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RIAA About to Transform?
It has been reported for a while that the RIAA was suffering some cutbacks and dwindling support, but techdirt is reporting that the cuts may be even deeper than most originally suspected. Who knew suing potential customers would ruin your business? "I'm sure some will somehow 'blame piracy' for this turn of events, but it's hard to see how that's even remotely the issue. The real issue is that the RIAA has basically managed to run one of the dumbest, most self-defeating strategies over the last decade. Rather than helping major record labels adjust to the changing market, it continually, repeatedly and publicly destroyed its own reputation and the reputation of the labels — each time shrinking their potential market by blaming the very people they should have been working to turn into customers."
Well I would imagine the excess employees will be much in demand as witnesses.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
TERRORIZE!!!
...a Z Transform, a Laplace Transform or a Fast Fourier Transform?
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
This is terrible news! Who now is brave enough to fight the evil ones! Piracy funds Terrorism!!! Remember how every time you download a torrent you get an email from Al Qaeda saying "Thank you for your kind support"?! What will stop them now?!
This post was made in complete sincere seriousity; as such any attempts to derive humour are doomed to instant failure.
Chasing down the links leads to this:
http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2009/02/is-the-.html
But one seemingly knowledgeable but unconfirmed source tells Hypebot that the cuts run much deeper than previously reported.
And not much else. One can hope, but so far this is nothing but a rumor.
There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
If the book publishers are about to make the same mistakes as RIAA, then at least we know where they are heading now.
While it is no doubt that the people who run the RIAA and IFPI have no idea what they are doing I also wonder how much of a contributing factor that people are putting 2 + 2 together and recognizing who supports the RIAA. Companies are very protective of their brands and sony, emi, warner bros, and universal do not like the negative image this is bringing them directly.
Is something wrong with the site preferences? I disabled YRO but I see several of its stories on the front page.
Visit the
take this infantile whining to torrent freak or the playground where such anti-corporate whining isnt seen as the transparent bullshit
I don't think we are "anti-corporate" enough in the U.S.A. They've more or less destroyed the economy with short sighted strategies that can't see past a 3 month horizon.
Businesses move jobs over seas. Umm? Who's going to buy your product? The list of offenses is pretty long from exploitation to pollution.
or get a job and pay for music for a change.
Um, I use Linux, where would I buy digital music that plays on my system and has any value? I want it on my home stereo (CD, DVD, or a Linux box) and my MP3 player. (which is not an iPod)
I buy CDs if I really like the music, but I was so disappointed with Gnarles Barkley, one good song on a whole CD, I usually go to the library and borrow CDs.
I do, however, once RIAA is dead and buried, intend to dig them up once a year on the anniversary of their death just to make sure they're still dead.
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
each time shrinking their potential market by blaming the very people they should have been working to turn into customers.
Worse than that, they were shrinking their market by blaming the very people who already were their customers. Contrary to the way we sometimes talk about it, "people who download music in violation of copyrights" and "people who buy music" are not mutually exclusive groups.
Often enough, the same people who will spend money on high-quality convenient products that they feel are worth the price will also look for alternate channels in cases where they don't think the product they are being offered is high-quality enough, convenient enough, or worth the price.
Now I'm not trying to excuse people who download music illegally. It's illegal. I don't do it. I don't advocate that others do it. I don't approve of it. I'm just pointing out that all those nasty/evil group of "pirates" and "thieves" that the music industry keeps blaming, vilifying, and suing-- that group has a fair amount of overlap with that industry's legitimate customers.
Same as the old boss. Heh, Just because the RIAA transforms, does not imply that the copyright laws they try to enforce or fight for have changed. Slam them all you want and call'em a failure, as far as I'm concerned this means nothing. When the laws change toward cultural liberation, (like they used to be) only then will I celebrate. Only then.
I use Linux, where would I buy digital music that plays on my system and has any value?
Um, Amazon for starters? Or did you not realize that iTunes is not the only digital music store in the world?
Today's Sesame Street was brought to you by the number e.
I mostly buy from a used CD store in town, and even if I find an occasional new CD there, it's well under the usual price (usually around $10 for a normal CD, I got Pink Floyd's "The Wall" for $15 new). Combine the fact that I don't care if I buy a used CD (EAC does a good job with mildly-scratched CDs) with the fact that I've only bought 2 CDs made in the last 5 years, and the RIAA probably doesn't like me, even though I'm a paying customer.
Convert FLACs to a portable format with FlacSquisher
Unless Amazon added lossless support recently, I'd rather just buy the CD.
Convert FLACs to a portable format with FlacSquisher
Heck, with the way they have been suing everybody I'm surprised anyone still even wants music any more. Why even possess music when it is apparently such a dangerous thing? :P
Um, I use Linux, where would I buy digital music that plays on my system and has any value? I want it on my home stereo (CD, DVD, or a Linux box) and my MP3 player. (which is not an iPod)
This problem has been solved. Check out Amazon MP3.
Maybe it will involve skinning puppies or pulling the horns off unicorns? Perhaps ripping the wings from butterflies? There must be and endless supply of ideas for the RIAA, given all their experience.
Or Sony's new Blu-CD which should hold enough data to keep the tracks in their original quality.
~ Ron Fitzgerald
I am not gonna make remarks that are uber pro-piracy, but I will say this about the RIAA, they should have seen this many years ago, they were just stubborn.
The market for blank media was not going to go away, and it was going to be filled with downloaded music, now regardless that it is illegal to download copyrighted material did not slow anyone down. And just like the article mentioned, it only soiled the name of those who tried to stop it, yeah I am talking about how people like Metallica a whole lot less.
Being Pro or Anti piracy aside I do not feel for the RIAA losing money (if in fact they did lose any money, and if that money was a substantial amount) because they blatantly starred the changing times in the face ignored all possible opportunities it could have afforded them, and now, just like the banks and the auto industry they will cry about how the oldschool ways don't work anymore.
I am glad that hard drives and blank CD's and DVD's are so cheap now a days!
To see a few of my Android apps goto: www.hartwired.com
Yeah, there are a few CD stores around. Even Wal*Mart sells CDs.
(CDs being digital and all...)
If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
Sure, piracy funds terrorism, but if you actually give money to the record companies, most of it winds up in the hands of Columbian drug cartels! You don't think they get DJs to play the latest pop stars they are pushing by appealing to their musical tastes, do you? Nope, it's mostly nose candy under the table.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
RIAA: Form of a Tyrannosaurus Rex!
MPAA: Shape of a rotting ham!
and they sell music in Ogg? or one of the other open source formats? flac?
why would we want to buy a digital download that sounds like it's been drug through the gutter?
oh wait - that's what most of the new canned music content from the RIAA sounds like before it's been sampled at such low bit-rates for re-sale.
Blu-spec CDs are just CDs. They hold no more data than a regular CD. The only difference is that the masters are made with a blue laser instead of the standard red laser, which supposedly lowers their error-rates.
Blu-spec CDs are nothing more than a marketing gimmick.
My sig can beat up your sig.
Blu-CD will store no more data that a regular CD. They just use a blue laser to write the master.
Desire is not an occupation.
Did you pay a commission for that lyric?
Nope. Blu-CD is compatible with regular CD players, and still plays back at 16-bit, 44.1kHz. The theoretical quality of the output audio is exactly the same. The only difference is that the physical process of making the CD will be more precise, so playing a Blu-CD back in realtime on a regular CD player will, Sony hopes, give better measured output quality.
However, if you rip a Blu-CD and a regular CD to a computer using cdparanoia or Exact Audio Copy, you'll get exactly the same files.
In short, if you rip your CDs, Blu-CD will give you no benefit. If you play your CDs on a home-theater system, however, if Sony implements the technology correctly you'll get fewer playback errors.
Convert FLACs to a portable format with FlacSquisher
With RIAA Lawyers running the DOJ, the RIAA is transforming into a US government agency.
Now their antics re. DoS'ing suspected torrent sites will not only be legal but an act of the gov't.
Not only will gov't money will be budgeted for catching the file traders, and probably some money from the economic stimulus packages to help bail out the recording industry and encourage innovation, it will be a gov't initiative.
Along with a new and improved patent enforcement department to help make it more cost-effective for companies having difficulty collecting license fees from people infringing on patents like one-click (due to millions of small infringers, and formerly expensive legal processes required to enforce a patent)
Does this mean the RIAA is more than meets the eye?
The musings of just another geek and his junk.
Its not over yet.. Transforming isn't always a good thing.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
What, are they going to go from 'suck' to 'blow'?
Sig? What sig? Do I have to have a sig!?!?
Gosh, you life is miserable~
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
-- RIAA, cease to be evil and admit you lost. Let's stop this senseless fight!
-- Cough! Cough! Eh, it seems your last attack made me bleed internally... I'm sorry, this is something I wanted to avoid...
-- What?
-- B A N K A I !!
I'll remember that as I micturate on their grave.
"Who knew suing potential customers would ruin your business?"
SCO did. Worked for them as well.
-Charlie
SSJ RIAA!
I always thought CDs were *pressed* not written. I don't want a CD-R that's written with laser (red, blue, or otherwise), since CD-Rs self-erase themselves (the dye fades). I want my CDs to have permanent pits pressed into them.
Sounds like planned obsolescence to me. - "Not only does Blu-CD sound cool, but they include a special feature to erase themselves in 5-10 years. Less if you leave them sitting in a sunny car. This way you [the record companies] can sell the same CD again and again and again!" - Sony. "Brilliant." - RIAA
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Wine doesn't always work, and I'm not paying $100+ dollars for a fucking bunch of shitty software.
Got any more suggestions?
http://sourcemage.org/ - Have fun
That's no solution, it's polution of the music, which was already pretty toxic to begin with.
Loss-less sampling is the only way to go, if they cannot provide that, then no-sale.
Did I have it way wrong...
Now I don't see any need for blu-cd. Or any more physical media for that matter. Content delivery is the way to go.
~ Ron Fitzgerald
That seem like a lot of work. Instead just put it through the meat grinder and feed it to MPAA. There's hope they're toxic enough to kill MPAA.
You don't need wine. You need a web browser.
And what does the $100 comment have anything to do with what the GP said?
Stop Global Warming!
Just say no to irreversible processes!
1) RIAA
2) SCO
3) Microsoft
4) Banks?
And even if you wanted physical media, but wanted something better than a CD, DVD-Audio and SACD both provide multi-channel support, higher bitrates, and higher sampling rates. They're more DRM-laden than CDs of course, but DVD-Audio's been broken. So far, nobody cares enough about SACD to break it.
I might buy a DVD-Audio disk of an album I like, just to see if it's worth it.
That said, I do appreciate Trent Reznor providing FLACs, both in CD-quality format -- 16/44.1 -- and in 24/96.
Convert FLACs to a portable format with FlacSquisher
Corporations spending money they didn't earn, working up ideas to get free anything *pay inflated maintenance costs later, but it looks great on the books now*, outsource jobs overseas, outsource data entry of your personal financial, medical and retirement records, make job cuts to cover losses due to multi-million dollar bonuses for cutting jobs previously, all while doing their best to cover up the fact that the companies are failing due to the cuts, overspending due to outsourcing (it costs upwards of 4 times as much to outsource a single position as to keep it insourced), so that the stock price can marginally rise a few cents so they can pay out a dividend and make the stock holders happy.
yeah - that's right - corporations didn't do *ANYTHING* to mung up the economy...
BULLSHIT you fucking idiot.
Or Sony's new Blu-CD [link removed] which should hold enough data to keep the tracks in their original quality.
Oh, yeah, that is a good idea, the RIAA is dying but instead of celebrating, we should all promote their sponsors' schemes to improve an antiquated distribution medium. That sounds like a good idea. Maybe Sony will come back and sue us directly now.
Why would anybody promote anything developed by a company that put rootkits on CDs, crippled its once innovative technology with DRM, and told Stan Lee that it did not make a profit on a record breaking movie (Spiderman)?
Sony.
sucks.like.no.other
All data is speech. All speech is Free.
Left arm: MPAA
Right arm: IFPI
Left leg: SPA
Right leg: BSA
Torso: RIAA
Head: DMCA
Combined: WTMGDL! (Way too many god damned lawyers)
Hmm, any other suggestions for the copyright megacronym? :)
Ahh, but pressed from what? It's not like they have some kind of articulated pinbox with 6 billion elements.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
I was really pulling for them to win all those cases.
/sarcasm
The master CD is burned with a laser, then the distributed copies are pressed from the master.
To be honest, I don't think Sony is out to get us with this one, because these are just regular CDs, made in a better fashion. It doesn't sound like there's any DRM involved. It might be too late for Sony to make any money off of it, but I don't think it's a technology to be avoided for any reason other than possibly price.
Convert FLACs to a portable format with FlacSquisher
Ahhh, That is exactly what they have.
...damn economy...
it's hurtin' everyone.
"You can kill the revolutionary, but you can't kill the revolution."-- Fred Hampton
You cannot purchase whole albums on Amazon if you run Linux, only individual tracks. As a result, Linux users must pay extra, both in money, and in the amount of time it takes to individually purchase and download each track.
"Decepticons, transform and rise up!" - Megatron
It's one of my favorite lines of his because it's so blatantly stolen from Prime.
this was a bad move by the RIAA because they didn't anyone would pay attention.
well someone did.
and it appears that enough help is being focused on particular cases that some unfortunate for the RIAA precedents have been or are going to be shortly set.
lets not stop now. but score one for the internet.
eMusic works fine with Linux. Well, I've not tried their download manager. But then, I never used it under Windows, either. It's not like it provides a significant amount of value.
All comments are properties and trademarks of the voices in my head. Not like I'm gonna claim them.
Bzzt.
First, Amazon's download manager is available for Linux*.
Second, and more useful, IMO, http://code.google.com/p/clamz/
It sucks that Amazon hasn't heard of the newfangled .zip format, but saying that you can't buy albums from Amazon on Linux is a lie.
*Admittedly, it wasn't available when they launched the mp3 store, and it's a pain in the ass to get working if you're not running one of the 4 linux distro versions they make packages for, but it is available.
The RIAA will never really transform itself as long as the same eggheads are in charge of its member companies.
Lookee here gang.
Ray nailed a +5 on the FP slot, so no one bothered with the usual 6 leadoff trolls.
Yo, Mr. Taco! Can members get a special perk for high-grade FP's? The whole board topic improves in quality!
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Not true. I'm running Ubuntu and have done so. OK Computer for $2 was a resounding "YES," even if it's not lossless.
Replying to undo mis-clicked mod. Meant to click "Informative".
It's not exactly rocket surgery.
That said, I do appreciate Trent Reznor providing FLACs, both in CD-quality format -- 16/44.1 -- and in 24/96.
I wish everyone did this. Even if I didn't like the music I would've bought Ghosts anyway just to support people selling music in good format.
It's not exactly rocket surgery.
Personally I would like to know what precisely the definition of "mildly scratched" is because whenever I try using EAC a CD with any tiny nicks on it whatsoever gets errors out the ass. It also refuses to rip an accurate copy unless overread on the first an last track are checked even though half the time last track errors exist but don't affect the rip. Enough bitching about EAC from me, buying CDs used is the way to go if you find a store that has enough stock and a good policy.
Oh, Ms. Executive! Than you for providing me the opportunity to buy Rush's Presto again! You see, it was the fourth piece of music I ever owned, and I got lucky - I really liked it.
I had a tape. It melted in the sun on the car seat.
So I bought another one. But I lose things, so I bought another one. But that time the tape player was bad, so it got wrapped around the player.
So I bought it again. In February oh, about 1990 by this point. In February. It snapped.
The next one got me through high school finals. Then fell into a river prospecting colleges.
One died in the school Cafeteria.
I got brave and bought a CD. But it somehow got onto the floor, and the chair leg wrecked it. So I went back to tapes.
Tape got swiped by someone in the dorm.
Tape got lost in St. Martin.
Tape still exists, in the imitation-walkman from the flea market, that I lost again.
Another tape. I left it when I moved.
Back to CDs. Lasted a while, then scratched.
Lost another one.
Traded for a Blind Guardian CD.
Needed one for a road trip. Nothing survives road trips. Least of all sanity.
Moved again.
One's at work.
One's at home.
Spare is also at home.
Paid for a download from New Napster.
Paid again for the work machine.
Bought 38 CD's from Columbia subscription, so I have 135 free CD's on credit not counting shipping. I think that entitles me to rip one for free.
Does it?
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Did you ... Did you?
Did you pay pay pay for that Lyric?
Don't Swipe That Song, Just move that cash right along!
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Is it the ...
RIAA or the Tiger, that will eat you tonight? That will crush the spirited fighter...
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
It is, but only with the second pair of cheeks.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
If they are being "transformed", I hope my work had something to do with it.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
Ray nailed a +5 on the FP slot, so no one bothered with the usual 6 leadoff trolls. Yo, Mr. Taco! Can members get a special perk for high-grade FP's? The whole board topic improves in quality!
Why, thank you, Mr. Phoenix. Actually I was feeling kind of guilty afterwards. I realized there was a chance mine would be the 'first post', but I knew it wasn't being written in the traditional 'first post' style. I felt that I was a spoilsport.
I didn't plan it by the way, I just happened to see the story immediately after it turned from "red" to "green".
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
Um, Amazon for starters? Or did you not realize that iTunes is not the only digital music store in the world?
The issue is "what do I buy" if I buy a CD, I get all the tracks at the sound quality I want. These days, more often than not, "best of" are your best bet because most CDs have only one good song. MP3 singles are crappy quality and ther eis no option for lossless digital.
Short of that, I'll go to the library.
The MOST frustrating thing is that I like music, I'm willing to pay for it, but I can't actually buy a song that I like in a format that is usable. The music companies are NOT hearing their customers.
It's a technology to be avoided because it is from Sony. The same people that installed root kits on it's customer's computers. We shall not forget that they despise their customers.
And I hope as much as the next guy that this means what it says in the summary. The RIAA is finally getting the results it has worked so hard for.
But it might just be the crappy economy.
Music is a luxury item, and they're usually the first thing to go when things get tough. This might be nothing more than a consequence of the current economic picture. I've seen massive layoffs pretty much everywhere lately.
Sorry if this dampens the mood in here. But it's worth considering. The last thing we need to do is to start bullshitting ourselves. Seeing things as they are best prepares you to deal with them.
But that being said, this is still a good thing. The less of these goons working the better. It would be nice if it was simply their just desserts for their failed plan, but if they go out as collateral damage to our ailing economy, well...at least some good has come from that.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Um, I use Linux, where would I buy digital music that plays on my system and has any value?
Magnatune.com, their collection of Classical music is huge and excellent, and as far as I'm concerned that's the only kind of music that has any value ;) though their Rock section has some pretty nice gems, too.
No problem is insoluble in all conceivable circumstances.
What if the RIAA was there to harrass customers until enough customers had transitioned over to Vista and Win7 where the DRM is more substantial and more songs are getting sold on iTunes and cellphones -- again and again and again -- .... its easier to download from the net to your phone that load up songs from your computer -- the purchase price is low enough that the songs purchases are have become what the music industry wants -- they want you to purchase the song each time for each device and form...2.99$ for a distorted ringtone version?
The RIAA maybe was never meant to stop song downloading/trading -- just run harassment and make online trading a bit more of a hassle than downloading a song directly onto your phone or your iTune player... Between the virii /malware, fake software and media data streams... just run harassment until the online pay-per-download-per-device is in place.
They played a part at a moment in time -- they may have been successful at their real mission -- now the economic downturn is bringing a swifter end to their mission, perhaps, but people are no longer buying new computers at the same rate...small devices are becoming more popular/prevalent. Perfect for the shrinking economy...
I dunno if I'd call their mission a complete failure...
just thinking...
This reminds of that scene in Return of the Jedi where the small star fighter takes out the super star destroyer after they attempt to "intensify forward batteries"....too late...arghhh! boom! The RIAA is going down to a fiery end all right and not a moment too soon.
How much you want to bet that said "transformation" is going to include a name change under the hope (hopefully misguided, but you never know) that a fresh DBA will give them something akin to a clean slate now that the tides of public perception have turned against them a bit.
It didn't work for Diebold (or whatever the hell they're called now. See? Fail.) and it probably won't work here, but it doesn't mean they won't try.
Association for the Ethical Treatment of Harmonists, Entertainers and Recordings has a nice, scarily plausible ring to it.
> It is, but only with the second pair of cheeks.
Yes Brain, but where will I get someone to pull my finger every time I want to say their name?
*narf*
Good man!
In the middle of the stadium...
(crowd cheering) New York Country Lawyer! New York Country Lawyer!
(NYCL smiles, thinking that a group of cheerleaders will soon appear and hose him high in the air...)
Cowboy Neal runs out and lifts NYCL in the air.
ZOMG! Even for /., this is self-congratulatory beyond the pale..
Also, fuck you. ;}
What was once true, is no longer so
Finally, a post on the member companies being responsible for RIAA's actions. You Sir, are a good independent, objective thinker.
I'd say RIAA, being a trade group, is nothing more than a tool controlled by the member companies.
Therefore, our emotions should not be directed at RIAA itself, but instead, should be at the individual companies.
Skimming through Mr Beckerman's blog, I don't see "RIAA vs Joe", but rather "Company vs Joe".
What do you think?
P/S: I suspect some Web trolls can't even remember the names of the big 4. They simply like to pick a single entity - RIAA - to cast the blame on.
Oh, for Christ's sake. You, cibyr, can't tell the difference between a high-bitrate MP3 and a FLAC, and you sure as HELL can't tell the difference between 44.1kHz and 96kHz. Even if you could, would it really enhance your enjoyment of the music that much? If it would, you're doing something wrong.
ResidntGeek
in the US such an act would be considered space-shifting.
And then you are outside your home, unable to get your latest CD and you fancy on a whim to listen to it, you get your copy you left visible for you on your upload area.
But you still have a license. And you've just said that downloading is not illegal
No breech of copyright.
If someone else downloads it, again, you say that the RIAA don't think this illegal. No copy is made by the uploader either, so no breech of copyright.
So the only problem is the US legally available action not covered by copyright of space shifting the music onto the upload site.
And it's legally available.
So, where is the illegality?
He says as he pops another CD into his stereo, a technology invented by Sony & Philips. If you own CDs you are already supporting Sony.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
>>>I don't see any need for blu-cd. Or any more physical media for that matter. Content delivery is the way to go.
Show me where I can buy uncompressed music. All I see are crappy MP3s and AACs.
Show me how I can stream a 50 megabit/s Bluray movie over a 1 megabit/s connection. Not going to work.
Show me how to buy a downloadable movie, say Wall-E, and then later sell it to somebody else on ebay. Ooops. You can't.
Physical media has a lot of advantages like being uncompressed (CD), or being able to carry lots of data (100 gig Bluray), or being resalable when you get tired of it (used market).
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
>>>You, cibyr, can't tell the difference between a high-bitrate MP3 and a FLAC
You can when you hook it up to your 4.1 or 5.1 surround system. The difference becomes immediately obvious, even if you've used a 320 kbit/s MP3. There are weird sounds coming from the speakers which should not be there. AKA compression artifacts.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Oddly, making a scratch worse can make it better: a CD I own had a slight scratch that would 'jam' my players at that track (it ran roughly circularly, not radially), but by making it worse by deliberately scratching it into a slight 'v' groove, the laser is able to read the data under it again and the track plays fine!
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet;
A chrysanthemum by any other name would be easier to spell
I usually go to the library and borrow CDs.
So you're admitting to denying corporations their rightful profit? You should go to jail, monster.
If there's one thing I've learned from Dragon Ball and Castlevania, it's that bosses always fight in three forms. First there's the standard form (which was the We Are Right and Everybody loves Us), then the xenomorphic horror form (the currently dying form where everybody hates them for suing little girls and dead grandmothers) and finally, the last upcoming ultimate effeminate pretty boy form. Fear this last one the most - it's always that one that consumes planets whole.
That's when I find that I'm gaming Unreal Tournament too much.
At least where I live you have to pay to have radio. It is ~10$/month for radio. And the listener will be subject to advertisement, which does not make a service free - it just gets paid "round the corner"...
Microsoft Windows XP, I think. $100 is about right for the street price of XP Home if you look hard enough.
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
1) Read summary on /.
2) ????
3) Profit!
4) Also, Fuck you!
The download manager for eMusic works fine - they've released a version for linux. I have had a few problems with it (probably because I'm a bit of a n00b when it comes to Linux) but most can be straightened out by closing and restarting the manager. There's also a side project called eMusic J that works in linux and, of course, you can change your settings to download tracks individually in mp3 format if nothing else works for you.
Don't copy that floppy?
of uploading
Were those words necessary? ;-)
Care to tell me how compression artifacts in a 2-channel MP3 file would show up only when upmixed to 4 or 5 channels, or if they do why that would be the MP3's fault?
ResidntGeek
We're at a turning point in our civilized world. As appointed liberal courts have usurped the powers we granted our elected leaders by overturning our written statutes, issuing edicts and fiats, the very rule of law is in peril. Simultaneously, our laws are being determined (re-determined) by executive order and shaped by special interest lobbyists. At what point does such malformed law become meaningless? That would leave us with just our moral compasses, and therein is the question of copying bits and bytes...
It may be helpful to give subscribers the ability to post a minute or so before normal users. But I am biased.
What about preventing anonymous posts for a minute or two?
Why do people make posts like this one to undo their mod? Why not instead make a useful post anywhere else in the thread?
You're on to something, and in a broader web context.
FP are 80% Troll/Flamebait. Those types of posts are 90% ACs, the worst AC has to offer and the prime bait that the ThinkOfThe___ crowd plays their game around.
I'd pay the subscription fee to get early post rights. Presuming others do the same, troll posts are nowhere as much fun way buried in 4 layers of "getmore".
Everyone wants to know how to get "real hard cash" above the ad game ... that's one way.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
http://xkcd.com/546/
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
You're thinking of MP3's joint-stereo messing up Dolby Pro Logic (as described here). Not really important to me, I recently ditched my 5.1 setup for a nice pair of stereo speakers.
No, I can't hear the difference. I can't even hear the difference between FLAC and 128kbps MP3s from a modern encoder on most samples.
But I might want to transcode to a lower bitrate for a portable or network player. Or maybe I want to use some funky DSP which has the unfortunate side effect of showing up MP3 artifacts. Who cares? Disk space and bandwidth is just SO FUCKING CHEAP why would you want anything but lossless when it's so damn easy? Sending the actual data is probably the smallest cost of selling music online, so why is it even an issue? Lossless just seems like a no-brainer to me.
It's not exactly rocket surgery.
Because sometimes you don't have anything useful to add. If you did, you wouldn't be modding to start with.
Ironically, further down I have a post modded to +4 so I guess your point is valid.
It's not exactly rocket surgery.
Commercial CDs are still "written" with a laser on the foil part of the CD. The difference is that commercial CDs are "pressed" - that is they have plastic on both sides of the actual foil part. CD-Rs only have the plastic on one side (the bottom).
"But this one goes to 11!"
It could be your drive. First, with EAC they ask you to calibrate the drive before doing any rips. I've never not done that, but it might have an effect on the results. Second, different drives have varying amounts of error-correction quality.
I've only had two CDs that wouldn't rip accurately with EAC, given two attempts. Both were horribly gouged enough that normal CD players wouldn't even get close to playing that section of the CD correctly. I'm running on a Samsung SATA DVD burner.
Convert FLACs to a portable format with FlacSquisher
I'm with you. I can't hear the difference most of the time between FLAC and MP3, even at moderate bitrates, but space is cheap, and if I hear something that's not supposed to be there, I can be nearly 100% sure that it wasn't the encoder (barring strange flac bugs). That narrows it down to the software, OS, sound card, and headphones/speakers.
Even when space isn't cheap (my Rockbox'd 2GB Sansa), I encode to Ogg Vorbis at "-q 6", which is about equivalent to "-V2" for Lame; VBR which usually gets around 192kbps. (shameless plug--) This is why I wrote FlacSquisher. However, if I had an 80GB or larger portable player, I wouldn't bother transcoding my music; I'd just throw it on there as FLACs.
Convert FLACs to a portable format with FlacSquisher