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U2's Manager Calls For Mandatory Disconnects For Music Downloaders
sleeplesseye writes "In a speech at the Midem music industry convention in Cannes, Paul McGuinness, longtime manager of the band U2, has called on Internet service providers to immediately introduce mandatory French-style service disconnections to end music downloading, and has urged governments to force ISPs to adopt such policies. McGuinness criticized Radiohead's 'In Rainbows' pay-what-you-want business model, saying that 'the majority of downloads were through illegal P2P download services like BitTorrent and LimeWire'. He also accused ISPs, telcos, device makers, and numerous specifically named companies such as Apple, Google, Yahoo!, Oracle, and Facebook of building 'multi billion dollar industries on the back of our content without paying for it', and of being 'makers of burglary kits' who have made 'a thieves' charter' to steal money from the music industry. The full text of his speech has been posted on U2's website."
When was that? It used to be life of the author, plus 20 years. So U2's stuff would still be theirs.
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Just to stand up for the Monkees for a moment, they were young and jumpped at the chance to be on TV and all, but they did have enough guts and pride to eventually go on strike unless they were allowed to play their own instruments and material. And they did do some catchy pop songs. Not exactly the Beatles, but at least they wised up and grew some spines. Can't imagine this week's X-Factor/American Idol wank-stain ever doing that.
TWW
"Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
Am I hallucinating or did this band wilfully advertise (and directly profit from) the device that is supposedly killing them? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiV4jzWitnA
Paul ain't due much respect. U2 has been on the forefront of anti-fair-use since the incident involving Negativland in 1991: The Letter U and the Numeral 2
The track parodies the whole top-40 industry by sampling the backbeat of "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", and punches in bits of Casey Kasem going apeshit!. It's not just hilarious, it's one of the single most important cases in the history of sample-based music. Long story short, after a multiyear legal battle, Negativland won. By this time, most physical copies had been recalled and/or destroyed, but you can download the MP3 from their website.
In 1998, the last few chapters of the legal battle played out, also to Negativland's favor, and RIAA rewrote its rewrote its guidelines on sampling, fair use, and parody.
Which brings us back to our next top-40 hit - it's no surprise that U2 and RIAA are back in bed with each other, working ever diligently against any form of fair use: they still haven't found what they're looking for.
> I've got a huge DVD library, and it keeps growing. I'll happily pay premium prices for Criterion editions, I'm a hardcore movie geek who's always loved going to the cinema, sometimes even repeat fucking viewings for movies I really like.
If we could only find someone like Casey Kasem ranting like that off-mike, the war for fair use would be over, and we geeks would finally have won.
Oh, Really?
I mean, seriously - you're sure about that?
Idiot.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
They actively suppressed unions and treated their crews like shit, from what I heard.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Ah, yes. You made me Google it. It looks like their pay is rather low and they don't even pay for all hours worked, plus they seem to fire pro-union workers.
It looks like the unions nailed them to the wall - they don't even seem to exist anymore, do they?
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
While the rest of them went to the relatively down market Mount Temple it's a far from working class school.
"Linux is for noobs"-The new MS fud strategy
While I'll agree that no one has been deprived of their property I have to say that your definition of stealing doesn't hold water. The dictionary definition of stealing says nothing about depriving someone of their property, but only of taking something that isn't yours without due authority. Stealing is a common sense and moral issue, irregardless of how the law has to wrap it for the purposes of enforcement. While I am completely opposed to the MAFIAA cartels, taking copies of music/movies is still stealing.
This system is already in use here in Cannes by the MIDEM organisation and is called SIMRAN. Throughout this conference you will see contact details and information. I recommend you look at it. I should disclose that I'm one of their investors.
US copyright wasn't extended to life of the author + 50 years until 1976. From 1909 to 1976 it was 28 years and one 28 year renewal. From 1831 to 1909 it was 28 plus one 14 year renewal. The original 1790 terms applied until 1831.
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uh... nope. I'm a mac user, works fine with both safari and FF. The only somewhat disappointing aspect is that you need to download a (free) application in order to purchase full albums. However, it's a lightweight application that works great, and is available for both Windows and Mac users. Sorry Linux users! You can still buy by the track!
US only, Canadians need not apply!
You should look up the Licensing Order of 1643 and add it to your rant. Copyright has been a distinct, from theft, legal concept for hundreds of years. Originally copyright was a censorship tool. Only later did business embrace it for monetary gain.
I find being offended by me offensive.
It goes beyond that... I used to exhibit at CES (10 years in a row - this was the first year I didn't show). I couldn't carry ANYTHING on to the floor without being challenged - it had to be union labor loading and unloading boxes into our booth (never mind I built all the gear being loaded). Expect a $1500 bill for the drop off and pick up of the boxes. When it would have taken my crew and I literally 20 minutes to load or unload a single, 11 passenger van with all the boxes (we know, we pre-set the show in a taped off area of our warehouse, then loaded the van and drove the products to our crating company).
And power? Not just the cord cost - you had to PAY an electrician to plug in your outlets! At the 2003 and 2004 CES shows, I was a Nevada state licensed power engineer (with my PE). I was licensed by the STATE to actually design and sign off on the electrical network in the building! But heaven forbid I dare plug a power strip into an outlet - why, only a UNION electrician could do that!
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
- Directly executable, in which case (window) users would have to rename the file.
or- Exploit an unpatched flaw in a media player, which dramatically reduces your targets.
Neither scenario is conducive to rapid, widespread infection. I doubt anyone would go to the trouble of specifically crafting a file that passed signature checks (esp if the signatures checks are chunked) with such a small target audience. Also bear in mind that any virus that did match a know signature would require people to be after that specific track, further limiting your targets.Windows in 6 Bytes (IA-32) : 90 90 90 90 CD 19
Oh?
http://news.google.ca/news?q=amazon+international+rollout+music&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&hl=en&sa=X&oi=news_result&resnum=1&ct=title
Stuff.
So I guess then, with your logic, you can't steal one's ideas either, since nobody is deprived property.
Yes, that's correct. You can copy ideas, you can plagiarise them, you can misappropriate them, but you cannot steal them because you cannot take an idea away from somebody.
Sounds like semantics to me.
Of course it is semantics, without question. What do you think the word "semantics" means? It's not a synonym for "nitpicking" or "technicality" like some people seem to think.
I Googled it ("U2 Stage Crew Services union") but only found a single reference after a few pages (http://www.mlkclc.org/winter_1998.htm) which is pro-union, talking about how Stage Crew Services got rid of union employees and activists that were unsurprisingly let go after they tried to infiltrate and unionise the place. Did you manage to find anything vaguely objective?
I noticed that too and laughed. Then I read the article to learn that the summary is totally botched.
U2's agent actually mentioned Oracle, Intel and other major companies in a plea for a solution to "save the music industry". While I disagree with his plea, he's not as dumb as the summarizer to suggest Oracle profits from so-called "piracy".
Unions.......They make great temp agencies for labor that is only needed for short- to mid-term projects. Buildings are a good example. Public-use buildings are everywhere. Someone needs to build them. Someone also needs to manage the process of construction. Unions guarantee that a worker has *enough* qualification to do a specific task, whether he's as good as the next guy or not, they're in the same trade. Not every worker is worth keeping around. You keep the good ones around with extra pay and smaller, less rote jobs to perform. Call them Superintendents, and give them extra benefits. This will keep them around. The peons in the union can come and go from the temp agency that they've joined. It's heirarchical, structured. The machine of public works must be structured similarly for fair competition on the same standard of quality for the building of whatever plans have been set forth. As architects and engineers are responsible for the quality of their work, so are the contractors. The contractors have the burden of placing the materials.
There must be assurance that all contractors follow the same standard of work
Contractors can not have monopolies over specific territories. The tax-payers coin will not tolerate lack of competition. Contractors must sign non-collusion affidavits.
Buildings may only last forever with competent maintenance. The degree of this maintenance is up to the Owner.
Not all public buildings are within the scope of one bid project. Time is a factor. A project can last only 3 months, or it can last a century. Laborers must be available for large volume, short term projects to be successful. This will draw from the local labor pool accordingly. When this labor pool is not able to perform the work, tradesmen from other territories will mobilize and work at the site's contracted union wage, plus an agreed upon compensation for their travel expenses.
Unions offer a way for individual tradesmen to work for different contractors as they are needed.
Certain tasks require skill.
I dare any architect or engineer to lay a concrete cinder block wall eight feet high and twenty feet long in one day to the precision of work that his fellow architect or engineer would approve.
Spending Resources on Defense leaves Less to defend.
Yeah but until it reaches our shores will shall continue out piratey ways.
It shall be interesting to see how they handle Europe because the EU holds views on restricting people from purchasing goods from other states.
Come as you are, do what you must, be who you will.