(12/17/03)
Righteous Babe Records has been taken off the Radar! Yes, yet another label is incorrectly part of the "official RIAA members" list. This brings the total to nine, and I'm sure there are more. All I need is proof from the label, so you might want to check with your favorite record label!
The idea that Righteous Babe is a RIAA member was beyond laughable.
Only if you buy from lables that are a part of the RIAA. If you even did a little research you would find a lot of great bands and lables that are not part of the RIAA on iTMS. From my small part of the world: Sub Pop, Ninja Tune, Eighteenth Street Lounge, Matador, Kill Rock Stars, That Ann DiFranco lable (can't think of it now) and many more. What was your problem again?
A new MD format might have been attractive before PC and Macs were real Digital Hubs, but introducing more incompatible (unless you have a Viao) hard/software or marginal improvements in technology doesn't get me interested.
I did buy into MDs around '98 for portable audio and comp disks. I loved it then. But now it is far easier to arrange a tracks on a computer and burn them out to CD (for the car or friends) or MP3 player. Plus with MP3 (in the generic sense) doubling as removable storage, Sony is way to late and more than a few dollars short.
Additionally being a Mac person this announcement is worth less than the paper it was printed on. Grumble, grumble, NetMD, grrr, check in/check out bullshit, ricken, fricken.
what happens 10 years from now if the iTMS is no more? Will I be able to play those AAC files? Maybe or maybe not.
What happens in 10 years when the CD goes the way of the floppy drive? Will anyone be writing software for FLAC in 10 years? There is no file format or data storage that will stand the test of time. Every archivist of worth knows this. This is probably the best case for explaining, in real terms to end users, why open source is important.
While I agree with what your getting at here, I still don't get what the "gigantic uprising" is going to be. Anyone care to expand on this?
I just don't see people takin' it to the streets in protest. I don't think there is any "consumer" muscle to flex here. The whole vote with your pocketbook is a myth.
I think any change will have to come from the musicians themselves to create an alternative to RIAA (which was a technical standards body wasn't it) and have actual distribution and sales solutions in place.
Until musicians and fans unite nothing is going to change.
Maybe the traditional browser hasn't changed, but there are innovations with browsers imbedded in other applications.
I think that the iTunes Music Store is an innovation. Basically you have a app (iTunes) that is a file manager and player that has the added functionality of purchasing music directly into the app. The engine for that is basically a web browser that has been modified to do specific tasks.
There is the traditional back, forward and home as well as links. But there is also the search, result sets and tree-like views that are well tailored to the application. Sure you could do the same thing with frames, but it is the app, with a browser, that integrates these things and integrates them into the main desktop app with out the use of plug-ins or Active X. All web based delivery of content with out leaving the main application.
It is an innovation of the browser because it is a browser that focuses on a task with out a lot of hassle for users to achieve a taks. In this case searching, previewing downloading, and managing music files. iTunes shows that you can integrate web based content into a desktop's productivity using simple html tools.
This sets up a distiction between apps that use the web and web sites that pretend to be apps. iTunes is an app (a browser) that makes very good use of the web in an innovative way. Watson and Sherlock are other examples of apps that are essentially customized browsers that focus the users on the task at hand. I'm sure there are more examples as well.
Previous betas of Safari also instituted a minimum font size pref, never allowing fonts to shrink below 9 pixels in size. It turns out that this caused sites to misrender, since sites commonly use small font size spans as spacers. These sites would misrender (quite badly) in Safari, and so the minimum font size restriction was lifted. You can still set this as a hidden preference however.
I neither defend or advocate either position. Just what I read. Good Safari info on the site though.
Re:Nothing new; DRM is still destined to failure.
on
"Squishy" DRM?
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· Score: 1
mesozoic wrote:
We need to remember that the judicial branch of the government is always slow to react, but that it does react -- and more often than not, it will favor the rights of the consumer over the rights of industry. A very convincing argument could be made (and will be, in the next couple years) to the Supreme Court challenging something as unconstitutional as the DMCA, or mandatory DRM. When Hollywood does get slapped in the face by the courts -- and I'm confident they will -- all of this nonsense will fade into the past, and a new wave of technological innovation will be allowed to continue.
Unfortunately this might not be true for much longer. 39 States have elected judiciary. Over the last decade industry has found it is just as profitable to buy judges just like they do legislators. There was an article about it in The Nation (I can't find it in their archive, but I believe it was the Sept 2 issue) a couple of weeks ago. A judge in Montana (or Texas) ruled against an industry and was soundly defeated the next election cycle by being out spent with "issue ads" sponsored by that industry and trade group.
Most industry has the money and time to stall the judicial system until a more favorable court is elected. Also the Supreme Court can refuse to hear an appeal. And they have been doing that more and more with consumer/civil rights issues. The checks and balances of the US isn't what it used to be.
Look, the EULA mentioning DRM has been in several of the updates. Its nothing new or shocking. My interpretation is that they reserve the right to not get their asses sued by larger corporations. You also have the right to not upgrade as well. There is no device or code in Toast that will dial up and install an upgrade. If anything, future upgrades may or may not be hobbled. At that point the consumer has the right to find other tools, which I would surely do as well.
The blurb for this article is very misleading. There has been no introduction of DRM in the update. I am not prevented from copying discs with 5.1.4. I Disc Copied an audio disc this morning and it was fine. I did try to make a disc image and it barfed much like the reports on Macintouch. I suspect this is another bad update like the several 5.1.2s and not some grand conspiracy to enslave us to the RIAA. However, I'm sticking with 5.1.3 because its stable and there weren't any significant enhancements in 5.1.4 that out weigh the Disc Image issue.
I still consider Roxio on the plus side since they released a FREE update from OS 9 to OS X a year after I purchased Toast in the first place, including the bundled extras. I can't think of many publishers who have done the same. However, if they do introduce solid DRM (is there even such a code in production?) they I will not hesitate to find other tools.
Ahhhvacado. I was trying to both read and not read that shirt. And what the hell is that supposed to mean? Funny how the 70s and 80s both repel and attract as well.
This is some fantastic art and I'm glad that someone has attempted to preserve it. I'm sure they were not made on archival paper.
The other thing I thought of when I saw the drawings was the cover of Air's (a French Band) Moon Safari. Actually, the music wouldn't fit to badly in those scenes either.
Slashdot Mirror
A new MD format might have been attractive before PC and Macs were real Digital Hubs, but introducing more incompatible (unless you have a Viao) hard/software or marginal improvements in technology doesn't get me interested.
I did buy into MDs around '98 for portable audio and comp disks. I loved it then. But now it is far easier to arrange a tracks on a computer and burn them out to CD (for the car or friends) or MP3 player. Plus with MP3 (in the generic sense) doubling as removable storage, Sony is way to late and more than a few dollars short.
Additionally being a Mac person this announcement is worth less than the paper it was printed on. Grumble, grumble, NetMD, grrr, check in/check out bullshit, ricken, fricken.
Hello to the new memory stick. Yawn.
I just don't see people takin' it to the streets in protest. I don't think there is any "consumer" muscle to flex here. The whole vote with your pocketbook is a myth.
I think any change will have to come from the musicians themselves to create an alternative to RIAA (which was a technical standards body wasn't it) and have actual distribution and sales solutions in place.
Until musicians and fans unite nothing is going to change.
I hope this does light a spark in the competition. I love using Live, but Soundtrack's Media Manager has me wanting more.
I think that the iTunes Music Store is an innovation. Basically you have a app (iTunes) that is a file manager and player that has the added functionality of purchasing music directly into the app. The engine for that is basically a web browser that has been modified to do specific tasks.
There is the traditional back, forward and home as well as links. But there is also the search, result sets and tree-like views that are well tailored to the application. Sure you could do the same thing with frames, but it is the app, with a browser, that integrates these things and integrates them into the main desktop app with out the use of plug-ins or Active X. All web based delivery of content with out leaving the main application.
It is an innovation of the browser because it is a browser that focuses on a task with out a lot of hassle for users to achieve a taks. In this case searching, previewing downloading, and managing music files. iTunes shows that you can integrate web based content into a desktop's productivity using simple html tools.
This sets up a distiction between apps that use the web and web sites that pretend to be apps. iTunes is an app (a browser) that makes very good use of the web in an innovative way. Watson and Sherlock are other examples of apps that are essentially customized browsers that focus the users on the task at hand. I'm sure there are more examples as well.
mesozoic wrote:
Unfortunately this might not be true for much longer. 39 States have elected judiciary. Over the last decade industry has found it is just as profitable to buy judges just like they do legislators. There was an article about it in The Nation (I can't find it in their archive, but I believe it was the Sept 2 issue) a couple of weeks ago. A judge in Montana (or Texas) ruled against an industry and was soundly defeated the next election cycle by being out spent with "issue ads" sponsored by that industry and trade group.
Most industry has the money and time to stall the judicial system until a more favorable court is elected. Also the Supreme Court can refuse to hear an appeal. And they have been doing that more and more with consumer/civil rights issues. The checks and balances of the US isn't what it used to be.
The blurb for this article is very misleading. There has been no introduction of DRM in the update. I am not prevented from copying discs with 5.1.4. I Disc Copied an audio disc this morning and it was fine. I did try to make a disc image and it barfed much like the reports on Macintouch. I suspect this is another bad update like the several 5.1.2s and not some grand conspiracy to enslave us to the RIAA. However, I'm sticking with 5.1.3 because its stable and there weren't any significant enhancements in 5.1.4 that out weigh the Disc Image issue.
I still consider Roxio on the plus side since they released a FREE update from OS 9 to OS X a year after I purchased Toast in the first place, including the bundled extras. I can't think of many publishers who have done the same. However, if they do introduce solid DRM (is there even such a code in production?) they I will not hesitate to find other tools.
Ahhhvacado. I was trying to both read and not read that shirt. And what the hell is that supposed to mean? Funny how the 70s and 80s both repel and attract as well. This is some fantastic art and I'm glad that someone has attempted to preserve it. I'm sure they were not made on archival paper. The other thing I thought of when I saw the drawings was the cover of Air's (a French Band) Moon Safari. Actually, the music wouldn't fit to badly in those scenes either.