My intended meaning was that anyone should be able to give a live performance of any song.
A band in a club. Or a kid's birthday party singing "Happy Birthday".
You can - assuming you've paid the fee to ASCAP or BMI (depending on which PRO (Performance Rights Organization) covers the song). They're cheap, too - around $300/year for a blanket license, last I checked.
First of all, the MPA never sued us. In fact, we were never sued by anyone. We hardly even talked to the MPA, since when we did, their response was "You'll have to talk to the publishers directly." - so, not very useful.
Our negotiations were through the CMRRA (Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency), who did everything they could to help us - but in the end it turned into an administrative nightmare.
Secondly, this is really old news - I went through the copyright negotiation gauntlet over two years ago (and, of course, tried to get a slashdot story back then...). I'd hardly say that the MPA is "cracking down" on lyrics sites. Since the dawm of time there have only been four lyrics sites shut down - lyrics.ch (everyone knows the story there), lyricshq.com, LyricFind, and lyricsh.com. The final 3 were shut down only because we PROACTIVELY tried to get licensing - WE went to THEM (them, in our case, being the CMRRA), not because they were "cracking down" or anything.
Note from the scan of the letter that the return mail is postage paid - "No postage necessary if mailed in the United States".
I encourage everyone who gets these letters from VeriSign to take the contents of the original envelope (and even the envelope itself), and stuff it into the postage paid envelope (without filling it out, of course). Then toss it in the mail.
Not only do they get their useless crap back, but they pay for it to be mailed - twice.
According to Numair, there was an agreement signed beforehand. You'd think that the agreement would indemnify him - but no, it actually indemnified NARAS, not him. So, if someone's thinking about suing, they'd have to go after Numair & Co. - which wouldn't be very nice.
Of course, it should also be noted that "prosecution for criminal offenses cannot be waived by the aggrieved party" - so the government could go after them if they wanted to. (See http://www.loc.gov/copyright/title17/92chap5.html# 506 for the relevant criminal code).
In fact (and here's the interesting part) - they DIDN'T EVEN DO ANYTHING ILLEGAL. *Downloading* is in itself not illegal - it's uploading that's illegal. Non-commercial downloading is specifically exempted. From NETA:
TITLE 17
Sec. 1008. - Prohibition on certain infringement actions
No action may be brought under this title alleging infringement of copyright based on the manufacture, importation, or distribution of a digital audio recording device, a digital audio recording medium, an analog recording device, or an analog recording medium, or based on the noncommercial use by a consumer of such a device or medium for making digital musical recordings or analog musical recordings.
The point is, it's funny. The point of posting this article is NOT for Slashdot to be taken seriously. Note the topic: "It's funny. Laugh." This topic wouldn't exist is Slashdot wanted to be taken seriously all the time.
The second point is that the lack of reliability of Windows is actually getting some mainstream national media attention, instead of just the usual articles in tech publications. This doesn't happen too often.
The benefit of this product is not the hardware - most people who would be using this probably already have their stereos connected to their computers - but the software that supposedly "uses wizard programs to help the novice audiophile clean up the snaps, crackles, pops and hiss" - thus eliminating all the sound tweaking that would eat up the vast majority of the time needed.
And depending on how good the software really is, you might only have to change the records, and it could do everything else.
Like I said earlier, though, I haven't been able to find any real reviews of the software, so who knows how functional it actually is.
This could be worthwhile if you have a lot of records to convert; I haven't been able to find any real reviews of it, though (everything's just basically a reprint of the press release).
Vinyl to CD: There's No Need to Buy the White Album Again
By J.D. BIERSDORFER
Since the advent of recordable compact discs for the home market, humankind has been struggling with the eternal question: How can I get my Grateful Dead concert tapes from 1979 transferred to CD?
Sony has simplified the process with its EZ Audio Transfer and Restoration Kit. Users just need to supply the computer, CD recorder and tunes to transfer, and the EZ Audio kit does just about everything else to copy music from vinyl records, cassette tapes and other audio sources onto compact disc. The kit includes a 10-foot cable for connecting the stereo system to the computer, software to import the audio files and editing software that uses wizard programs to help the novice audiophile clean up the snaps, crackles, pops and hiss that can come along with the music.
The EZ Audio Kit sells for about $50 and runs on Windows 95 and later, although it will not work with some combinations of Windows and U.S.B.- based CD recorders. Users may also notice extra free space around the house once those old Kinks albums are sent to long-term storage.
There are already lots of groups "watching" the RIAA and getting on their case all the time. One of the most prominent ones is boycott-riaa.com, and there's also Die RIAA.
Not to mention all the news outlets that keep a close eye on them - this article being a prime example, as well as The Register's occasionallyinaccurate coverage.
There are copies of the lyrics.ch database (or, at least, the file set that was used to create it) floating around - I myself have a copy.
There are also many databases that have equaled or surpassed the quality and quantity of lyrics.ch's. Some (such as ours) are also under legal pressure, and others (such as Sing365, or Astraweb) haven't yet grown to the point of being legally hounded.
In the long term (or the short term, if I have my way), there will be a legal, licensed alternative for lyric searching - and it'll be integrated into your favourite P2P program, your music player, and more.
It's only IE now, but it's also only a matter of time before it's ported to Netscape/Mozilla etc. - you're safe now, but give it time. ----------
Darryl Ballantyne
Another effective way of having your site removed (and a more immediate one) would be to call them. Their number, as listed on their web site, is 415-558-7777.
Maybe that would drive them nuts enough to rethink their strategy.
Slashdot Mirror
The concept of fair use doesn't exist in Canadian law like it does in US law, so it wouldn't be something that was lost...
Apple's "failure" to launch iTunes outside the US is due to the lack of contracts to cover rights in those areas, not because of any patents.
Not by the MPA. We were contacted by Copyright.net for that reason, though. We also proactively contacted the CMRRA to try to obtain licensing.
As a side not, Sarah works for the UK arm of the MPA - so even if we spent lots of time with the MPA it wouldn't have been with her!
The MPA never went after us. They mostly ignored us, saying we had to contact the publishers directly and that they couldn't do anything for us.
No, that is not what I intended.
My intended meaning was that anyone should be able to give a live performance of any song.
A band in a club. Or a kid's birthday party singing "Happy Birthday".
You can - assuming you've paid the fee to ASCAP or BMI (depending on which PRO (Performance Rights Organization) covers the song). They're cheap, too - around $300/year for a blanket license, last I checked.
First of all, the MPA never sued us. In fact, we were never sued by anyone. We hardly even talked to the MPA, since when we did, their response was "You'll have to talk to the publishers directly." - so, not very useful.
Our negotiations were through the CMRRA (Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency), who did everything they could to help us - but in the end it turned into an administrative nightmare.
Secondly, this is really old news - I went through the copyright negotiation gauntlet over two years ago (and, of course, tried to get a slashdot story back then...). I'd hardly say that the MPA is "cracking down" on lyrics sites. Since the dawm of time there have only been four lyrics sites shut down - lyrics.ch (everyone knows the story there), lyricshq.com, LyricFind, and lyricsh.com. The final 3 were shut down only because we PROACTIVELY tried to get licensing - WE went to THEM (them, in our case, being the CMRRA), not because they were "cracking down" or anything.
A great book about this very subject is Slack, by Tom DeMarco (yes, the same guy who wrote Peopleware). Their conclusion: A resonding YES.
Knowledge workers need time to relax and let their brains recover. Study after study has shown it...and most of them are quoted in the book.
I highly recommend picking up a copy and reading it.
Also concerned about this is the UW Federation Of Students. See their official release (warning, PDF) here.
(.RTF version)
According to this article from The Globe And Mail, the terms of the deal don't stop at just replacing C++ with C#.
.NET servers."
"The third project intends to teach the concepts of circuitry by having students work with Microsoft's new
Scary, scary stuff. Apparently $2.3 million buys a hell of a lot more here in Waterloo than I had originally thought.
UWStudent isn't run by the University; it's run by students independant of the school.
No danger of SQL 2000 hitting UWS, I assure you.
They still do use MODULA-3. Even Turing, in some courses (though CS majors don't get the course that touches on Turing...)
It's used to teach fundamentals and principles, in an environment where a) there are no shortcuts, and b) language doesn't make a difference.
And it's effective in that capacity.
Note from the scan of the letter that the return mail is postage paid - "No postage necessary if mailed in the United States".
I encourage everyone who gets these letters from VeriSign to take the contents of the original envelope (and even the envelope itself), and stuff it into the postage paid envelope (without filling it out, of course). Then toss it in the mail.
Not only do they get their useless crap back, but they pay for it to be mailed - twice.
Of course, it should also be noted that "prosecution for criminal offenses cannot be waived by the aggrieved party" - so the government could go after them if they wanted to. (See http://www.loc.gov/copyright/title17/92chap5.html
In fact (and here's the interesting part) - they DIDN'T EVEN DO ANYTHING ILLEGAL. *Downloading* is in itself not illegal - it's uploading that's illegal. Non-commercial downloading is specifically exempted. From NETA:
The point is, it's funny. The point of posting this article is NOT for Slashdot to be taken seriously. Note the topic: "It's funny. Laugh." This topic wouldn't exist is Slashdot wanted to be taken seriously all the time.
The second point is that the lack of reliability of Windows is actually getting some mainstream national media attention, instead of just the usual articles in tech publications. This doesn't happen too often.
Lighten up, get over it, and move on.
Darryl
http://www.darrylballantyne.com
The benefit of this product is not the hardware - most people who would be using this probably already have their stereos connected to their computers - but the software that supposedly "uses wizard programs to help the novice audiophile clean up the snaps, crackles, pops and hiss" - thus eliminating all the sound tweaking that would eat up the vast majority of the time needed.
And depending on how good the software really is, you might only have to change the records, and it could do everything else.
Like I said earlier, though, I haven't been able to find any real reviews of the software, so who knows how functional it actually is.
Actually, it would be exactly 73,560.88963 disks worth of space required (or, essentially, 73,561 disks).
Using true GB's (1024^3 bytes), and with a 1.44MB floppy holding exactly 1,459,664 bytes, that's what it works out to.
*I* am the one with too much time on my hands.
This could be worthwhile if you have a lot of records to convert; I haven't been able to find any real reviews of it, though (everything's just basically a reprint of the press release).
u its/06GEE2.html (Free reg required, etc.)
From the New York Times, December 6th:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/06/technology/circ
Vinyl to CD: There's No Need to Buy the White Album Again
By J.D. BIERSDORFER
Since the advent of recordable compact discs for the home market, humankind has been struggling with the eternal question: How can I get my Grateful Dead concert tapes from 1979 transferred to CD?
Sony has simplified the process with its EZ Audio Transfer and Restoration Kit. Users just need to supply the computer, CD recorder and tunes to transfer, and the EZ Audio kit does just about everything else to copy music from vinyl records, cassette tapes and other audio sources onto compact disc. The kit includes a 10-foot cable for connecting the stereo system to the computer, software to import the audio files and editing software that uses wizard programs to help the novice audiophile clean up the snaps, crackles, pops and hiss that can come along with the music.
The EZ Audio Kit sells for about $50 and runs on Windows 95 and later, although it will not work with some combinations of Windows and U.S.B.- based CD recorders. Users may also notice extra free space around the house once those old Kinks albums are sent to long-term storage.
There are already lots of groups "watching" the RIAA and getting on their case all the time. One of the most prominent ones is boycott-riaa.com, and there's also Die RIAA.
There are also numerous groups which arguably monitor the RIAA and it's actions along the course of their actions. These include The Future Of Music Coalition, The Velvet Rope and Pho.
Not to mention all the news outlets that keep a close eye on them - this article being a prime example, as well as The Register's occasionally inaccurate coverage.
There are copies of the lyrics.ch database (or, at least, the file set that was used to create it) floating around - I myself have a copy.
There are also many databases that have equaled or surpassed the quality and quantity of lyrics.ch's. Some (such as ours) are also under legal pressure, and others (such as Sing365, or Astraweb) haven't yet grown to the point of being legally hounded.
In the long term (or the short term, if I have my way), there will be a legal, licensed alternative for lyric searching - and it'll be integrated into your favourite P2P program, your music player, and more.
But it takes time. And a helluva lot of patience.
Darryl
It actually doesn't change any of the pages of goose24.org - give it time, though!
----------
Darryl Ballantyne
It's only IE now, but it's also only a matter of time before it's ported to Netscape/Mozilla etc. - you're safe now, but give it time.
----------
Darryl Ballantyne
Another effective way of having your site removed (and a more immediate one) would be to call them. Their number, as listed on their web site, is 415-558-7777.
Maybe that would drive them nuts enough to rethink their strategy.
----------
Darryl Ballantyne