If you are a band that has been selling your CDs through MP3.com and offering free MP3 samples of your tunes -- do you get to tell Universal to go screw themselves?
In other words - does Universal have the right to convert your music to a proprietary format (like WMA, or Liquid Audio) ?? Do they have the rights to continue distributing your music?
I've only used MP3.com as a user. I've never actually created any music. But, I would be interested to hear from anyone who has uploaded their music there before. What was the EULA like? Do you agree to give MP3.com (and now Universal) all rights to your music to distribute as they see fit?
What if you object to their new format? Does your music just "disappear" ?
I think that they are purposely doing this to pave the way for hardware-level encryption. They know damn-well that software encryption never works. Who's been cracked? Microsoft Media, SMDI, CSS, and just about everyone else who relies on weak software encryption and the DMCA.
They will release this new standard. And when it gets hacked (.025 seconds later) they will point to the need for hardware encryption. These guys would love to have harddrives in TiVos and computers that only write "approved material" to the disk. Same with HDTV and iTv... they want the lock to be at the hardware level.
What better way to convince the Gov't. to approve this nonsense? Step 1: release an inferior software encryption scheme. Step 2: wait until it gets cracked. Step 3: go whine and cry to the Gov't about all the money you are losing to those "video pirates".
This thing is going to get hacked quicker than you can say "CueCat". What is to stop someone from using a proxy and stripping the encryption? Oh yeah... the DMCA (Don't Make Copies Asshole)
It really was quite interesting how this whole thing went down. First, Michael Roberts (vice president of Educom) merges his company with CAUSE to form a new company called EDUCAUSE. Then, he becomes President and CEO of ICANN for 3 years. In March, he resigns from ICANN and lays low for a month (most likely to avoid public scrutiny). Now, in April, the DoC announces that they are giving the administration of.edu to EDUCAUSE. Hmmmmm... I wonder what we missed in the back-room, closed-door meetings that led up to this transfer???
Another thing to think about: The transfer of.com/.net/.org required the involvement of ICANN (and unfortunately NSI too). Yet, here the DoC is making policy decisions on their own without any ICANN involvement. So, why couldn't the DoC make the decision about the VeriSign agreement? Or even better - why can't the DoC decide to add new TLDs without ICANN??
I've been on Napster 5 times during this last week and I've found every song I was looking for.
On Wed. I pulled down a whole album that I was looking for. So, whatever Wired or the rest of the media is saying... I don't seem to have any trouble finding what I want. Maybe all the Eminem and Christina Aguellera songs are gone... but the obscure shit that I listen to is easy to find.
I watched the recent Melbourne Australia ICANN meeting and came away with the impression that these people really don't give a flying fuck about you or me or anyone. VeriSign has the ICANN board by the balls and they are bought and paid for. The meeting was nothing but window-dressing! A show put on to entertain the masses.
The real meetings take place behind closed doors with their laywers (Joe Sims and Louis Touton) and VeriSign / NSI. They are currently trying to rush through an agreement that would give NSI full control of the registry for dot com indefinitely! That's right kids.... forget about competition NSI owns your ass and will gladly sell you out for a buck.
If you visit the ICANN Public Comment Boards you will see that a majority of the people are against this. Everyone things this is a REALLY BAD IDEA. But, the lawyers for ICANN continue to recommend this as the best course of action for the Internet as a whole. It really makes you wonder: 1) how much the ICANN board gets paid? and 2) how much VeriSign stock they own?
Here are 3 quotes from recent ICANN meetings:
1) The Names Council meeting in March 2001. Phillip Sheppard: "my apologies but we have run out of time... sorry no public comments"
2) The Board Meeting in November 2000. Louis Touton: "you're here to observe... not to participate!"
3) The Public Forum in March 2001. Vint Cerf: "The at large community exists - I mean, they're out there. The question is whether they have a role in ICANN."
This should make all of you very afraid! They don't want you, and they don't need you! And they are going to make all the decisions without you goddammit! Support New.Net and the alternative roots!
The problem with the alternative roots (like PacificRoot, Atlantic Root, Alternic, etc...) is that the average idiot can't figure out how to change their DNS settings.
Doesn't matter if you give them tutorials, or full description on how to do it. They are dumb as rocks! Most of these people go to AltaVista and type in "www.hotmail.com" to get to their hotmail account.
I think that New.Net took a step in the right direction by offering a "moron-proof" plugin that automatically adjusts the settings so that dumbfucks the world over can view new TLDs.
Next week New Net will be launching their campaign for new TLDS. Either you reconfigure your DNS settings or install a quick plugin. No "Sunrise Period" IP lawer bullshit, no 5 year extended wait, no involvement from Network Solutions and no bullshit from ICANN! People are sick of this and are taking the law into their own hands. Good bye ICANN! All we had to do was give ICANN some rope... they are quite capable of hanging themselves.
Oh yes... my Access really is crashing! Granted, I don't like Microsoft products, but if I didn't have this type of problem why would I waste my time making shit like this up for someone I don't even know? You say that your Access rarely crashes... what exactly do you use it for? Our people use it as a front-end for viewing Oracle tables with 6,000 - 10,000 records.
I suppose that Access can handle *tiny* databases with 100 - 500 records quite easily. But, I wasn't talking about "mini-dB's"... I'm talking real, everyday, working conditions.
I know I shouldn't feed the trolls like this.
BTW - do you get paid to post here by Microsoft?
We are running a few mySQL databases at work with Perl based front ends. But, we also use Oracle for quite a few clients. A lot of the machines used in Production use MS Access with ODBC as the front-end to Oracle.
I can't even begin to tell you how many bugs Access has! The ODBC drivers suck and the program crashes constantly! Besides crashing, Access also has some weird, unexplained problems. Try doing a "search and replace" with Access on a dB that has over 1000 records. You can't! Access will sit there and lock up. The only way to get out of it is to kill the program.
I would spend some time in the newsgroups and on Google searching and documenting all the trouble that people have with Access. Compile all this into a single file and show your boss. He is thinking "short term" since words like Perl, and PHP are unknown to him. Once you open his eyes to the trouble that Access will cause he may change his mind.
There's nothing wrong with the artist making money off the deal. But, what you are proposing is that instead of the RIAA being the middleman, eMusic should become the middleman. What we are suggesting is that there be NO middleman! The artist writes music and releases it in MP3 format for free. Then, the artist makes money by selling CDs, merchandise and touring.
Sure eMusic is offering a good deal now. But, there is plenty of competition. What would happen if eMusic got to be in the position of the RIAA? What if the sole distribution channel between the artist and fan was eMusic. Do you think that the price would still be $15 per month? I doubt it.
eMusic does have a couple decent artists that I like. But, to be honest - I'm not impressed with the overall selection. I want any artist, any song, any album, any genre -- anytime! Basically we all want the "big jukebox in the sky" that has every song ever recorded.
I have never used eMusic and I never intend to. I am opposed to you "acoustic fingerprinting" technique. Same goes for Windows Media and Liquid Audio. Once you try to watermark my music - I'm not interested. I like being in control. I refuse to let someone stamp a mark on my music telling me what devices I can use it in and how many times I am allowed to trade it. And in the end... that is what it all boils down to isn't it? Who gets to control the music?
It seems that everytime we get into the whole Napster/MP3/RIAA discussion we never really get anywhere. Millions of us like to rip and trade our music for free. We won't buy into any proprietary encryption schemes (ala Liquid Audio) and we always bring up Gnutella/OpenNap/Scour/etc..
But, what about Ogg Vorbis? Everytime this is brought up as a serious subject - people start to trash it: "the format sucks", "only geeks use it", "it will never work".. "blah blah blah". Someone else posted a message saying that one way the RIAA was going to try to kill MP3 is to piss in the pool. If they can flood the MP3 pool with garbage files, then the format will lose credibility and people will stop trading files.
So, rather than complain about Napster and MP3 why not work on alternative and completely open formats? If we all told Napster to go fuck themselves and started to develop Ogg Vorbis in earnest we could have a great alternative. Let the Army of Lusers (AOL) use the "Pay-per-listen" Napster that will be born. And the real traders who have been in the scene for awhile should start to switch formats.
Develop cool software that works well and has *all* the features we want. Develop hardware that plays it. And in the end we can have a truely OPEN format that goes head-to-head with MP3, Windows Media, Liquid Audio, and others. Why is everyone so attached to MP3 anyway? It's not the best format out there... in fact it kind of sucks.
Looks like Cmdr Taco and Cowboy Neal are going to get a cut in the "toy budget". No more DVDs, no more wireless gadgets, and god forbid.. they might have to start paying their own cellphone bills. Quick do something!
I know! Why not fire Jon Katz?!? He's a lazy no-good piece-of-shit dead weight anyway! Just tell everyone that if they can't right code to pack their shit and shove off!
I say we forget all about Napster (the company) and focus our efforts on Napster the protocol. Napster was only on version 2. Relatively young in its development. So, the company sells out and gets in bed with the RIAA -- who cares?
In a few years Napster will be synonymous with the term "record company". So, let's develop the NAP protocol. Let's develop new clients, improve P2P and gnutella. Let's create NEW protocols and software that helps us to trade MP3s. Just because Napster (the company) is dead doesn't mean that the idea is gone.
Scour was on the right track... come up with a searchable encrypted format. Even better make it ASCII based so it can be hidden inside of HTML or text files. Necessity is the mother of invention. And, since our "Napster mom" turned into a crack-whore.. we're just going to have to start inventing some new stuff!
Do you get really tired of listening to the WHO after awhile? Have you programmed any backdoors into the MP3/stereo control program to over-ride Taco's requests for more WHO songs?
Yet again Slashdot is a day late and a buck short. You guys should start reading memepool more often. They featured this story on January 16th -- where the hell were you?
The purpose of a rebate is to gather marketing information so the company can spam you and sell your data to other companies. You got mad because they didn't fulfill their end of the deal. But, you are probably one of the few. Most people would just forget about it and chalk it up as a loss. I hate rebates. I'd rather spend the extra $10 up front than sell my soul to the marketing department. So you saved a measly $10! Big fucking deal! Your personal info alone must be worth at least $50 to them! Here's a tip: if you *must* claim a rebate, purposely mispell your name and see how much junk mail you start getting addressed incorrectly. Rebates are a carrot on a stick - trying to get to do what they want you to. Those little-old ladies who clip coupons out of the Sunday paper are in the same category. They spend 4 hours clipping coupons, and save a total of $5 in the grocery store - but the company now knows what types of ad they respond to, and what newspaper they read. If this is used in association with the "preffered shopper" card that most stores use - they also know the little-old ladies name, address, phone number and age too.
This is the best method I've ever seen to get someone to read the Terms and Conditions. On the right you have a bunch of legal mumbo-jumbo: "If you kill yourself with the Wheelman it's not our fault" and on the left you have a HOT CHICK in a wet t-shirt complete with nipples poking out and a sexy smile. For once, I'm glad I read the legal bullshit!
Memepool was running this story like 2 months ago. Slashdot is getting slow now that it's run by a bunch of corporate drones. What happened to the "bleeding edge" ?!?!?
Sorry to feed the troll... but, unfortunately a lot of "non-techie" types really feel this way about DVDs. They have bought right into the propoganda and bullshit being spewed by the RIAA and the MPAA:
"Whaaaaah!! all of the evil-hacker-pirates(tm) are putting us out of business. Boo hoo hoo...."
That is just absurd! First thing - movies and music sales are at an all-time high! Nobody is putting these robber-barons out of business anytime soon. Secondly - by convincing the courts to support them, they are stealing your rights!
So, Mr. Anonymous Coward, since you own those DVD's of yours why don't you give us a little demonstration of your "fair-use" rights?
Open up that DVD that you own on your Linux system
Fast forward past the commercials in the beginning
Record a few small (less than 10 second) clips that we could post on a web site that reviews and comments about different movie genres.
What's the matter? Can't do it? But, you *OWN* those DVDs... and it is within fair-use rights and your Freedom of Speech to sample small clips to use for non-commercial purposes.
So! guess who's screwing who? I'll give you a hint - it's not the evil-hacker-pirates(tm).
Slashdot Mirror
If you are a band that has been selling your CDs through MP3.com and offering free MP3 samples of your tunes -- do you get to tell Universal to go screw themselves?
In other words - does Universal have the right to convert your music to a proprietary format (like WMA, or Liquid Audio) ?? Do they have the rights to continue distributing your music?
I've only used MP3.com as a user. I've never actually created any music. But, I would be interested to hear from anyone who has uploaded their music there before. What was the EULA like? Do you agree to give MP3.com (and now Universal) all rights to your music to distribute as they see fit?
What if you object to their new format? Does your music just "disappear" ?
I think that they are purposely doing this to pave the way for hardware-level encryption. They know damn-well that software encryption never works. Who's been cracked? Microsoft Media, SMDI, CSS, and just about everyone else who relies on weak software encryption and the DMCA.
... they want the lock to be at the hardware level.
They will release this new standard. And when it gets hacked (.025 seconds later) they will point to the need for hardware encryption. These guys would love to have harddrives in TiVos and computers that only write "approved material" to the disk. Same with HDTV and iTv
What better way to convince the Gov't. to approve this nonsense? Step 1: release an inferior software encryption scheme. Step 2: wait until it gets cracked. Step 3: go whine and cry to the Gov't about all the money you are losing to those "video pirates".
Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.
I work in Massachusetts in the USA doing web development for a small company. My average day is between 10am - 7:30 pm (9.5 hrs).
This thing is going to get hacked quicker than you can say "CueCat". What is to stop someone from using a proxy and stripping the encryption? Oh yeah... the DMCA (Don't Make Copies Asshole)
Another thing to think about: The transfer of .com/.net/.org required the involvement of ICANN (and unfortunately NSI too). Yet, here the DoC is making policy decisions on their own without any ICANN involvement. So, why couldn't the DoC make the decision about the VeriSign agreement? Or even better - why can't the DoC decide to add new TLDs without ICANN??
Shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker and tits.
I've been on Napster 5 times during this last week and I've found every song I was looking for.
On Wed. I pulled down a whole album that I was looking for. So, whatever Wired or the rest of the media is saying... I don't seem to have any trouble finding what I want. Maybe all the Eminem and Christina Aguellera songs are gone... but the obscure shit that I listen to is easy to find.
The real meetings take place behind closed doors with their laywers (Joe Sims and Louis Touton) and VeriSign / NSI. They are currently trying to rush through an agreement that would give NSI full control of the registry for dot com indefinitely! That's right kids.... forget about competition NSI owns your ass and will gladly sell you out for a buck.
If you visit the ICANN Public Comment Boards you will see that a majority of the people are against this. Everyone things this is a REALLY BAD IDEA. But, the lawyers for ICANN continue to recommend this as the best course of action for the Internet as a whole. It really makes you wonder: 1) how much the ICANN board gets paid? and 2) how much VeriSign stock they own?
Here are 3 quotes from recent ICANN meetings:
1) The Names Council meeting in March 2001. Phillip Sheppard: "my apologies but we have run out of time... sorry no public comments"
2) The Board Meeting in November 2000. Louis Touton: "you're here to observe... not to participate!"
3) The Public Forum in March 2001. Vint Cerf: "The at large community exists - I mean, they're out there. The question is whether they have a role in ICANN."
This should make all of you very afraid! They don't want you, and they don't need you! And they are going to make all the decisions without you goddammit! Support New.Net and the alternative roots!
The problem with the alternative roots (like PacificRoot, Atlantic Root, Alternic, etc...) is that the average idiot can't figure out how to change their DNS settings.
Doesn't matter if you give them tutorials, or full description on how to do it. They are dumb as rocks! Most of these people go to AltaVista and type in "www.hotmail.com" to get to their hotmail account.
I think that New.Net took a step in the right direction by offering a "moron-proof" plugin that automatically adjusts the settings so that dumbfucks the world over can view new TLDs.
Next week New Net will be launching their campaign for new TLDS. Either you reconfigure your DNS settings or install a quick plugin. No "Sunrise Period" IP lawer bullshit, no 5 year extended wait, no involvement from Network Solutions and no bullshit from ICANN! People are sick of this and are taking the law into their own hands. Good bye ICANN! All we had to do was give ICANN some rope... they are quite capable of hanging themselves.
Oh yes... my Access really is crashing! Granted, I don't like Microsoft products, but if I didn't have this type of problem why would I waste my time making shit like this up for someone I don't even know? You say that your Access rarely crashes... what exactly do you use it for? Our people use it as a front-end for viewing Oracle tables with 6,000 - 10,000 records. ... I'm talking real, everyday, working conditions.
I suppose that Access can handle *tiny* databases with 100 - 500 records quite easily. But, I wasn't talking about "mini-dB's"
I know I shouldn't feed the trolls like this.
BTW - do you get paid to post here by Microsoft?
We are running a few mySQL databases at work with Perl based front ends. But, we also use Oracle for quite a few clients. A lot of the machines used in Production use MS Access with ODBC as the front-end to Oracle.
I can't even begin to tell you how many bugs Access has! The ODBC drivers suck and the program crashes constantly! Besides crashing, Access also has some weird, unexplained problems. Try doing a "search and replace" with Access on a dB that has over 1000 records. You can't! Access will sit there and lock up. The only way to get out of it is to kill the program.
I would spend some time in the newsgroups and on Google searching and documenting all the trouble that people have with Access. Compile all this into a single file and show your boss. He is thinking "short term" since words like Perl, and PHP are unknown to him. Once you open his eyes to the trouble that Access will cause he may change his mind.
Sure eMusic is offering a good deal now. But, there is plenty of competition. What would happen if eMusic got to be in the position of the RIAA? What if the sole distribution channel between the artist and fan was eMusic. Do you think that the price would still be $15 per month? I doubt it. eMusic does have a couple decent artists that I like. But, to be honest - I'm not impressed with the overall selection. I want any artist, any song, any album, any genre -- anytime! Basically we all want the "big jukebox in the sky" that has every song ever recorded.
I have never used eMusic and I never intend to. I am opposed to you "acoustic fingerprinting" technique. Same goes for Windows Media and Liquid Audio. Once you try to watermark my music - I'm not interested. I like being in control. I refuse to let someone stamp a mark on my music telling me what devices I can use it in and how many times I am allowed to trade it. And in the end ... that is what it all boils down to isn't it? Who gets to control the music?
Well, I say it's me.
In case you have trouble with that link... go here
But, what about Ogg Vorbis? Everytime this is brought up as a serious subject - people start to trash it: "the format sucks", "only geeks use it", "it will never work".. "blah blah blah". Someone else posted a message saying that one way the RIAA was going to try to kill MP3 is to piss in the pool. If they can flood the MP3 pool with garbage files, then the format will lose credibility and people will stop trading files.
So, rather than complain about Napster and MP3 why not work on alternative and completely open formats? If we all told Napster to go fuck themselves and started to develop Ogg Vorbis in earnest we could have a great alternative. Let the Army of Lusers (AOL) use the "Pay-per-listen" Napster that will be born. And the real traders who have been in the scene for awhile should start to switch formats.
Develop cool software that works well and has *all* the features we want. Develop hardware that plays it. And in the end we can have a truely OPEN format that goes head-to-head with MP3, Windows Media, Liquid Audio, and others. Why is everyone so attached to MP3 anyway? It's not the best format out there... in fact it kind of sucks.
I know! Why not fire Jon Katz?!? He's a lazy no-good piece-of-shit dead weight anyway! Just tell everyone that if they can't right code to pack their shit and shove off!
In a few years Napster will be synonymous with the term "record company". So, let's develop the NAP protocol. Let's develop new clients, improve P2P and gnutella. Let's create NEW protocols and software that helps us to trade MP3s. Just because Napster (the company) is dead doesn't mean that the idea is gone.
Scour was on the right track... come up with a searchable encrypted format. Even better make it ASCII based so it can be hidden inside of HTML or text files. Necessity is the mother of invention. And, since our "Napster mom" turned into a crack-whore.. we're just going to have to start inventing some new stuff!
touché !
Do you get really tired of listening to the WHO after awhile? Have you programmed any backdoors into the MP3/stereo control program to over-ride Taco's requests for more WHO songs?
Yet again Slashdot is a day late and a buck short. You guys should start reading memepool more often. They featured this story on January 16th -- where the hell were you?
The purpose of a rebate is to gather marketing information so the company can spam you and sell your data to other companies. You got mad because they didn't fulfill their end of the deal. But, you are probably one of the few. Most people would just forget about it and chalk it up as a loss. I hate rebates. I'd rather spend the extra $10 up front than sell my soul to the marketing department. So you saved a measly $10! Big fucking deal! Your personal info alone must be worth at least $50 to them! Here's a tip: if you *must* claim a rebate, purposely mispell your name and see how much junk mail you start getting addressed incorrectly. Rebates are a carrot on a stick - trying to get to do what they want you to. Those little-old ladies who clip coupons out of the Sunday paper are in the same category. They spend 4 hours clipping coupons, and save a total of $5 in the grocery store - but the company now knows what types of ad they respond to, and what newspaper they read. If this is used in association with the "preffered shopper" card that most stores use - they also know the little-old ladies name, address, phone number and age too.
This is the best method I've ever seen to get someone to read the Terms and Conditions. On the right you have a bunch of legal mumbo-jumbo: "If you kill yourself with the Wheelman it's not our fault" and on the left you have a HOT CHICK in a wet t-shirt complete with nipples poking out and a sexy smile. For once, I'm glad I read the legal bullshit!
Memepool was running this story like 2 months ago. Slashdot is getting slow now that it's run by a bunch of corporate drones. What happened to the "bleeding edge" ?!?!?
"Whaaaaah!! all of the evil-hacker-pirates(tm) are putting us out of business. Boo hoo hoo...."
That is just absurd! First thing - movies and music sales are at an all-time high! Nobody is putting these robber-barons out of business anytime soon. Secondly - by convincing the courts to support them, they are stealing your rights!
So, Mr. Anonymous Coward, since you own those DVD's of yours why don't you give us a little demonstration of your "fair-use" rights?
What's the matter? Can't do it? But, you *OWN* those DVDs... and it is within fair-use rights and your Freedom of Speech to sample small clips to use for non-commercial purposes.
So! guess who's screwing who? I'll give you a hint - it's not the evil-hacker-pirates(tm).
http://www.nic.us and if you look real close you can see the tagline:
The US Domain Registry is administered by VeriSign, Inc.
You know...Network Solutions: "The Monopoly People(tm)"