trade files on Napster than to trade Grateful Dead tapes by hand, but the human networks will never really threaten the bands in the way true pirates do.

Those people who mass-produce CDs in rickety Singapore warehouses are the people who really poach from the music industry, and they sell the product, creating a zero-sum loss of revenues for the recording industry. Those people who trade are really just in the promotion business, and although their acts are illegal, they are not earth-shattering to the avaricious companies that sell recordings. I would wager that by putting more music in the hands of more people, they are unknowingly and pragmatically supporting the industry that hates them.

Am I trying to make excuses for lawbreakers? No, not really, but sometimes the economic reality is in no way representative of the motivations. Capitalism is theoretically based on the idea that people are self-motivated, and American capitalism relies on people being downright hedonistic. Get a clue and ride the wave, RIAA!

-L

Napster using DMCA to evade Metallica

[ardran]

This article at Salon summarizing this message from Napster -- Napster is using DMCA as a defense! Users who were fingered by Metallica are allowed under DMCA (assuming, that is, you count napster as an ISP) to submit a counternotification is they think they were incorrectly identified as copyright infringers. Unless Metallica pursues legal action against those individuals within ten days of the receipt of the counternotification, Napster must reinstate them!

Metallicster

[mischief]

A colleague pointed me to this article on The Register - looks like there's now a napster clone specifically for finding Metallica music! Check it out: http://metallicster.freeservers.com/.

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