Slashdot Mirror
Sir Mix-A-Lot Using Weed To Distribute Music
An anonymous reader writes "Hip-hop musician Sir Mix-A-Lot has made his new CD Daddy's Home available for download using Weed technology. Weed is a relatively new file sharing system based principles of shareware and referrals. You download the DRM WMA weed file and can listen to it 3 times on any computer before deciding to purchase it or not. If you do purchase it (at a price set by the artist), you will receive referral fees (20%, 10%, 5%) for the next 3 generations of people that purchase your copy. The artist always receives 50% of the price. Certainly an interesting approach to distributing music in a world of p2p and iTunes."
Ain't that what the RIAA uses too? ;)
Download rates... really fast! It's great!
It looks like a mini-pyramid scheme. Aren't those illegal?
Guess weed isn't that popular...
we are building a religion
a limited edition
we are now accepting callers
for these pendant key chains
I like DRM and I cannot lie
You other brothers cant deny
When a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist
And p2p in yo face
You get sprung
Wanna pull out ya gun
Cuz the RIAA aint tough
Vonal Declosion
I can't remember the last time a slashdot title made me do a triple-take. Haha.
Have to admit I was a little disappointed as I read on.
why? forty-two.
We had weed back in my day, but I had to *pay* for it. None of this referral paybacks. :)
You download the DRM WMA weed file and can listen to it 3 times on any computer before deciding to purchase
...then I get the song in a lossless format, complete with digitized cover art and free of any DRM, right? Because as a paying customer, I'd expect to get at least the sound quality and format versatility that the pirates are getting.
it or not.
Sure - it's a free tril so I won't complain about the format.
If you do purchase it...
Yes, I did RTFA - the format is no surprise. When the only option for online buying is DRM, it only encourages piracy because regardless of whether you're prepared to pay for the content, it's the only way to get the music without funny restriction.
The biggest difficulties I see it facing are:
That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
Even more interesting name. I can see the advertisements now. "Weed, the legal alternative to KaZaA"
Etiquette is etiquette. He kills his mother but he can't wear grey trousers.
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a pothead DLing weed.
Sig- http://www.dreamhost.com/rewards.cgi?ayefly
While I'm disappointed that they're distributing DRM'ed WMA files (non-Windows users will certainly be out of luck), I don't want to be too quick to dismiss this. Any distribution channel that gives the artist 50% of the sale is already better than almost anything else out there.
Can anyone think of a better system that gives the artist this much or more of the sale?
. . . isn't the first time always free?? ;-)
In this case it's the first 3 times, but close enough
- "Nobody came out that night, not one was ever seen. But Old Man Stauf is waiting there, crazy sick and mean!"
hip hop has always been based on other peoples beats and breaks , look at poof daddy ? 50 cent , all ripping off 1970's funk and soul
and mixalot wants paying ? just to rip off other peoples music ?
hahah funny how things go
For the Weed DRM?
Now he just has to find somebody who would actually want his music, or shall I say, jump on it, jump on it, jump on it, jump on it.
I think his best bet to sell music would be inventing a time machine taking him back to the early 1990s.
Until Slashdot fixes the funny modifier, use insightful or interesting. The poster knows your intentions.
Mmm.. AmWeed.. :D
So weed has been making music-sharing happen for several decades, at least. Hmph. Internet.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
Can anybody show me something in the U.S. Code, the Code of Federal Regulations, or interstate commerce case law that makes multi-level marketing unlawful in general across the United States? For instance, AllAdvantage.com's payouts used a pyramid structure. It died not because of its MLM structure or because of any FTC action relating to its structure but merely because the bottom fell out of the banner market, which in turned happened once advertisers realized the effects of banner blindness.
In a pyramid scheme after the style of Ponzi, on the other hand, participants get little for their investments, and they make money only when somebody else has signed up under them. Once saturation has set in, nobody signs up anymore, and the bottom rung of the pyramid gets shafted. But in this pyramid scheme, every participant at every rung receives at least a license to listen to a Sir Mix-A-Lot recording. Therefore, it's legitimate MLM and not a Ponzi scheme.
~jeff
(red team go, red team go)
And if the artist and friends buy and buy and buy at the beginning, they can create a false landrush that may influence others to jump in early. "Look at this! This thing is selling like crazy! Better get in now!"
Not a good idea, me thinks...no different than time shares and generic brandingiron futures.
I dunno. It is at time like this that I really appreciate my copy of Total Recorder. I really have nothing with High Criteria except an admiration for this nice piece of software. The price is so cool.
Decide for yourself.
http://www.highcriteria.com/
Am I bad?
My fri/sat night fun job is doorman for a SJ karaoke bar...
I swear to god if I hear that song being sung by a group of sorority girls screaming into the mics at the top of their lungs one more time i'm going to shoot myself.
LEGALIZE p2p
hah
Even with Weed, the record industry still stands a very good chance of taking half the profits, unless the song was never released on a major label.
Those that meet their quota of referrals graduate to the amway program?
Fuck the greedy sellout whores. They're the ones giving the RIAA its power (complete with the delusion that they are an actual law enforcement agency), and lord knows the RIAA had its chance to do right by us. They flunked. They have alot to make up for, simply doing it right isn't enough anymore, and I don't expect any kind of reparations.
then I get the song in a lossless format
What is so "lossless" about a lossless format? An 8-bit 8 kHz PCM recording is in a "lossless format," but it's just about telephone quality. Likewise, a 16-bit 44.1 kHz stereo PCM recording (hereinafter, a "CD recording") is in a "lossless format", but it still loses ultrasonic signals and everything below -110 dBFS. In modern hypercompressed mastering techniques for pop music, a CD recording loses the punch of drums. Only a live performance is truly "lossless."
That said, engineering practice demands only "good enough." If your ears can't tell the difference between a particular recording and any given higher fidelity recording, then you'd call it "good enough."
it's the only way to get the music without funny restriction.
If you're buying through iTunes or Napster music stores, what "funny restriction" is there? You can burn a purchased recording to CD as often as you want; you can even burn an entire playlist a few times before changing it. If downloads do not work with your pocket player, then why did you buy that player?
You download the DRM WMA weed file
No, no I don't.
You can't take the sky from me...
MP3 is patented, and patents are evil, just like copyright. At least try to recommend ogg if FLAC is too big.
-Libertarian secular transhumanist
As a DJ, I'd have to agree with the original poster. The quality lost by MP3s make them completely useless to me. The parts that you lose in converting music to MP3 are some of the most important ones when you're playing it through a 30.000 watt sound system.
Of course, I haven't bought anything aside from vinyl for the past three years, so I guess I don't really care about digital anyway.
Both products become expensive because of government regulations. To protect the profitability of both products, distributors employ tactics typical of criminal organizations. Both products derive their power from the fear of the people who would have a tendency to abuse it, or those that see a threat to other more acceptable means of domination.
And finally, the real danger appears not because of the product itself, but because of the additives that must be used in the mass market to maximize and protect profit margins. The additives create unknown levels of toxicity to your body and your mind.
Of course, manufactured weed and manufactured music are both bad for you, and I would suggest that squirrels and humans avoid their consumption.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Sir Hax-A-Lot using weed to whore on Slashdot!
Sorry I didn't post in a more appropriate style, but this is freakin' genius.
Since I'm sure the guys reads this page, could he please tell us all if he did really well in marketing school or how it was that he thought of such a great idea!!!
(I wonder if it was Sir Mix A Lot himself!!!!)
Amway and the RIAA have joined forces.
You knew it'd have to happen sooner or later - they're both scum-sucking bottom feeders.
After you download from Weed, you can burn your music to a disc with Alcohol 120%. But make sure you use a crack to remove the DRM first.
...I was getting ready to post this profound insight I had about weed, but by the time I got my cursor over to the comment box I totally forgot what I was going to type. I had some more pizza.
How can this be less expensive as a means of distribution than simply setting up a server and sell direct, like Apple did ? I mean, don't think about only bandwidth costs but:
1) Costs of paying people down the pyramid
2) Fraud Management
3) "CRM" with the huge mass of "distribution partners"
Unless they have some brilliant marketing concept hidden in there, which I may have missed, it seems like just a more expensive way of doing the same thing Itunes does.
Quem a paca cara compra, paca cara pagará.
...but then I got high.
I thought I was gonna get a free bag if I picked up his new CD. It would certainly help me sit and listen to the whole thing.
Just kidding, I actually used to be a big Mix A Lot fan, like 12 years ago, and this method seems very fair to both parties. Artist gets paid better than thru the RIAA, and the customer gets to listen before they buy. Perfect!
$4.99..................Weed
Deja Vu man. This will be like when I called the hints line at Virgin Interactive. Took forever to explain to my parents that $3.99 to a 900 line called Virgin Entertainment was not a phone sex line.
Honestly though, I wonder if anyone has though about what a tough sell this will be, not to the target demographic, teenagers (they'll love it), but the source of their disposable income, their very uncool parents.
My crystal ball keeps showing me a Chevy Nova.
V.90 dial-up, cable modems, and DSL are patented, having been invented within the last 20 years. How do you get your Internet access?
It's getting stoned night tonight. So you'll all know why I'm rolling about thinking how funny the first sentence is.
I'm going to get Kevin Bacon to buy a track. I'll never have to work again.
Besides the low registration cost (it was like $13 or something), they even support ogg vorbis! Great little company.
No misspellings! I had to check it thrice to make sure, just like you.
How about making copyright reform a central issue in the upcoming election?
Very likely most politicians don't know if the DMCA is fit to eat, feel Disney and the RIAA are important campaign contributors whose requests should be given priority, and music downloaders are simple thieves who deserve every bit of punishment they get.
You can change that. But it's going to take some work. But there are enough people sharing music in America - more people than voted for George Bush - that if you get off your collective asses and get active politically, you can get laws passed to get the RIAA off your back.
In Change the Law, I explain that copyright is not a Constitutional right, like free speech. Instead copyright is allowed (but not required) to serve a useful purpose, a purpose which I feel has long since outlived its usefulness.
I suggest steps you can take to bring about copyright reform, ranging from speaking out to practicing civil disobedience.
One thing I'd like you all to do today is to write your elected representatives to ask their opinion of the current state of copyright law given its widespread abuse by organizations like the RIAA and MPAA, and to urge them to work towards copyright reform. Let them know your vote will depend on a positive response.
When you're done writing that letter, write to the other candidates for each office in the upcoming elections, to ask them the same thing.
Sixty million american peer-to-peer file traders have the potential to raise a lot of Hell with the politicians. I want every candidate to be peppered with questions about copyright reform at every campaign stop and in every press interview. I want the repeal of the DMCA to be discussed in the Presidential debates.
People marched in protest when Dmitry Sklyarov was arrested. Dmitry Sklarov is free now - but the law under which he was jailed is still on the books.
If you agree with me that something needs to be done about copyright, I need your help.
Thank you for your attention.
Request your free CD of my piano music.
I had a quick look at the site...
I couldnt find anywhere telling me which direction I should pass it on.
I just wanted to make sure everyone gets their fair share of hits.
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
This is the W35T c045t, b!tch!
Word to Puget Sound!
Okay. So take the worst of P2P (the person-to-person distribution, the lack of a centralized search engine, the lack of file integrity verification, no customer service, the overall time-consuming and sloppy experience), and the worst of iTunes (DRM, Linux-unfriendly format, special application, costs money that goes mostly to the record label, personal identifier in every file) .. and you've got.. WEED!
I'm glad they're trying new things and all, but I personally wouldn't give two shits for this "viral sales" BS. I've already got iTunes installed and I'm not bothering to install anything else. (Like this would even work with the Mac, I bet it won't).
Best thing to do is download the song, remove the DRM, and upload it back to P2P with the same name.
Sir Mix-a-lot first brought us Buttermilk Biscuits, Square Dance Rap>, Baby Got Back and Put 'em On The Glass. If he's distributing those, I'm buying, or downloading, or perhaps just popping in my old Swass casette.
The term weed has frequently been used in live music trading circles to refer to a method of distributing your favorite phish/dead/moe./sci show quickly. Out of generosity on person seeds the show to two people absolutely free, no blanks, no postage, etc. The only string attached are that each recipient in turn gives it to two more people for free. And so on, like rabbits. peace.
So does this mean that the songs are being grown in illegal grow ups too?
Cypress Hill is using weed. Not to distribute music, they are just using it.
people who just plays the music... records the sound via their soundcard's "what-you-hear" recording function and recompressing it into mp3.. bam then u got yourself a mp3 again?
Likewise:
"Why did you buy that tape player?"
"Because it's a better player, and there's no reason I shouldn't be able to use the cassettes that I bought with it."
OH S***, why does the finger slip when it's headed toward the preview button?
"Why did you buy that tape player?" should have been "Why did you buy that CD player?"
Whoops, I read that as "Sir Mix-A-Lot Using Weed". Nevermind :)
I don't think you understand what "lossless" means.
Using lossless compression, any digital audio file can be duplicated for infinite generations and still be a perfect copy of the original. If you make a FLAC copy of an APE copy of a CDA file (all lossless compression methods), the 3rd generation is identical to the first. No audio information is removed. If you make an MP3 of an OGG of a WMA (lossy methods), the file will change and the sound quality will deteriorate with each successive generation, as more information is irretrievably tossed out each time.
Call me a troll but I can't see how you can call that "music sharing". It's a commercial site with DRMed tryouts.
Oh, and "Sir Mix-A-Lot"? What the hell what a dumbass name.
DVD Jon legalizes weed for linux users!
Citigroup being the biggest Pyramid scheme in the world, and nobody seems to be complaining too much about them.
Karma: Non-Heinous
Sir-Mix-a-lot would HAVE to use weed to get anyone to listen to his crap.
is a friend indeed.
The music industry is now proving just how evil they are. Now they are trying to use Multi-Level-Marketing mixed with DRM to sell product. They may call it something else, but anything that uses a downline structure to sell anything is MLM.
This is similar to what Amway, NSA water softeners and a bunch of other companies do to sell product.
It is an interesting scam. Not only do they get you to do the selling for them, but they also get to keep lists of who is selling their music and where they live.
This is one of those times when I am glad I am on an unsupported platform for the technology.
"Trademarks are the heraldry of the new feudalism."
Sir Mix-a-lot is taking some lessons from Cypress Hill...
Heh... They've been using weed to sell their music for years.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
Why doesn't he use Baby Got FLAC?
first read this "Sir Mix-A-Lot Using Weed To Distribute Music"?
err....
"Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the form of inert facts." - Henry A
the amway of the digital age...
http://chrono.posterous.com/
b-dump-bump-bump
nt
The audio quality is not as good as in the original file but then you can take the WAV file created by Bob and convert that to whatever format you like (MP3, OGG, etc...). This is definitely not legal and the artist loses out on the payment. I wonder if anyone bothers to tell the artists that this huge hole exists in the supposedly "secure" Weed technology.
Mmm... nebulous beeeeeee.
Shameless self promotion: .ca, thus you may have guessed we're talking canadian dollars).
www.hearsaymusic.ca, canadian independent artists
artists get 45cents for each dollar song (oh, notice the
There currently is an huge selection of 3 artists :-), with a forth coming in a few hours... we are always looking for more independent artists.
cheerswarren
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
Daniel
http://people.cinn.ca/daniel/
Besides, my brother's a musician and I do know what I'm talking about. ;-)
C'mon, hit me again. I double-dare you.
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
"...and this is your music on DRM. Any questions?"
I knew if I'd wait enough, this 60's technology would come around again.
Now I'm waiting for the release of "Acid" DRM to compliment it
Can you imagine what the RIAA would give for us actually forgetting what we'd just listened to? I mean, they'd be able to release the same crappy boy/girl - band jingles year after year and we'd *love it*.
Oh, crap, how did they manage to do that already???
== I was there, but there's no proof anyone else remembers being there to see me . . . ==
I think this is BS promoted by the lawyers. I can pretty damn well figure out that George Lucaas was not intending to create German hip-hop, and I think anybody else could figure that out too. The real question legally is whether the music is "derived" from the movie; I still think the song would have to do a lot more than just sample the movie to be "derivative." What's happened is that the lawyers have everyone at the record companies convinced that samples must be cleared, so that's the way it is. But I'm not aware of any significant case law (perhaps I'm wrong; IANAL) outlawing sampling without permission per se. I think it would be easy to establish that the use of samples in a particular work constitute a commentary on the original, even a parodic commentary, which would be protected as fair use. The problem is, that would require a record company willing to have their lawyers make this argument in court rather than quietly pony up a few grand for every snippet of an original work used in another work.
On another note, I think it's ridiculously hypocritical for record companies to expect anyone to ask them permission to regurgitate a bit of the crap they ram down our throats constantly through the mass media.
You dealer wouldn't kick you down some free bud if you bring in some new customers?
I read the headline and got my hopes up. I hope him and his big-bottomed women burn in hell for this outrage.
You're looking at it as if the music weren't a product.
The payback seems more like a scheme to reward or fund distributors rather than a scheme for people to make money.
I think it's vital to this sort of thing surviving. I can imagine large libraries for distribution on fatty pipes--something that's kind of rare when distribution is not rewarded.
Pyramid type schemes are based on the promise that the next generation will pay you, but if you run out of next generations, you get nothing back.
The Weed idea doesn't seem to be promising anything, except that if you do happen to distribute the file, you might be rewarded.
I think remixes and blends with different beats are awesome. I've been spending a lot of time recently listening to rap mixtapes and some of the stuff is really interesting and/or funny. For example, Juelz Santana's freestyle over R. Kelly's Ignition remix beat is funny because it has a similar flow to the Ignition remix (can be found on The Diplomats Present Juelz Santana, by Kay Slay).
I also came across a hilarious blend the other day (I think it was off a recent Lt. Dan tape) but it had Stunt 101 (by G-Unit) over the beat for Clap Back (by Ja Rule). If you've heard about their so-called beef (it's just words, really) you'd be laughing. Oh, the irony.
True story.
Before even reading the comments for this story, I figured that browsing at "+5 Funny" would get me all the important stuff.
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
Agreed. That post was hilarious.
True story.
Their FAQ says they use Paypal, and everyone knows how horrible Paypal is. After reading all the horror stories who's really stupid enough to give Paypal their credit card number anyway? If similar stories were written about a brand of car there would be a massive recall and government investigation, amazing how Paypal still manages to sneak by.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
Word! And I say that as a lifelong suburban white boy. To my ears, only Will Smith has matched the Sugarhill Gang's ability to re-cast a popular groove into something worth listening to on its own. "Rapper's Delight" still holds up.
what were they smoking?
just can't put my finger on it...
Ogg is an alternative. Make some effort to use it.
-Libertarian secular transhumanist
it brings a tear to my eye. in cabo san lucas, they have been playing the same music in all the clubs for the past 10 years, since the audience rotates out every 3 days.
Please stop stalking me, bro.
i'm assuming you haven't worked for anyone like radiohead. or the flaming lips. or tortoise, or yo la tengo or stereolab or anyone who pays much attention to the entire aural experience.
i'm not discounting the fact that artists like the above stated wouldn't upload some mp3s to their player and listen to their work that way, but it's to detect different things. if you're the one playing the guitar or piano or drums or bass there are plenty of things you hear that noone else does, because it's your own.
the finishing work matters. when i illegally downloaded hail to the thief in mp3 format, it was missing loads of character the CD had when i bought it.
open your ears.
Please stop stalking me, bro.
Ok, so now people are using coke and weed to get our children to listen to music? This is frickin' rediculous....
today Yaakov Smirnov announced that he will be distributing his new comedy CD over the WEED network as well. As you already know... this development comes on the heels of other major artist launches on the WEED network by such industry giants as: Winger, Carrot Top, Nelson and the Corey Feldman Band.
. SLASHDOT: Home of the vicious nerd.
Their FAQ says they use Paypal, and everyone knows how horrible Paypal is. After reading all the horror stories who's really stupid enough to give Paypal their credit card number anyway? If similar stories were written about a brand of car there would be a massive recall and government investigation, amazing how Paypal still manages to sneak by.
Just like everything else, the people not happy with something are going to be a lot more vocal than the people happy with something. I've used paypal on and off for a few years now, and know several others that have as well, and none of us have had a single problem. Something tells me that paypal has far more satisfied customers than unsatisfied customers.
Perl - $Just @when->$you ${thought} s/yn/tax/ &couldn\'t %get $worse;
Maybe the RIAA will like a p2p app that's called sex. After all, sex sells.
It might be kind of nice if musicians mde money on copies for a change. On the other hand, it really isn't necessary for ANYBODY to make money from copies of music. Enforcing any system of copy control opens the same cans of worms no matter who gets the money. We don't need this headache in our lives any more, and it just isn't necessary. Before and during the era of recorded music, musicians have always made money by playing gigs, not from the sales of the recordings. Only record companies make money from record sales, because of the way recording contracts are set up. Musicians lose nothing by the free flow of copies, and they gain fame and better gigs.
Let musicians continue to make money by actually playing, the way it's always been; they lose nothing. Let the public gain something -- the power to distribute copies freely and determine for themselves which musicians become popular, with no middleman raking off a huge profit. Let the concept of pay-for-copies and all the enforcement headaches and secondary effects on privacy and civil rights fade away into history. Please, please, please do not support this or any other pay-for-copy scheme.
Because of your subject, here is how I originally parsed your first sentence in my head:
The similarity between average squirrels and average weed are interesting. Both are grown easily in the home, and can be distributed at almost no cost.
I had to read it a few times before I saw what you actually wrote.
This was also funny because at a funeral a few months ago I met a guy who really was raising a squirrel in his house (though he was giving any away).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
This is frickin' rediculous...
...as is your spelling. YM ridiculous. Now write it out a hundred times (without the aid of copy-and-paste).
Now there's a world class oxymoron if ever there was one.
If you make an MP3 of an OGG of a WMA (lossy methods), the file will change and the sound quality will deteriorate with each successive generation, as more information is irretrievably tossed out each time.
WMA 9 Professional allows lossless compression. I actually love it and that's the format I'm encoding my CDs after I purchase them and want to listen without quality loss in my PC. After a few weeks I can reencode them into WMA 9 Dual pass VBR.
Subset was a short-term collaboration project between Sir Mix-A-Lot and The Presidents Of The United States Of America (PUSA). Some interesting stuff, Mix's raps over PUSA's grooves.
I think weed is a fantastic idea -- it works with people's natural inclination to share music they like and still takes care of the artists. We're an indie and we love the idea -- we've put up a few tunes (http://www.stonetigerentertainmentgroup.com/weedp age.html) and are slowly getting our feet wet but have a bunch more that we plan to get out there. I love the idea of working with the fans/listeners directly. Music really should be accessible for everybody. And what better partnership can you think of than weed & reggae? :) Couldn't resist.
We're trying to explain the concept to other artists now and get them involved (http://www.jahweed.com) but the idea is so new that it takes time.
I'm a novice at all the audio stuff and have just been learning about setting up audio files and such on the site but I'm coming along.
Blessings
Which would you pick?
--- The American Way of Life is not a birthright. Hell, it's not even sustainable.
Either this is security-by-obscurity, which means, that I'll be able to listen to the same song as many times as I want to (for example, by simply restoring a 'safety copy' of the file, or maybe by circumventing application security (using a debugger)), or I must not be able to copy the file (or to open this file with any program other than Microsoft's WMA player), which effectively makes my computer unusable, because I can't use my own (or 3rd Party Software) on it anymore (then maybe it's still a Microsoft-CD-Player-with-integrated-Microsoft-Type writer, but not a computer).
/dev/fd0 or something, because that would allow you to copy the file's content. You must not be allowed to debug certain applications on your computer.
.. . What about DRM-protected viruses? There will be only a very small group of people who would then be able to isolate the virus.
Just imagine UNIX without the possibility of using pipelines, because only ONE specific program works with a specific file; you must not even be allowed to read from
Now imagine a cracker, who can get a DRM certificate for his newest virus (don't say, it's impossible
I think, we could find a lot of other potential 'accidents' with DRM technology.
DRM technology can't work realiably on open computing platforms, it will always be either totally insecure ('obscure' instead of 'secure'), or it will at least be potentially dangerous. Don't use it.
regards,
octogen
Back in 1976, some of the founders of the Internet working within the NSF's funding challenges considered selling "ownership" of the internet to users as a method of enticing its use, of gaining fiscal support in light of dwindling NSF monies, and of allowing for true "peer-to-peer" marketing. They of course did not choose this method, Network Solutions was instead formed. But, if they had, interestingly, a few changes would have come to life, and one of those changes might have something to say about Weedshare. Consider what it would mean to commerce on the network if everyone had a digital identity that represented a marketplace that they were the owners of. Secure (Open Identity Management)trading partners across a global stage, with a built in business model. ie... What you own legally, you can sell as you wish... and the history of owners that have preceeded you, all the way back to the original source owner, can be easily databsed for any product or service commodity. If this had happened, we would not have the issue of "theft" in the world of intellectual capital as we do today on the web. Dont get me wrong, it will always be around, but it would not be sooo easy. OWNERSHIP Distribution is a big deal... in a free market, their is one thing better than "FREE"... ownership. As long as a digital signal is distributed to your home, and you are not the "owner" of it, their is a breakdown. Incentivizing owners to participate is the key. Just because the network is cool and allows for cool activities is not enough in a commercial paradigm. Renting domains that you can organize legally as privately owned commodities is still a legislative priviledge. Ownership of your digital identity/ life brings a whole new experience. Weed speaks to a good idea. On a network, owners of content and owners of consumption resources are partners. It is a 50-50 relationship. If either is slighted by the other, there is a backlash of negativity, especially in terms of fluid economic transactions. Until a system such as weed comes about and can take the issue of ownership to the next level, we will not have a positive solution for trading intellectual capital on the global digital stage. I say kudos... its a hellova long road ahead... but they picked a good theme... all weed should be circulated under such terms );p
NZN
You need to remember - not everyone gets to watch sorority girls sing kareoke... It could be worse - it could be Japanese Businesmen... ;)
the point i had missed was iTunes encoding directly from masters.
and about radiohead, i would say they have gotten a little too pre-recorded for my tastes, and hail to the thief is a welcome return to form such as it is. have you seen them perform their new material live? i have also heard an acoustic set by johnny and thom on krock that is beautifully performed, including many of their new songs.
they still build their music from the ground up.
i also forgot to add that i feel that many times the artist will listen to an mp3 of his music, while it is the production's job to adjust the levels, something that gets horribly skewed when ripping a CD to mp3. i am a firm believer in oggs and wished iTunes supported playing them (the plugin is laggy).
i cede many points to you. i hate 99% of the overproduced stuff nowadays too. you sound like someone who performs his work with integrity.
-nathan
Please stop stalking me, bro.