They don't develop for Windows any more, but they do support it.
I run one of the largest Emagic users groups on the net. Hell, half the folks that help moderate my site are Windows only and they have no problems using the software on Windows.
Heck, the latest version of Logic Pro allows windows users to upgrade to all the latest plugins (excetp space designer) for around $200. I cashed my Windows license in, picked this up and bought myself a Mac. I know PLENTY of Mac users that got pissed off at this deal because they already bought most of the plugins and felt cheated.
So what exactly did you loose? Nothing -- you got the software that works on your machine.
Yeah -- this is one piece of software I have paid for...no free handouts for this one because I need it and it always takes Emagic to hand out the free auths for anyone I know that gets them.
And that Oxygen copy -- its an alpha 'crack'. Lots of shit that doesn't work. Its not as bad as the Radium hack (they were the 'zero day' and still the biggest distributed version) but still unusable if you are a real musician (ie., lots of intonation problems as the auth codes were actually built into the tuning tables -- the crackers never could figure out a way around that).
All in all, the point is software isn't like cake -- it doesn't get get rotten with age. You can still use it...I actually prefer 5.5 for a lot of things as the 6 series wasn't an update that I needed -- lots of hacks from the programmers to make nontechnical folks happy that pissed off the rest of us...you aren't missing a damn thing.
"Little college dorm room kiddies will just come along and download it and then run to boards like Slashdot and justify it as "free advertising." "
Whats funny is you mention this in the terms of being a musician.
I have worked on a number of music software applications over the last few years from anything from being a beta tester to designing the GUI for guys that have a great product, but a shitty interface.
And this is this same exact arguement used everywhere -- its just free advertisement. Or if I use it to make money, I'll pay for it. Or I'm just a little guy, and the pros should have to pay since I haven't had my first hit yet.
In this area, I've *NEVER* seen a pro pay for professional music software...if you are making money off of it, you will more than likely get it given to you for free. Hell, I haven't paid for 90% of the software I've been given -- and most of it sits in its box on the shelf as the software I *USE* is almost the inverse of this (for some reason, I'm more likely to use the stuff I pay for -- it has real value to me).
But the thinking goes, being a paid musician is like winning a spot on a basketball team -- there are only so many spots opening a year, and most likely its not going to be you. So the software is given to the professionals to advertise to the little guys...I don't know how many times folks will come to my studio and ask what I'm using, only to run out and buy it thinking that it means they can leave me outta the mix, so to speak...only to realize you can't buy talent out of a box -- it comes from years of hard work.
So honestly, the software is sold entirely to the guys that can't make a buck and most likely will never make a buck. Great guys -- and a lot with real talent, but really don't want to do anything but play on weekends with a bunch of friends.
Anywho, the companies advertise as they feel like advertising and need no help from anyone else. I wish there was a decent way to prevent piracy but the folks that want everyone elses hardwork without doing anything for it want to be rebels. Its like the fuckwad kids that think stealing their instruments make them an authentic punk band even though they are from the suburbs.
I love free software and have contributed to some of it -- in my day job we give away several packages I've solely designed and developed, but all in all, folks need to respect the opinion of those that provided the software...even if there were no laws preventing the copying of software or music or whatever, you'd think folks would have the decency to understand that if someone creates something they should have the ultimate say on how its used. If ya don't like that, you are free to develop your own...its not like the ideas are that hard to come up with, and an army of OSS programmers should be able to replicate anything who can give their software away under the ideals they wish it to be released...
I kinda alluded to that...lots of sharp pointy parts and metal screws poking out the back of quite a few surfaces that one can't see...like I found out when I let a friend drive and I stuck my toe through one as she hit a big bump.
By chance, you ever have to rebuild the engine? I had the car put up for the winter early one year and met a woman that wanted to go for a ride. In my haste to get it rereadied, I forgot to put the oil cap back on correctly, and I got a few miles before the engine seized on me.
It had a new radiator, alternator, webbers, the clutch had been redone, and the back half of it had been welded back together (as it was rapidly rusting apart)...so its sat in my yard or friends yards for the last several years waiting to get its engine repaired as I put way too much work into it to just let it die:-)
Ok this is way off topic, but the thread has gone on for a day or two, so more than likely no one is going to mod it down for being OT. If they do, I got plenty of karma to burn:-)
I said nothing about the case to the police officers.
As such, nothing could have been used against me.
This *IS* good advice for most folks though...most would be tripped up at some point and say something that could be used against them.
I have no problems angering an officer that has nothing to gain but being and asshole. The fact that this was all being recorded 'covertly' was even more to the fact that I wasn't going to say anything about the case.
Sadly, I knew a few other officers at the station, they were much more sympathetic to the situation -- two of these guys were friends that would come over and hang out and play Doom (the first one on my 486DX) when they were supposed to be patrolling the dorms. We were about the same age as I took a few years off between school to tour and get a life, so they were kinda like peers.
They'd still ask me about it occasionally, but I wouldn't say shit. Just played dumb...yeah, I head someone got hurt trying to steal from my car...them little brit cars got a LOT of sharp unfinished edges behind the pannels, don't they. And they'd laugh and leave it alone for a while...
Again, good advice for most people. Never say anything. But at the same time, I'm not giving up my rights to be a human being just because some police officers have given up on the idea of humanity and logic...most likely it was less paperwork to pursue me than it was to pursue the criminal and lazyness is in every profession -- hell, I'm posting to/. while at work right now:-)
Yeah, and if the thief got nuked, your friend would have been liable.
I say this after being interrogated for 5 hours because I booby trapped my lil' Triumph Spitfire several years back when I was in college.
I had gotten a removable cd player from a friend that owed me money -- he pulled it out of his car and said it was collateral. Turns out, he took off the week after that and never came back. So I had to figure out how to put the thing in my car and with the help of a friend that was an EE major...I don't think they were intended to work without the cage, but we got it working and build a new nonremovable enclosure for it and popped it in where the radio should have gone.
Spitfires are convertibles and the locks never worked, so with the help of the same friend, we worked on a trap. Got two frames and embedded razor blades at a 45 degree angle inward on both sides. Very easy to put your hand in, but pulling it out is a little difficult. For added effect, we tinsnipped the blades to be a bit more jagged.
For the final portion, Mike hooked in a charged capacitor to a bar in the middle...slap your hand up against it without discharging it and you are going to have a nasty shock. Most likely try to yank your hand out...hmmm...see where I'm going with this?
Not less than two weeks later I come out to my Triumph to see the leather pulled off the front of the radio (I did try to conceal it by pimping out the console in leather -- looked really nice). and my radio was half pulled out...and a pool of congealing blood on the passenger side seat and floor.
Turns out some neighborhood kid tried stealing it and ended up at the hospital (which was only 2 blocks from my dorm). There was still some skin on the blades...when I removed them (I started freaking out because I knew the possibility that this would come into use, but didn't think about what would happen if it was used).
A few minutes after trashing the razor'd frames I get a knock on my dormroom door from the police asking me some questions.
For the next 5 hours I was interrogated about trapping my vehicle and if I knew it was illegal. I claimed ignorance. One cop tried being the good guy while the other was the asshole. The good guy confided to me that in his day he too set some 'nigger traps'. His words not mine. I found it pretty appalling as most of my friends at the dorm were black including the EE that helped me set the trap. C'mon, he said, I'm a good ol' boy -- you can tell what you did. I simply told him I was going to file a complaint about his use of racial bigotry and that he shouldn't be a cop and that the fact that the video camera in the back of the room with the taped over record light was visible recording as you could still see the light and I thought his captain should know about this. A thief is a thief and I've had far more white people fuck with me than blacks ever have...so he really pissed me off with this line.
His mood changed and the asshole cop came back with the boys mother. The 'boy' was 17 and it was said he almost lost his hand (doubtful) and that he had to get his arm required 60+ stitches and some vascular surgery on his vein. Poor baby...fucker tries stealing from me, and he is being coddled while I am being interrogated. Fuck him and fuck his mother...I told her point blank I hoped he did loose his fucking hand and maybe he could see what it really is like to go without for a while.
5 hours of this alternating between police officers. it was bullshit. And it was 8 years ago, so I'm well past the statutes of limitations on this as charges were never files and I never made a statement:P Told them I'd make any statement they wanted once I was allowed to talk with my lawyer -- why do you need an attorney, they asked, unless you are guilty...well if I'm not being charged, let me go...if I'm being charged, I think I need to talk with someone. And thats how the entire conversation went...for 5 fucking hours.
It is not legal to spray paint graphiti on someone elses house unless of course you have their unlikely permission.
It is illegal to attack someone with no provocation.
It is legal to protect yourself from attack.
What part of this is grey? It is articulated as to what is wrong and in this case, the law is articulated as to what is right. There are no in betweens.
Shooting someone that is trying to kill you is legal in most states in the US.
However, a good friend of mine and my sister's ex is currently in jail in Kentucky right now -- someone tried robbing him, it was clear that he was being robbed and he shot the guy. He had an unregistered weapon that was stolen. The claim was that a cousin gave him the handgun...the courts bought that as legitimate. They also said that since he had a past record of doing something equally stupid and was not supposed to have a weapon, and even if he were, he would have needed to have it registered in his name -- which would have brought up the fact that it was stolen.
He is now serving a few years because he was in possession of a stolen weapon that was used in a criminal situation -- yes, he was being robbed -- that is the crime that the situation was referring to. I don't know the *EXACT* statute, but it was something near this...
The man is a good guy but has done some mighty stupid things in his life. This was one of them. I spent $12 talking to him on the phone for 4 minutes the other day (f'n correctional phone services)...and honestly, I think he deserves to be in jail for breaking the law.
Using a legitimate gun as someone is attacking you -- yes, you will be investigated, but it more than likely that you will be proven that you used it in a legal sense.
I don't know how so many folks can see grey areas on this stuff. its either right or its wrong.
Who's to say if I'm licensed or not? You don't know my qualifications nor do you know the qualifications of anyone else here.
Secondly, unions do a lot of their own qualifications -- its how they keep their bargaining chips in place.
For instance, with the university, I research and design testing methods -- I'm a techie as I'm generally the one having to put it into computer form and do all the adaptive natures of these things -- but along with this, I do a lot of field work such as giving honest to goodness paper and pencil licensure testing.
A month ago, I gave Level I and II of a pipefitter's test. Actually a lot more complicated than the average person would think. When you are working in a refinery and need to tap a hot pipe full of hydrogen, you need folks that know what they are doing. The fact was, the test was given in a union hall and was designed in part by that union.
These guys are professionals. Just because they don't put on a suit and tie doesn't make them any less of a professional. So yeah, I'm proud to say there are little differences between what I do and what a plumber does -- we both are professionals. And other than the stink, I'd probably want to be friends with a plumber before I was friends with a lawyer any day:-)
"The purpose of these mores that do not protect the happiness of the entire species is only to protect that of a limited subset. i.e. those in power."
And what if this is thought recursively. Those that want will be far more spiritually fulfilled than the man that has everything. If I'm given something -- or just fucking take it -- I'm not as happy as if I earned it. For instance, I rarely pay for software anymore -- most of the time it is given to me by its author or publisher. I'll have to test it out, sometimes give them advice about the GUI, or write a review of it -- but when you are talking about a thousand $$$ package, a few hours worth of work isn't worth that much...I'll use this stuff and put it aside and never touch it except to impress my friends.
Now take the main software package I use -- I pay for. I run a user forum based on it. I got one upgrade free, and the upgrade sat for months -- because I didn't pay for it. If I had, you'd be damn skippy right that it'd have been on my machines immediately.
Allowing folks in power to have a set of rights that others don't have allows the masses to want. It allows them to dream. It allows them to try to be better than what they are now...being a member of the powerbase is not unattainable.
Thought about more simply, a lot of mores that are in place that help only a small group of people should be looked at recursively. By helping these folks, they may ultimately help others with their privilege. Oft times, privilege is not this at all -- I live in a largely poor community. I moved out there because the older houses were bigger, it was in the city center, and it held more for me than the burbs do. Folks here look at me with distain, as if I got everything I have because it was given -- privilege. I've had a job since I was 13 and have gone maybe two weeks in this time without a job. My parents were poor but pushed me and my sister. I never got anything monetarily out of either of them. But its not looked at this way...
In this community, it would be best to sack my house and claim that the happiness of the neighbors is greater than the suffering I would receive from my losses.
In other neighborhoods, my same neighbors transported there would be vermin to the yuppies I have to deal with on a daily basis. Some of them are. It would be in the global best interest to remove a few of these folks causing them a little suffering than the total off the suffering the masses from having them there.
In both cases it would be wrong.
Individual rights trump all suffering and happiness. I have the right to live my life without being fucked with. It might be a fairytale in this world to think this way, but it is a right. I have a right not to fuck with anyone else.
So, you are thinking far too simplistically. All rights feed upon other rights and one cannot look at one without weighing the other. The individual's rights are just as important as the rights of the masses. Without protecting the rights of the one, you can never protect the rights of the masses.
Call me very kantian, but I have never understood why one person thinks that in any circumstance that because one person has more than another, it should be considered alright to take it away from them and give it to someone.
Would I steal to feed my family?
If I had no other choice, most likely. But I'd expect to face the same consequences as the guy that stole money just to support a crack habit. I'd expect no one looking into the circumstances surrounding what I did other than I did this or didn't do it. Wrong is wrong. There are no grey areas. Its a boolean function. its right, its wrong. Nothing else.
Unions are all about politics like anything else. My father has served as a district president for his union as well as grievance officer, both for several years.
He is one of those kinda of people that want to do the right thing and fuck everything else...before he was grievance officer, folks would just fight to keep *ANYONE* on board. Guys have a drug problem, well thats not their fault they showed up fucked up...we'll go on strike if you fire him. After, he made sure the slackers got fired because folks like that only made his job harder.
It got to the point, several of the idiots actually tried to organize against him, but they were already out of the union as they were no longer employees...and the others were such slack asses they couldn't get their act together. He was reelected several times to this postion even though it was not what he wanted to do (and was in fact campaigning for the guy running against him in his last position) before he finally had to tell them if they put him on the ballot again, he'd resign if elected.
Unfortunately, many others want the big votes. They go about it by trying to win too many friends. Those are the ones that get elected nationally. I don't think the nationals do shit for unions...most of it is organized crime, IMHO. But at the lower end, there are unions that actually do some good and help folks out that need it, and help get rid of the idiots that don't need to be there. I know there were a few cases he did support the case of the idiot, begrudgingly, but that was because the supervisors didn't have paperwork...and that was just prudent common sense to keep everyone else protected.
Professionals and unions in the same sentence? I don't know. I never liked the idea of unions, but as a tech worked continually fucked over in my day job simply because I'm working for the gov't -- making less that some janitors because they put in the time and organized -- I am starting to rethink this. Why not. As professionals, we could do it fairly and not have to organize ourselves like say the steelworkers so where the union is set up as if everyone was fucking morons...they aren't, but the union wants to control them and pretends they are just as the management does. Us being pros mean we might be able to come up with ways not to let organized crime get involved and to streamline it where it has secure and honest voting while protecting only our interests and nothing else...
I've almost run into a idiots way too many times that don't stop and just sliiiiiiide through a stop sign or red light thinking that their bad driving doesn't really matter.
I don't know how many times I'd be on my motorcycle to have to quickly change lanes...I've chased after a few and the one the did stop actually admitted he didn't see me and thought it was cool.
I don't speed, I use my signals, and I make certain that I follow the laws of the road. Yeah, 99% of the time, one could easily disregard the rules and be safe. Then again, tell that to my mother that while a good offensive driver (meaning she follow the laws), she is a horrible defensive driver and fully expects the others to stay within the law -- she's had several vertebrae fused because of her last accident where a guy merged and she didn't get out of his way because she figured he'd see her.
Seriously, what does it hurt to make an absolute dead stop? 3 seconds. You save 3 fucking seconds by coasting.
Personally, if I see someone driving like a nutcase, I call the cops. I have a neighbor kid that lost his license for doing burnouts on our street. Called the cops and they took him in and impounded the car because he didn't have any insurance. I don't think the gov't should be cameraing everyone -- us citizens should be doing it for them. Drivers licenses are way too easy to obtain in the states...and far too accepted as the only real transportation as well. We start narcing all our neighbors and otherwise and having folks loose their licenses, we will have far less people on the street and far safer drivers that don't think that casually ignoring stop signs is a good thing.
Just glad you are driving safer because of all of this:-)
Yeah, but most of their news is 'Views'. Its hard to find articles and news reports that aren't in this category.
This channel is far more in line with what the Pat Robertsons of the world are saying day after day. I turn to the 700 Club News (or whatever they are calling it these days) and then turn to Fox News. Instead of Pat Robertson calling liberals former drunks and otherwise (forgetting that our current president is a former addict) -- its the exact same rhetoric that is spewed there, but not as blunted.
I do watch more and different news to get the full views. I find liberal media far more forgiving and less biased. At least they don't publicly state what their views are in reporting the news.
As for your other post about Libretarians -- I'm not even worried about the folks that go to the meetings, I'm worried about the ones that represent the party and are elected. This is one of the reasons I left the republican party -- the foundations of the party are secure, its just been infiltrated by idiots with a single purpose.
Do I think there needs to be changes to the election process? Hell yeah I do. For instance, I think its criminal that states give 100% of their electoral votes to the winner of each state. Only 2 states give proportional votes according to population voting one way or another. I believe in the electoral college, and think its important states are represented according to the size of their population to ensure no one region is over represented, but I think having a president elected on an all or nothing basis is moronic. It encourages folks to push their party all the way to the ends and letting the middle figure it out for themselves.
I have big problems with the very extremes of both parties...mainly because I'm at vastly different extremes than either of the main two are. Give me fiscal conservatism and liberal social issues. I'm extreme at both ends...and neither party seems to fit.
Back to libertarians, I have voted for them in the past...if its between two candidates I don't care about in the main parties (or as in the case of the last election, I was friends with two opposing candidates and thought both could do an admirable job -- they actually agreed on everything except party affiliation and thus demonized the other), I'll vote a third party just to give them votes. Where it matters, I'm not wasting my vote...but then again, without reforms red voters in blue states will most likely be giving up their vote just as much as blue votes in red states. Politics would be so much better if we had a bunch of purple states to varying degree...
"Since you were a former elephant, who are you voting for now? Voting libertarian?"
Anyone that can take Bush out of office and maybe be the catalyst for reform in the party. At this point, its Kerry. I can't stand that fucker. He sounds just as disgenuine and moronic as Bush. But the fact his party is not going to be controlling shit, there will be checks and balances once again.
Quite honestly, one party having all the power is never good...folks end up with beliefs that are no where near mainstream and then telling the rest of the party if you want to be a patriotic part of the party you will follow suit. When its one party against the other, then these wacko ideas never make it to the surface.
It was for this very principle that it was discussed that the most optimal US gov't is one with a democratic president, led by a republican house and congress. They end up fighting each other on every principle, and only the most well thought out ideals get enacted.
As for libretarians, these would be a great party if they stopped electing members that dye themselves blue or spout off about aliens abducting them and fucking them in the ass. If you think the/. crowd is a bunch of tin foil hats, you should check out their meetings...thats the last time I let a geek friend drag me to see their politics. You'd honestly think Libs were closer in spirit to true republicans, but reality is no where close. Crossing over to the dems is far easier a transition...
Fox likes to link itself to pseudointellectual think tanks. Most doing very little research, most the soapbox for a single individual. Yet, Fox lends them credence as if they were honest to gawd actual organizations that understood polling and research methods. They claim to be the smart guys, while slamming intellectism. Actually, I think a lot of these places do -- they know enough to bend things to their will:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,131174,00.ht ml
Its the war on poverty.
The article makes several claims against the dems in particular as if it were an Us vs. Them article. For instance it talks about the Dems refusing to endorse Welfare Reform. If I seem to remember correctly, the right holds the power these days and could reform it however they want. Secondly, Clinton was the first person to actively push through legislation on either side in a good many years.
Quite a few items were directly picked from talking points memos from the right and a bone is thrown here or there to make it look balanced, but all in all, anyone that wishes to remain balanced would not make it see as if there were sides to begin with that they might be associated with, but a neutral party.
I was once on the right, but much happier on the side of the wrong where the liberal news sources might be a bit tipped as well, but do so asking you to make up your own mind after hearing all the details. Yes, they encourage you to think their way, but at least they can admit there is another side of the story. The right generally shows only one side of the story and tells you to shut up if you even bring up the fact there might be another legitimate school of thought. I've *NEVER* heard the liberal media talk anyone down or tell them to shut up and still ask to be considered a legitimate journalist.
As soon as the Right goes back to being the party of fiscal conservatism, I'll probably rejoin the party.
"Actually, there is no such possibility, as copyright expires after a given period."
Fucking duh.
I said SHOULD...not is.
And as its going with Congress, copyrights will be permanent sooner than you think.
As I said, I don't personally agree with folks doing this and I think its kind of pathetic, but we don't legislate towards how pathetic something is...
I think as soon as the permanent copyright thing happens, you will start seeing the good guys offering to put actual realistic limits on these things.
Fuck, its not like having Mickey Mouse enter the public domain means anything to anyone. Who is going to gain from the fact the mouse is free? Folks that want to see Steamboat Willy in all its pseudoracist glory.
People have too many hang ups on past artforms when we should be focused on the future, not on something in the past. We are so focused on ripping off the past that isn't no wonder that Top40 bullshit is the way it is -- because folks don't want something new, they want the same has been material.
Maybe art should have a shelf-life and after its hit the expiration date, it should no longer be available in any form. We might end up repeating art styles, but at least as we are doing so, we won't even realize it and maybe expand upon the ideas without the limits we envision now.
Actually, its a set rate for covers, not a percentage.
If you wanted to sell a single disc with a cover for a billion $$$, the songwriter would get maybe $0.03 a minute for the song per the cover or something like that.
Covers are cool as long as Harry Fox, et all, get their share. You would have to count all the downloads / streams of the file and pay accordingly. Just because you aren't getting paid for it, that doesn't mean the songwritters behind the work shouldn't get paid for it -- unless of course they feel like putting the work in the public domain or giving you special permission.
Regardless, as it sounds like you are trying to start a discussion, remember folks should be able to license their work how ever they want to. Art isn't anything that should be considered essential to the public need -- unlike food, water and clean air. As such, if someone wants their work copyrighted for the rest of eternity, this should be their right. if you don't like this, you are just as free to fight against this and put works into the public domain and encourage others to do the same thing.
Find a network of friends connected to the industry.
There are a lot of communities out there that service musicians and we talk about musicians musicians albums all the time. What do the current musicians listen to. Yeah, you have to plug yourself in a bit, but you eventually find the interesting stuff.
But all in all, mass market is not just top 40. I can't stand the shit most of the time. For instance, Shakira was one of the mass marketted artists I found last year that was really good. Her album is a bit over polished in places, but its really a musicians album all over. Lots of good influences all over the place, and all directed by her moods. Its something most of my jaded friends couldn't get until I started playing her spanish releases and they started asking who that was...only to be surprised and go back and explore her stuff.
The mass market isn't bad. Its just not as deep or wide as it should be. Too much the same. Its the same reason I can't stand cover songs for the most part -- why dip into the same waters as everyone else unless you have something new to give (there was one cover band that did rock tunes technostyle that I loved seeing a few years ago...they claimed they couldn't keep a guitarist or they'd go the original sounds, but it was refreshing this way).
Talk to people. Get out of the house. Meet some anonymous punk chickie and have coffee with her and talk about music. Anything. Its not impossible to make connections...just make connections and start putting your life as deep and wide as you'd like to see your music and you start to realize there is a good depth to music, its just not where you expect to find it.
$200 for a phone that is worthless except for sync'ing phone numbers with my Mac.
It was supposed to be much more, but it ended up getting crippled -- more by Sprint than SE and after a year of delays because Sprint was afraid everyone was going to use it solely to bridge internet connections with their powerbooks, SE killed the division that was making these for Sprint (I believe this was the CDMA division, while they decided to focus on GSM...fuck, I don't know, I'm just spouting letters that mean nothing to me).
I have my 608 right beside me, and compared to the 610, its worthless as anything except an expensive phone with a horrible screen that one can't read with any sort of daylight (it does work well for the nightlife -- I use mine as a flashlight coming home occasionally....but damn, try using it outside at noon).
Because if the local bands were any good, they would have gotten signed.
And then sounded shitty once they got signed.
Again, this is one of the reasons I distance myself from the industry. At one point, I was one of those gimps that sold my life away. I knew what I was getting into and I hoped beyond hope that I could retain control.
I was able to do this, but my bandmates were promised other items if they went one way and the label tried using their coersion to move me along too...as I had the smarts to have this as an incorporated business before signing, I eventuallty fired them and delivered something I was happy with, but the label didn't care much for. Few folks are willing to do this. They want the instant promises. My friends regrouped to start another band with a different name and did moderately well on the charts. I'm glad I had nothing to do with it.
Personally, I don't want to hear local bands. I live in a moderately sized city and there are maybe 2 or 3 bands I think have what it takes to be more than a pub band. Maybe your expectations are a little lower than mine.
And I love CDs. I think I've only bought 3 cds that were in the mainstream over the last year. The new Outkast was a true artist oriented album -- even if you don't like it. The newest seal and sting were also great albums. Other than that, its all the independant market for me. Then again, independant means very little these days...so many imprints of imprints...I'm just happy the one major release I worked on last was from a career artist that was between contracts and as such we could work on it without the need of interference from the labels (and then it was shopped 'as is').
Don't listen to crap. Don't be so jaded that you think anything recorded is crap. Don't be a snob and pretend that just because the masses like it, it must be crap. There are several great mass release products that are great recordings.
Thats why I manage a research and development department for my university.
It too doesn't pay that good compared to the private sector, and my music career occasionally pays more that the university, but its steady work, I have freedoms I don't have in most other oportunities (looking at my check, I have 7 weeks of sicktime available, of which I've tried using but it catches up to me -- this is after taking a month off last year for an injury that kept me hospitalized and bedridden once out) and around the same in vacation time.
But the public sector does me well enough that I do the things I want in music without whoring myself. I walked off a project last year that was very lucrative because the artist was an idiot, and I got sick of being uncredited because the idiot wanted to show the world he did it all himself. If I did music full time as my music partner does, I couldn't be so choosy about the projects I take on.
All in all, I still put a decent amount of time on this stuff, and I expect to get paid for my services, I don't expect someone to claim that since I'm getting ripped off they should be able to rip me off to 'protect me from the big bad RIAA'. I don't expect much, but I do expect a living wage.
Thats all most of these guys ask for. They aren't getting rich for the most part. As I've mentioned, some get a *HUGE* signing bonus that is in multitudes of what I make on a yearly basis, and they are asked to put out 3 albums for that cash -- if it makes more money that their signing bonus, they get more. If not, they get nothing more. Most of the times, these idiots spend it all in the first year, and find out they have nothing more coming to them.
Is this the RIAA's fault that they gave all the money up front? Its said that lottery winners on average end up bankrupt within 10 years of winning. The lottery association actually goes out of its way to say that they will not offer suggestions about how to invest the money or how to choose a financial planner or otherwise. Its a matter of liability. This is for good ol' common folks. Imagine big headed egotistical musicians that think everything they will do will be adored by all and their shit doesn't stink, in fact others would do well by rolling around in it and carrying their scent to others. The RIAA offers no financial advice to these guys other than to make sure they have a decent manager.
These guys generally make more than you or I upon signing, and receive an average of what it will cost to live comfortably while recording 2 or 3 albums in the middle of lalaland. Not extravagantly, but enough.
If these guys do not know how to plan their budgets and treat the industry like a business as opposed to their personal playground, they deserve to get fucked over. These are adults and not children.
A good friend in the industry always tells me, you don't have to be a flake to be a musician, but it seems like it helps.
"The iTunes Music Store (and Napster, Walmart, etc) are still screwing the artists."
You know I hear about this all the time, and as an artist that works with a recent grammy winner, as well as my partner having a dozen gold and platinum, I've rarely heard artists complain about getting screwed over by the RIAA or the iTMS. just the opposite -- most of my friends are *TRYING* to get their labels to get them on there, but its taking a little time to do so.
Note: on occasion, I do hear an artist screaming that they did get screwed over...these are the ones that get an advance check a year before the album comes out, it does poorly, but they've already spent the $$$ and blame the company for their poor performance (it can't be anything associated with their egotistical selves).
Either way, most of us would rather be paid a little than nothing. You suggest that we should all steal the music simply because we are too fucking dumb to realize that we are just going to get mugged elsewhere -- and you'd rather be the muggers than the music company. Thanks...I know you guys are only looking out for our best interest.
Slashdot Mirror
Whats the problem?
They don't develop for Windows any more, but they do support it.
I run one of the largest Emagic users groups on the net. Hell, half the folks that help moderate my site are Windows only and they have no problems using the software on Windows.
Heck, the latest version of Logic Pro allows windows users to upgrade to all the latest plugins (excetp space designer) for around $200. I cashed my Windows license in, picked this up and bought myself a Mac. I know PLENTY of Mac users that got pissed off at this deal because they already bought most of the plugins and felt cheated.
So what exactly did you loose? Nothing -- you got the software that works on your machine.
Yeah -- this is one piece of software I have paid for...no free handouts for this one because I need it and it always takes Emagic to hand out the free auths for anyone I know that gets them.
And that Oxygen copy -- its an alpha 'crack'. Lots of shit that doesn't work. Its not as bad as the Radium hack (they were the 'zero day' and still the biggest distributed version) but still unusable if you are a real musician (ie., lots of intonation problems as the auth codes were actually built into the tuning tables -- the crackers never could figure out a way around that).
All in all, the point is software isn't like cake -- it doesn't get get rotten with age. You can still use it...I actually prefer 5.5 for a lot of things as the 6 series wasn't an update that I needed -- lots of hacks from the programmers to make nontechnical folks happy that pissed off the rest of us...you aren't missing a damn thing.
"Little college dorm room kiddies will just come along and download it and then run to boards like Slashdot and justify it as "free advertising." "
Whats funny is you mention this in the terms of being a musician.
I have worked on a number of music software applications over the last few years from anything from being a beta tester to designing the GUI for guys that have a great product, but a shitty interface.
And this is this same exact arguement used everywhere -- its just free advertisement. Or if I use it to make money, I'll pay for it. Or I'm just a little guy, and the pros should have to pay since I haven't had my first hit yet.
In this area, I've *NEVER* seen a pro pay for professional music software...if you are making money off of it, you will more than likely get it given to you for free. Hell, I haven't paid for 90% of the software I've been given -- and most of it sits in its box on the shelf as the software I *USE* is almost the inverse of this (for some reason, I'm more likely to use the stuff I pay for -- it has real value to me).
But the thinking goes, being a paid musician is like winning a spot on a basketball team -- there are only so many spots opening a year, and most likely its not going to be you. So the software is given to the professionals to advertise to the little guys...I don't know how many times folks will come to my studio and ask what I'm using, only to run out and buy it thinking that it means they can leave me outta the mix, so to speak...only to realize you can't buy talent out of a box -- it comes from years of hard work.
So honestly, the software is sold entirely to the guys that can't make a buck and most likely will never make a buck. Great guys -- and a lot with real talent, but really don't want to do anything but play on weekends with a bunch of friends.
Anywho, the companies advertise as they feel like advertising and need no help from anyone else. I wish there was a decent way to prevent piracy but the folks that want everyone elses hardwork without doing anything for it want to be rebels. Its like the fuckwad kids that think stealing their instruments make them an authentic punk band even though they are from the suburbs.
I love free software and have contributed to some of it -- in my day job we give away several packages I've solely designed and developed, but all in all, folks need to respect the opinion of those that provided the software...even if there were no laws preventing the copying of software or music or whatever, you'd think folks would have the decency to understand that if someone creates something they should have the ultimate say on how its used. If ya don't like that, you are free to develop your own...its not like the ideas are that hard to come up with, and an army of OSS programmers should be able to replicate anything who can give their software away under the ideals they wish it to be released...
I kinda alluded to that...lots of sharp pointy parts and metal screws poking out the back of quite a few surfaces that one can't see...like I found out when I let a friend drive and I stuck my toe through one as she hit a big bump.
:-)
:-)
By chance, you ever have to rebuild the engine? I had the car put up for the winter early one year and met a woman that wanted to go for a ride. In my haste to get it rereadied, I forgot to put the oil cap back on correctly, and I got a few miles before the engine seized on me.
It had a new radiator, alternator, webbers, the clutch had been redone, and the back half of it had been welded back together (as it was rapidly rusting apart)...so its sat in my yard or friends yards for the last several years waiting to get its engine repaired as I put way too much work into it to just let it die
Ok this is way off topic, but the thread has gone on for a day or two, so more than likely no one is going to mod it down for being OT. If they do, I got plenty of karma to burn
I said nothing about the case to the police officers.
/. while at work right now :-)
As such, nothing could have been used against me.
This *IS* good advice for most folks though...most would be tripped up at some point and say something that could be used against them.
I have no problems angering an officer that has nothing to gain but being and asshole. The fact that this was all being recorded 'covertly' was even more to the fact that I wasn't going to say anything about the case.
Sadly, I knew a few other officers at the station, they were much more sympathetic to the situation -- two of these guys were friends that would come over and hang out and play Doom (the first one on my 486DX) when they were supposed to be patrolling the dorms. We were about the same age as I took a few years off between school to tour and get a life, so they were kinda like peers.
They'd still ask me about it occasionally, but I wouldn't say shit. Just played dumb...yeah, I head someone got hurt trying to steal from my car...them little brit cars got a LOT of sharp unfinished edges behind the pannels, don't they. And they'd laugh and leave it alone for a while...
Again, good advice for most people. Never say anything. But at the same time, I'm not giving up my rights to be a human being just because some police officers have given up on the idea of humanity and logic...most likely it was less paperwork to pursue me than it was to pursue the criminal and lazyness is in every profession -- hell, I'm posting to
You'd have thought so...there was a 'wad' of skin on the blade -- but that got tossed before they started investigating :-)
I've got a lot of respect for some police officers...unfortunately, these two just were ones I gave a damn about...
Yeah, and if the thief got nuked, your friend would have been liable.
:P Told them I'd make any statement they wanted once I was allowed to talk with my lawyer -- why do you need an attorney, they asked, unless you are guilty...well if I'm not being charged, let me go...if I'm being charged, I think I need to talk with someone. And thats how the entire conversation went...for 5 fucking hours.
I say this after being interrogated for 5 hours because I booby trapped my lil' Triumph Spitfire several years back when I was in college.
I had gotten a removable cd player from a friend that owed me money -- he pulled it out of his car and said it was collateral. Turns out, he took off the week after that and never came back. So I had to figure out how to put the thing in my car and with the help of a friend that was an EE major...I don't think they were intended to work without the cage, but we got it working and build a new nonremovable enclosure for it and popped it in where the radio should have gone.
Spitfires are convertibles and the locks never worked, so with the help of the same friend, we worked on a trap. Got two frames and embedded razor blades at a 45 degree angle inward on both sides. Very easy to put your hand in, but pulling it out is a little difficult. For added effect, we tinsnipped the blades to be a bit more jagged.
For the final portion, Mike hooked in a charged capacitor to a bar in the middle...slap your hand up against it without discharging it and you are going to have a nasty shock. Most likely try to yank your hand out...hmmm...see where I'm going with this?
Not less than two weeks later I come out to my Triumph to see the leather pulled off the front of the radio (I did try to conceal it by pimping out the console in leather -- looked really nice). and my radio was half pulled out...and a pool of congealing blood on the passenger side seat and floor.
Turns out some neighborhood kid tried stealing it and ended up at the hospital (which was only 2 blocks from my dorm). There was still some skin on the blades...when I removed them (I started freaking out because I knew the possibility that this would come into use, but didn't think about what would happen if it was used).
A few minutes after trashing the razor'd frames I get a knock on my dormroom door from the police asking me some questions.
For the next 5 hours I was interrogated about trapping my vehicle and if I knew it was illegal. I claimed ignorance. One cop tried being the good guy while the other was the asshole. The good guy confided to me that in his day he too set some 'nigger traps'. His words not mine. I found it pretty appalling as most of my friends at the dorm were black including the EE that helped me set the trap. C'mon, he said, I'm a good ol' boy -- you can tell what you did. I simply told him I was going to file a complaint about his use of racial bigotry and that he shouldn't be a cop and that the fact that the video camera in the back of the room with the taped over record light was visible recording as you could still see the light and I thought his captain should know about this. A thief is a thief and I've had far more white people fuck with me than blacks ever have...so he really pissed me off with this line.
His mood changed and the asshole cop came back with the boys mother. The 'boy' was 17 and it was said he almost lost his hand (doubtful) and that he had to get his arm required 60+ stitches and some vascular surgery on his vein. Poor baby...fucker tries stealing from me, and he is being coddled while I am being interrogated. Fuck him and fuck his mother...I told her point blank I hoped he did loose his fucking hand and maybe he could see what it really is like to go without for a while.
5 hours of this alternating between police officers. it was bullshit. And it was 8 years ago, so I'm well past the statutes of limitations on this as charges were never files and I never made a statement
The fuck
Thats not a fucking grey area.
It is legal to paint your house.
It is not legal to spray paint graphiti on someone elses house unless of course you have their unlikely permission.
It is illegal to attack someone with no provocation.
It is legal to protect yourself from attack.
What part of this is grey? It is articulated as to what is wrong and in this case, the law is articulated as to what is right. There are no in betweens.
Shooting someone that is trying to kill you is legal in most states in the US.
However, a good friend of mine and my sister's ex is currently in jail in Kentucky right now -- someone tried robbing him, it was clear that he was being robbed and he shot the guy. He had an unregistered weapon that was stolen. The claim was that a cousin gave him the handgun...the courts bought that as legitimate. They also said that since he had a past record of doing something equally stupid and was not supposed to have a weapon, and even if he were, he would have needed to have it registered in his name -- which would have brought up the fact that it was stolen.
He is now serving a few years because he was in possession of a stolen weapon that was used in a criminal situation -- yes, he was being robbed -- that is the crime that the situation was referring to. I don't know the *EXACT* statute, but it was something near this...
The man is a good guy but has done some mighty stupid things in his life. This was one of them. I spent $12 talking to him on the phone for 4 minutes the other day (f'n correctional phone services)...and honestly, I think he deserves to be in jail for breaking the law.
Using a legitimate gun as someone is attacking you -- yes, you will be investigated, but it more than likely that you will be proven that you used it in a legal sense.
I don't know how so many folks can see grey areas on this stuff. its either right or its wrong.
Who's to say if I'm licensed or not? You don't know my qualifications nor do you know the qualifications of anyone else here.
:-)
Secondly, unions do a lot of their own qualifications -- its how they keep their bargaining chips in place.
For instance, with the university, I research and design testing methods -- I'm a techie as I'm generally the one having to put it into computer form and do all the adaptive natures of these things -- but along with this, I do a lot of field work such as giving honest to goodness paper and pencil licensure testing.
A month ago, I gave Level I and II of a pipefitter's test. Actually a lot more complicated than the average person would think. When you are working in a refinery and need to tap a hot pipe full of hydrogen, you need folks that know what they are doing. The fact was, the test was given in a union hall and was designed in part by that union.
These guys are professionals. Just because they don't put on a suit and tie doesn't make them any less of a professional. So yeah, I'm proud to say there are little differences between what I do and what a plumber does -- we both are professionals. And other than the stink, I'd probably want to be friends with a plumber before I was friends with a lawyer any day
"The purpose of these mores that do not protect the happiness of the entire species is only to protect that of a limited subset. i.e. those in power."
And what if this is thought recursively. Those that want will be far more spiritually fulfilled than the man that has everything. If I'm given something -- or just fucking take it -- I'm not as happy as if I earned it. For instance, I rarely pay for software anymore -- most of the time it is given to me by its author or publisher. I'll have to test it out, sometimes give them advice about the GUI, or write a review of it -- but when you are talking about a thousand $$$ package, a few hours worth of work isn't worth that much...I'll use this stuff and put it aside and never touch it except to impress my friends.
Now take the main software package I use -- I pay for. I run a user forum based on it. I got one upgrade free, and the upgrade sat for months -- because I didn't pay for it. If I had, you'd be damn skippy right that it'd have been on my machines immediately.
Allowing folks in power to have a set of rights that others don't have allows the masses to want. It allows them to dream. It allows them to try to be better than what they are now...being a member of the powerbase is not unattainable.
Thought about more simply, a lot of mores that are in place that help only a small group of people should be looked at recursively. By helping these folks, they may ultimately help others with their privilege. Oft times, privilege is not this at all -- I live in a largely poor community. I moved out there because the older houses were bigger, it was in the city center, and it held more for me than the burbs do. Folks here look at me with distain, as if I got everything I have because it was given -- privilege. I've had a job since I was 13 and have gone maybe two weeks in this time without a job. My parents were poor but pushed me and my sister. I never got anything monetarily out of either of them. But its not looked at this way...
In this community, it would be best to sack my house and claim that the happiness of the neighbors is greater than the suffering I would receive from my losses.
In other neighborhoods, my same neighbors transported there would be vermin to the yuppies I have to deal with on a daily basis. Some of them are. It would be in the global best interest to remove a few of these folks causing them a little suffering than the total off the suffering the masses from having them there.
In both cases it would be wrong.
Individual rights trump all suffering and happiness. I have the right to live my life without being fucked with. It might be a fairytale in this world to think this way, but it is a right. I have a right not to fuck with anyone else.
So, you are thinking far too simplistically. All rights feed upon other rights and one cannot look at one without weighing the other. The individual's rights are just as important as the rights of the masses. Without protecting the rights of the one, you can never protect the rights of the masses.
Stealing to feed your family?
Call me very kantian, but I have never understood why one person thinks that in any circumstance that because one person has more than another, it should be considered alright to take it away from them and give it to someone.
Would I steal to feed my family?
If I had no other choice, most likely. But I'd expect to face the same consequences as the guy that stole money just to support a crack habit. I'd expect no one looking into the circumstances surrounding what I did other than I did this or didn't do it. Wrong is wrong. There are no grey areas. Its a boolean function. its right, its wrong. Nothing else.
Depends on the union.
Unions are all about politics like anything else. My father has served as a district president for his union as well as grievance officer, both for several years.
He is one of those kinda of people that want to do the right thing and fuck everything else...before he was grievance officer, folks would just fight to keep *ANYONE* on board. Guys have a drug problem, well thats not their fault they showed up fucked up...we'll go on strike if you fire him. After, he made sure the slackers got fired because folks like that only made his job harder.
It got to the point, several of the idiots actually tried to organize against him, but they were already out of the union as they were no longer employees...and the others were such slack asses they couldn't get their act together. He was reelected several times to this postion even though it was not what he wanted to do (and was in fact campaigning for the guy running against him in his last position) before he finally had to tell them if they put him on the ballot again, he'd resign if elected.
Unfortunately, many others want the big votes. They go about it by trying to win too many friends. Those are the ones that get elected nationally. I don't think the nationals do shit for unions...most of it is organized crime, IMHO. But at the lower end, there are unions that actually do some good and help folks out that need it, and help get rid of the idiots that don't need to be there. I know there were a few cases he did support the case of the idiot, begrudgingly, but that was because the supervisors didn't have paperwork...and that was just prudent common sense to keep everyone else protected.
Professionals and unions in the same sentence? I don't know. I never liked the idea of unions, but as a tech worked continually fucked over in my day job simply because I'm working for the gov't -- making less that some janitors because they put in the time and organized -- I am starting to rethink this. Why not. As professionals, we could do it fairly and not have to organize ourselves like say the steelworkers so where the union is set up as if everyone was fucking morons...they aren't, but the union wants to control them and pretends they are just as the management does. Us being pros mean we might be able to come up with ways not to let organized crime get involved and to streamline it where it has secure and honest voting while protecting only our interests and nothing else...
Good for you.
:-)
I've almost run into a idiots way too many times that don't stop and just sliiiiiiide through a stop sign or red light thinking that their bad driving doesn't really matter.
I don't know how many times I'd be on my motorcycle to have to quickly change lanes...I've chased after a few and the one the did stop actually admitted he didn't see me and thought it was cool.
I don't speed, I use my signals, and I make certain that I follow the laws of the road. Yeah, 99% of the time, one could easily disregard the rules and be safe. Then again, tell that to my mother that while a good offensive driver (meaning she follow the laws), she is a horrible defensive driver and fully expects the others to stay within the law -- she's had several vertebrae fused because of her last accident where a guy merged and she didn't get out of his way because she figured he'd see her.
Seriously, what does it hurt to make an absolute dead stop? 3 seconds. You save 3 fucking seconds by coasting.
Personally, if I see someone driving like a nutcase, I call the cops. I have a neighbor kid that lost his license for doing burnouts on our street. Called the cops and they took him in and impounded the car because he didn't have any insurance. I don't think the gov't should be cameraing everyone -- us citizens should be doing it for them. Drivers licenses are way too easy to obtain in the states...and far too accepted as the only real transportation as well. We start narcing all our neighbors and otherwise and having folks loose their licenses, we will have far less people on the street and far safer drivers that don't think that casually ignoring stop signs is a good thing.
Just glad you are driving safer because of all of this
Yeah, but most of their news is 'Views'. Its hard to find articles and news reports that aren't in this category.
This channel is far more in line with what the Pat Robertsons of the world are saying day after day. I turn to the 700 Club News (or whatever they are calling it these days) and then turn to Fox News. Instead of Pat Robertson calling liberals former drunks and otherwise (forgetting that our current president is a former addict) -- its the exact same rhetoric that is spewed there, but not as blunted.
I do watch more and different news to get the full views. I find liberal media far more forgiving and less biased. At least they don't publicly state what their views are in reporting the news.
As for your other post about Libretarians -- I'm not even worried about the folks that go to the meetings, I'm worried about the ones that represent the party and are elected. This is one of the reasons I left the republican party -- the foundations of the party are secure, its just been infiltrated by idiots with a single purpose.
Do I think there needs to be changes to the election process? Hell yeah I do. For instance, I think its criminal that states give 100% of their electoral votes to the winner of each state. Only 2 states give proportional votes according to population voting one way or another. I believe in the electoral college, and think its important states are represented according to the size of their population to ensure no one region is over represented, but I think having a president elected on an all or nothing basis is moronic. It encourages folks to push their party all the way to the ends and letting the middle figure it out for themselves.
I have big problems with the very extremes of both parties...mainly because I'm at vastly different extremes than either of the main two are. Give me fiscal conservatism and liberal social issues. I'm extreme at both ends...and neither party seems to fit.
Back to libertarians, I have voted for them in the past...if its between two candidates I don't care about in the main parties (or as in the case of the last election, I was friends with two opposing candidates and thought both could do an admirable job -- they actually agreed on everything except party affiliation and thus demonized the other), I'll vote a third party just to give them votes. Where it matters, I'm not wasting my vote...but then again, without reforms red voters in blue states will most likely be giving up their vote just as much as blue votes in red states. Politics would be so much better if we had a bunch of purple states to varying degree...
If I recall the game, the Japanese versions of the games had a Zero shooting up US and Allies planes.
I need to look for that on MAME again one of these days...
"Since you were a former elephant, who are you voting for now? Voting libertarian?"
/. crowd is a bunch of tin foil hats, you should check out their meetings...thats the last time I let a geek friend drag me to see their politics. You'd honestly think Libs were closer in spirit to true republicans, but reality is no where close. Crossing over to the dems is far easier a transition...
Anyone that can take Bush out of office and maybe be the catalyst for reform in the party. At this point, its Kerry. I can't stand that fucker. He sounds just as disgenuine and moronic as Bush. But the fact his party is not going to be controlling shit, there will be checks and balances once again.
Quite honestly, one party having all the power is never good...folks end up with beliefs that are no where near mainstream and then telling the rest of the party if you want to be a patriotic part of the party you will follow suit. When its one party against the other, then these wacko ideas never make it to the surface.
It was for this very principle that it was discussed that the most optimal US gov't is one with a democratic president, led by a republican house and congress. They end up fighting each other on every principle, and only the most well thought out ideals get enacted.
As for libretarians, these would be a great party if they stopped electing members that dye themselves blue or spout off about aliens abducting them and fucking them in the ass. If you think the
Heres one:
t ml
Fox likes to link itself to pseudointellectual think tanks. Most doing very little research, most the soapbox for a single individual. Yet, Fox lends them credence as if they were honest to gawd actual organizations that understood polling and research methods. They claim to be the smart guys, while slamming intellectism. Actually, I think a lot of these places do -- they know enough to bend things to their will:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,131174,00.h
Its the war on poverty.
The article makes several claims against the dems in particular as if it were an Us vs. Them article. For instance it talks about the Dems refusing to endorse Welfare Reform. If I seem to remember correctly, the right holds the power these days and could reform it however they want. Secondly, Clinton was the first person to actively push through legislation on either side in a good many years.
Quite a few items were directly picked from talking points memos from the right and a bone is thrown here or there to make it look balanced, but all in all, anyone that wishes to remain balanced would not make it see as if there were sides to begin with that they might be associated with, but a neutral party.
I was once on the right, but much happier on the side of the wrong where the liberal news sources might be a bit tipped as well, but do so asking you to make up your own mind after hearing all the details. Yes, they encourage you to think their way, but at least they can admit there is another side of the story. The right generally shows only one side of the story and tells you to shut up if you even bring up the fact there might be another legitimate school of thought. I've *NEVER* heard the liberal media talk anyone down or tell them to shut up and still ask to be considered a legitimate journalist.
As soon as the Right goes back to being the party of fiscal conservatism, I'll probably rejoin the party.
"Actually, there is no such possibility, as copyright expires after a given period."
Fucking duh.
I said SHOULD...not is.
And as its going with Congress, copyrights will be permanent sooner than you think.
As I said, I don't personally agree with folks doing this and I think its kind of pathetic, but we don't legislate towards how pathetic something is...
I think as soon as the permanent copyright thing happens, you will start seeing the good guys offering to put actual realistic limits on these things.
Fuck, its not like having Mickey Mouse enter the public domain means anything to anyone. Who is going to gain from the fact the mouse is free? Folks that want to see Steamboat Willy in all its pseudoracist glory.
People have too many hang ups on past artforms when we should be focused on the future, not on something in the past. We are so focused on ripping off the past that isn't no wonder that Top40 bullshit is the way it is -- because folks don't want something new, they want the same has been material.
Maybe art should have a shelf-life and after its hit the expiration date, it should no longer be available in any form. We might end up repeating art styles, but at least as we are doing so, we won't even realize it and maybe expand upon the ideas without the limits we envision now.
Fuck copyright, up with expiration.
Actually, its a set rate for covers, not a percentage.
If you wanted to sell a single disc with a cover for a billion $$$, the songwriter would get maybe $0.03 a minute for the song per the cover or something like that.
Thats depends,
Are you paying the appropriate licensing fees?
Covers are cool as long as Harry Fox, et all, get their share. You would have to count all the downloads / streams of the file and pay accordingly. Just because you aren't getting paid for it, that doesn't mean the songwritters behind the work shouldn't get paid for it -- unless of course they feel like putting the work in the public domain or giving you special permission.
Regardless, as it sounds like you are trying to start a discussion, remember folks should be able to license their work how ever they want to. Art isn't anything that should be considered essential to the public need -- unlike food, water and clean air. As such, if someone wants their work copyrighted for the rest of eternity, this should be their right. if you don't like this, you are just as free to fight against this and put works into the public domain and encourage others to do the same thing.
Find a network of friends connected to the industry.
There are a lot of communities out there that service musicians and we talk about musicians musicians albums all the time. What do the current musicians listen to. Yeah, you have to plug yourself in a bit, but you eventually find the interesting stuff.
But all in all, mass market is not just top 40. I can't stand the shit most of the time. For instance, Shakira was one of the mass marketted artists I found last year that was really good. Her album is a bit over polished in places, but its really a musicians album all over. Lots of good influences all over the place, and all directed by her moods. Its something most of my jaded friends couldn't get until I started playing her spanish releases and they started asking who that was...only to be surprised and go back and explore her stuff.
The mass market isn't bad. Its just not as deep or wide as it should be. Too much the same. Its the same reason I can't stand cover songs for the most part -- why dip into the same waters as everyone else unless you have something new to give (there was one cover band that did rock tunes technostyle that I loved seeing a few years ago...they claimed they couldn't keep a guitarist or they'd go the original sounds, but it was refreshing this way).
Talk to people. Get out of the house. Meet some anonymous punk chickie and have coffee with her and talk about music. Anything. Its not impossible to make connections...just make connections and start putting your life as deep and wide as you'd like to see your music and you start to realize there is a good depth to music, its just not where you expect to find it.
Yeah, the 608 ended up being a wash for me.
$200 for a phone that is worthless except for sync'ing phone numbers with my Mac.
It was supposed to be much more, but it ended up getting crippled -- more by Sprint than SE and after a year of delays because Sprint was afraid everyone was going to use it solely to bridge internet connections with their powerbooks, SE killed the division that was making these for Sprint (I believe this was the CDMA division, while they decided to focus on GSM...fuck, I don't know, I'm just spouting letters that mean nothing to me).
I have my 608 right beside me, and compared to the 610, its worthless as anything except an expensive phone with a horrible screen that one can't read with any sort of daylight (it does work well for the nightlife -- I use mine as a flashlight coming home occasionally....but damn, try using it outside at noon).
Why?
Because if the local bands were any good, they would have gotten signed.
And then sounded shitty once they got signed.
Again, this is one of the reasons I distance myself from the industry. At one point, I was one of those gimps that sold my life away. I knew what I was getting into and I hoped beyond hope that I could retain control.
I was able to do this, but my bandmates were promised other items if they went one way and the label tried using their coersion to move me along too...as I had the smarts to have this as an incorporated business before signing, I eventuallty fired them and delivered something I was happy with, but the label didn't care much for. Few folks are willing to do this. They want the instant promises. My friends regrouped to start another band with a different name and did moderately well on the charts. I'm glad I had nothing to do with it.
Personally, I don't want to hear local bands. I live in a moderately sized city and there are maybe 2 or 3 bands I think have what it takes to be more than a pub band. Maybe your expectations are a little lower than mine.
And I love CDs. I think I've only bought 3 cds that were in the mainstream over the last year. The new Outkast was a true artist oriented album -- even if you don't like it. The newest seal and sting were also great albums. Other than that, its all the independant market for me. Then again, independant means very little these days...so many imprints of imprints...I'm just happy the one major release I worked on last was from a career artist that was between contracts and as such we could work on it without the need of interference from the labels (and then it was shopped 'as is').
Don't listen to crap. Don't be so jaded that you think anything recorded is crap. Don't be a snob and pretend that just because the masses like it, it must be crap. There are several great mass release products that are great recordings.
Thats why I manage a research and development department for my university.
It too doesn't pay that good compared to the private sector, and my music career occasionally pays more that the university, but its steady work, I have freedoms I don't have in most other oportunities (looking at my check, I have 7 weeks of sicktime available, of which I've tried using but it catches up to me -- this is after taking a month off last year for an injury that kept me hospitalized and bedridden once out) and around the same in vacation time.
But the public sector does me well enough that I do the things I want in music without whoring myself. I walked off a project last year that was very lucrative because the artist was an idiot, and I got sick of being uncredited because the idiot wanted to show the world he did it all himself. If I did music full time as my music partner does, I couldn't be so choosy about the projects I take on.
All in all, I still put a decent amount of time on this stuff, and I expect to get paid for my services, I don't expect someone to claim that since I'm getting ripped off they should be able to rip me off to 'protect me from the big bad RIAA'. I don't expect much, but I do expect a living wage.
Thats all most of these guys ask for. They aren't getting rich for the most part. As I've mentioned, some get a *HUGE* signing bonus that is in multitudes of what I make on a yearly basis, and they are asked to put out 3 albums for that cash -- if it makes more money that their signing bonus, they get more. If not, they get nothing more. Most of the times, these idiots spend it all in the first year, and find out they have nothing more coming to them.
Is this the RIAA's fault that they gave all the money up front? Its said that lottery winners on average end up bankrupt within 10 years of winning. The lottery association actually goes out of its way to say that they will not offer suggestions about how to invest the money or how to choose a financial planner or otherwise. Its a matter of liability. This is for good ol' common folks. Imagine big headed egotistical musicians that think everything they will do will be adored by all and their shit doesn't stink, in fact others would do well by rolling around in it and carrying their scent to others. The RIAA offers no financial advice to these guys other than to make sure they have a decent manager.
These guys generally make more than you or I upon signing, and receive an average of what it will cost to live comfortably while recording 2 or 3 albums in the middle of lalaland. Not extravagantly, but enough.
If these guys do not know how to plan their budgets and treat the industry like a business as opposed to their personal playground, they deserve to get fucked over. These are adults and not children.
A good friend in the industry always tells me, you don't have to be a flake to be a musician, but it seems like it helps.
I have no time for the flakes.
"The iTunes Music Store (and Napster, Walmart, etc) are still screwing the artists."
You know I hear about this all the time, and as an artist that works with a recent grammy winner, as well as my partner having a dozen gold and platinum, I've rarely heard artists complain about getting screwed over by the RIAA or the iTMS. just the opposite -- most of my friends are *TRYING* to get their labels to get them on there, but its taking a little time to do so.
Note: on occasion, I do hear an artist screaming that they did get screwed over...these are the ones that get an advance check a year before the album comes out, it does poorly, but they've already spent the $$$ and blame the company for their poor performance (it can't be anything associated with their egotistical selves).
Either way, most of us would rather be paid a little than nothing. You suggest that we should all steal the music simply because we are too fucking dumb to realize that we are just going to get mugged elsewhere -- and you'd rather be the muggers than the music company. Thanks...I know you guys are only looking out for our best interest.