So tell me exactly, what's protecting the ISP from an "allofmp3" style lawsuit for a few trillion, since every web page is a $150,000 lawsuit in itself?
As long as you've registered your copyright, it's worth a try.
But if you haven't registered your copyright, you're limited to compensation for (miniscule) real damages only, not (occasionally whopping) punitive damages.
The content in my pages is copyright implicitly, even if I don't register or even declare it in the pages....
If you have retained your copyright, and your ISP violates it, you should look forward to them handing over their business ownership to pay the damages. Email your lawyer from your other account and get the ball rolling. Why should corporate copyright holders have all the fun?
Not so fast.
While in the US copyright begins with the creation of a work, it is only by registration of your copyright that you become eligible for punitive damages. Without it you're limited to "real" damages.
IOW, if you have not registered your copyright for a work, anyone found violating your copyright is only liable for money that you have directly, *provably* lost as a result of their violation.
It's a good bet that this amount (if above zero) will be a lot less than the amount you'd have to pay your attorney for telling you that, if you haven't registered your copyright, you're out of luck.
What we do know, however, is that pornography's impact on those who view it is considered so detrimental that you can't get randomized, control-group studies approved and that those studies which were randomized and controlled (and led to the conclusion that it was too detrimental to ethically get people to watch porn) found statistically significant connections between exposure to porn and a lower support of women's rights, a declining importance of marriage, and laxer attitude towards rape punishment.
It sounds like you just made that up. Because "we" know otherwise, if by "we" you mean those who have actually reviewed controlled, peer-reviewed statistical correlation on this topic. Poorly considered statements like those above merely serve to equate consentual adult pornography with child pornography, and that is unfortunate. Child pornography is detestable because it is a record of vicious sexual abuse and predation --a child cannot consent. Adults can, however. And they can enjoy sexual relationships with other consenting adults without harming people.
I recently had to review a very similar subject and happen to have references to a number of controlled, peer-reviewed studies that found ZERO correlation between viewing pornography and any kind of sex crime or oppressive sexist opinions. You can probably access the text of these through an database such as PsychINFO or ProQUEST. Some examples:
-An Exploration of Developmental Factors Related to Deviant Sexual Preferences Among Adult Rapists (Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, Vol. 16, No. 2, April 2004)
-Men's Likelihood of Sexual Aggression: The Influence of Alcohol, Sexual Arousal, and Violent Pornography (AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR Volume 32, pages 581-589 (2006))
-Pornography and sexual aggression: Are there reliable effects and can we understand them? (Annual Review of Sex Research, Vol 11, 2000. pp. 26-91.)
-The role of pornography in the etiology of sexual aggression (Aggression and Violent Behavior 6 (2001) 35-53)
-The influence of media type on sexually impositional behavior. (Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, Vol 61(9-B), Apr 2001. pp. 5059.)
It is noteworthy that one of the only studies arguing otherwise --that I have been able to locate, anyway-- applied only a specific sexual ideology, NOT original research or careful scrutiny of statistics. Namely this one:
-Feminist explanations: Male power, hostility, and sexual coercion. (Sexual coercion: A sourcebook on its nature, causes, and prevention. Grauerholz, Elizabeth (Ed); Koralewski, Mary A. (Ed); pp. 61-73.)
and the problem he ran into was the lack of inexpensive hardware that worked on Linux.
That's not exactly accurate; a lot of inexpensive hardware has working Linux drivers. You can, for example, run any sound card based on the EMU10k1 chipset, and it doesn't get much cheaper than that. These just create weak-sounding recordings, and will do so regardless of the OS you're using. Your bro will get lousy recordings sounds on Windows or Macs using that kind of hardware. And if you won't use pirated software you are stuck paying for decent recording hardware AND software.
So you can spend $200 on a semi-pro quality M-audio USB or Firewire plugin, and $200 for Pro-Tools (and at least $200 for XP), and still run into latency issues that get in the way of multitracking.
Or you can spend $450 for an RME Hammerfall sound card with very low latency that will work perfectly on Linux/Mac/Win.
RME needs to get props, since they've been developing linux drivers since 2000.
If every emergency entrance and exit were turned into a normal entrance/exit with a pull handle and were used in the normal course of entering and leaving buildings, the typical time to evacuate a building in the event of an emergency would drop dramatically.
That's true, but there are a number of reasons to limit regularly-used entrances and exits, for example secured buildings that need to authorize or screen all who enter. The more entrances/exits, the more difficult it becomes to secure a building.
You're laboring under the assumption that it is in fact, some inherent quality of the music that most greatly influences the music on which you are willing to spend money.
A few years ago I saw an estimate that around 100 CDs were being created per day, every day. It seems like a fairly conservative estimate. Assuming that's in the ballpark, in the time it takes you to listen to one CD, around 3 others will have been created. And you can't listen to music 24/7.
Distribution power has tremendous influence on what music will sell. Great distribution power --physical sales and the airplay, good PR, and buzz needed to push those CDs to the register-- requires a lot of capital. It is the exception for heavily marketed product to completely flop: even the worst will go gold if it's crammed down enough throats (thanks, Clear Channel!) I'm not talking postering, I'm talking about pay for play.
The reason you buy bands --the reason you may even identify with them-- is because you found mention of them in the first place. In a world where you're exposed to thousands of advertisements every day, it is far more likely that you came across them in an ad of some sort; or at least the person who told you about them did.
So your expectation for all your money to go to the artist, at least in the case of the RIAA label bands, is misplaced. Don't fool yourself -- most of the capital that gave them the huge sales did not, in fact, come from their musical efforts. They simply have the gratification of being the faces of the advertising campaign that is their latest CD.
This article is more in the vein of "Windows to Linux Roadmap", another useful article from this group. This is great stuff if you are interested in weaning non-guru users off of Windows.
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/librar y/l-roadmap.html/
And IMO it's certainly more interesting fare than yet another breathtaking article on the implications of taxing linden dollars.
The bill has been referred to the California Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economic Development and the Economy. The first committee hearing is scheduled for April 17. Any recommendations from the committee, including modifications to the bill text, have a good chance to be approved by the Assembly at large.
There are six members of this committee. Their names, contact information, and more can be found below.
Take a minute to read up on each member's district, personalize your message, and keep it short and to the point. It would help if you're a constituent, or at least a California resident.
It may be helpful to point out that this committee's own publications page (linked on above page) is available only in.doc format (the angle here is 'so-called public documents I can't access without paying Msft!')
One convincing argument may be that anything less than an open format will create vendor lock-in, which will remove the possibility for healthy, job-stimulating contract competition for State of California IT contracts. This will have a negative impact on the state budget.
While open formats can be supported by all current proprietary customers (ie, Microsoft), closed formats eliminate competition.
And remember: as tempting as it may be, no swearing, l33t 5p34k, or sending tubgirl links to the Republicans.
-The judge also had similar material on the computer in his chambers, which was behind a considerably more secure network.
-After the charges were annouced, a kid came forward to testify that he had been abused by the judge years earlier. He didn't come forward earlier because he thought no one would believe his word against a judge's.
-Finally, the judge admitted his guilt in the child pornography charges (though not the abuse case.)
The material on the hacked computer was enough to raise suspicion to investigate further. Further investigation found more evidence that was unquestionably legally gathered, and consdirably weakens the "it could have been planted!" argument.
This was a person who was very well aware of how to mount an effective defense against criminal charges, and all those mentioned above are about as legally sound as the judge's computer was secure.
Why take great swaths of my life to watch recordings of great swaths of someone else's life? I only have so much time.
Sum it up, Bell. There are almost seven billion other people to go through, and they're dying --and being born-- like hotcakes.
Before getting bogged down in discussion of interoperability, because essentially I agree with you:
Condescending? Probably, it comes from frustration at repeatedly witnessing common sentiment at a problem that could be addressed with effort to learn on anyone's part.
Same problem with these poorly-informed librarians relying too heavily on vendors for accurate information. That reliance, coupled with reluctance to obtain expertise, keeps many vendors in business.
Second, do you have no concept of the computer ability of the general public?
Indeed I do, having had the pleasure of working on a daily basis with the general public that comes into a library to use public computers, including people who don't know how to use the mouse, still. Extend this to the current majority of librarians in a position to approve the budget for these kind of projects and you'll begin to get a better picture of the context.
For comparison, I recently had the misfortune of witnessing a catalog librarian being the only input on the purchase of an integrated library system --hardware to client applications. This same person had a few weeks prior sent me a link I'd requested to access some search records with the instructions that the link might not work if you don't "click on it hard enough, or several times in a row." She was absolutely serious.
Expecting someone who probably doesn't own ANY sort of digital music player (most of the librarians w/ the seniority to approve the funding) to understand the difference between mp3 files and WMA files, let alone pre-WMP10 WMA files -vs- post-WMP10 WMA files, is probably fruitless.
The point of my response to the OP was that people in our situation may find it more useful to circumvent the relatively easy obstacles instead of holding out in frustration for the ideal format. Twenty-five years ago, when a lot of current library managers/directors were already several years into their careers, this frustration would have been similar to insisting that the books on tape (if there were any to be found) purchases only use 120 minute cassette tape format for ease of duping.
In the time being the material is there, it can be converted if you want it, and isn't all that difficult.
One side or the other is going to have to learn, and waiting for the other side, well...
Libraries have to pay closer attention to copyright than the average user (though what their patrons do with it is not their responsibility)
Audiobooks --which you're talking about-- are commercial recordings and as such are faced with the same problems as copyrighted music. Your library can and probably does provide thousands of recorded titles including music and spoken word.
What you're suggesting is the only really useful thing would be like them converting all their audio files to mp3s and making them available online. Personally, I think that'd be great too.
But if you want to subvert copyright DRM, audio or video, you will have to roll up your sleeves and learn how to do so.
In this case, learn how to convert WMA files to a format your player can use (hint: spoken voice recordings will do fine if you use the analog hole.)
Take it from one, the librarians really don't care if you take the books and photocopy the whole thing; nor do we care if you copy the entire CD & DVD collection (as long as you don't sell it: we're big on the "for free" aspect.)
So here's the deal: we won't worry about what you do with the material when it's in your possession, and we'll keep your records out of the hands of Homeland Security at no extra charge. In return just do a LITTLE bit of your own work to get it to play on your fashion accessory of choice for free, m'kay?
As for the people who won't know better how to copy the material -- they probably won't want to use it in violation of copyright, either. And if they want to, we will happily point them to the section that will help them learn how to go about doing it themselves (they'll probably want to start somewhere in the 000's). If they need help we can narrow it down to which titles may be most helpful.
Putting that knowledge to use up to you and grandma.
legitimate advertising?
You're in the business of advertising, and as such I assume you've been surrounded by similarly-minded people for quite some time. You may have lost perspective.
Advertising, legitimate or 'non'-, is an attempt to sell, solicitation. Chances are very high that I don't actually NEED your product/service, say in the way I need water, air, food, and shelter. It is almost guaranteed you are engaging in these actions for profit; that is you are trying to increase your own wealth by your advertising.
Justify it all you want --sure if could be innocuous, beneficial, it may even help me increase my own wealth-- but here's some reality: your behavior is parasitic. If there is any benefit to me it is merely a side effect. Your primary intention is to profit off of your use of my time.
When I see a 'legitimate' billboard I see it an appropriation of a view that should be public. At least Hawaii agrees. Similarly, when you slip an ad into your signature it is an attempt to profit off of your encounter with me. It's such a pervasive mindset that millions like you feel it's 'legitimate'.
The biggest challenge facing the.xxx domain is that we lack an easy browser shortcut to append ".xxx".com? Easy. Ctrl+enter.org? No problem: Ctrl+Shift+enter.xxx? trouble. What's left?
Until we can standardize an easy shortcut key combination (enter?), pursuit of the.xxx domain will be a fool's errand.
PlanetCCRMA http://ccrma.stanford.edu/planetccrma/software/ is a collection of RPMs intended for audio workstation use that can be added to a Fedora Core 5 install (or 1-4, or RedHat9.) It includes a low-latency kernel, and apps for audio work.
Your hardware matters. RME's Hammerfall soundcards are very high quality, and designed with Linux compatibility in mind (kudos.)
For multi-track recording and work requiring low-latency, I believe you're stuck with Linux; AFAIK the BSDs will not provide real-time kernel access for non-root users.
Lobbying is NOT restricted to paid attempts to influence legislators.
As it currently stands, there is no oversight in place to address persons paid to repeatedly, often annonymously post, write, or speak in support of a specific, always unacknowledged agenda.
By virtue of not being required to register his professional backing, he was able to use public resources to manipulate public opinion in the benefit of interests of a small group of interests.
The cost is inconsequential to hire small armies to create the illusion of widespread public support when there is none. Such manipulation of public opinion is obviously possible and widespread (for example viral marketing... or any other marketing that utilizes advertising, for that matter).
It's one thing when it's done to sell products or services. But it is quite another thing altogether when this is done to determine the members of our government.
So, you're probably now wondering, in simple terms, what media do I recommend?
To begin with, I do not recommend CD-RW, DVD-RW, or DVD+RW media in any form for permanent storage. This is mostly a no-brainer, but those discs are meant to be able to be changed after burning, and they are simply unsuitable for long-term archival storage.
Archival storage media --if by "archive" you actually mean, you know, a real archive-- has to be last decades, even centuries. Tape media is the current standard for digital archival storage, and is probably not suitable for over a century: it's still too young to tell. With media an extra difficulty is the access mechanism, and it is very possible that while the tape may last several decades the tape deck will not -- ask NASA.
Ten years and no errors on some discs you've burned is nice, but that's not anywhere close to proving a suitable archival media.
Slashdot Mirror
but you cannot become as fast as a very fast typist.
I bet Rachmaninoff could beat 120 wpm on a chord keyboard.
So tell me exactly, what's protecting the ISP from an "allofmp3" style lawsuit for a few trillion, since every web page is a $150,000 lawsuit in itself?
As long as you've registered your copyright, it's worth a try.
But if you haven't registered your copyright, you're limited to compensation for (miniscule) real damages only, not (occasionally whopping) punitive damages.
The content in my pages is copyright implicitly, even if I don't register or even declare it in the pages....
If you have retained your copyright, and your ISP violates it, you should look forward to them handing over their business ownership to pay the damages. Email your lawyer from your other account and get the ball rolling. Why should corporate copyright holders have all the fun?
Not so fast.
While in the US copyright begins with the creation of a work, it is only by registration of your copyright that you become eligible for punitive damages. Without it you're limited to "real" damages.
IOW, if you have not registered your copyright for a work, anyone found violating your copyright is only liable for money that you have directly, *provably* lost as a result of their violation.
It's a good bet that this amount (if above zero) will be a lot less than the amount you'd have to pay your attorney for telling you that, if you haven't registered your copyright, you're out of luck.
milli (okay, mini), micro, nano, pico, femto, atto. I don't think there's anything past atto.
After atto comes, venti, grande, then tall.
What we do know, however, is that pornography's impact on those who view it is considered so detrimental that you can't get randomized, control-group studies approved and that those studies which were randomized and controlled (and led to the conclusion that it was too detrimental to ethically get people to watch porn) found statistically significant connections between exposure to porn and a lower support of women's rights, a declining importance of marriage, and laxer attitude towards rape punishment.
It sounds like you just made that up. Because "we" know otherwise, if by "we" you mean those who have actually reviewed controlled, peer-reviewed statistical correlation on this topic. Poorly considered statements like those above merely serve to equate consentual adult pornography with child pornography, and that is unfortunate. Child pornography is detestable because it is a record of vicious sexual abuse and predation --a child cannot consent. Adults can, however. And they can enjoy sexual relationships with other consenting adults without harming people.
I recently had to review a very similar subject and happen to have references to a number of controlled, peer-reviewed studies that found ZERO correlation between viewing pornography and any kind of sex crime or oppressive sexist opinions. You can probably access the text of these through an database such as PsychINFO or ProQUEST. Some examples:
-An Exploration of Developmental Factors Related to Deviant Sexual Preferences Among Adult Rapists (Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, Vol. 16, No. 2, April 2004)
-Men's Likelihood of Sexual Aggression: The Influence of Alcohol, Sexual Arousal, and Violent Pornography (AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR Volume 32, pages 581-589 (2006))
-Pornography and sexual aggression: Are there reliable effects and can we understand them? (Annual Review of Sex Research, Vol 11, 2000. pp. 26-91.)
-The role of pornography in the etiology of sexual aggression (Aggression and Violent Behavior
6 (2001) 35-53)
-The influence of media type on sexually impositional behavior. (Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, Vol 61(9-B), Apr 2001. pp. 5059.)
It is noteworthy that one of the only studies arguing otherwise --that I have been able to locate, anyway-- applied only a specific sexual ideology, NOT original research or careful scrutiny of statistics. Namely this one:
-Feminist explanations: Male power, hostility, and sexual coercion. (Sexual coercion: A sourcebook on its nature, causes, and prevention. Grauerholz, Elizabeth (Ed); Koralewski, Mary A. (Ed); pp. 61-73.)
and the problem he ran into was the lack of inexpensive hardware that worked on Linux.
That's not exactly accurate; a lot of inexpensive hardware has working Linux drivers. You can, for example, run any sound card based on the EMU10k1 chipset, and it doesn't get much cheaper than that. These just create weak-sounding recordings, and will do so regardless of the OS you're using. Your bro will get lousy recordings sounds on Windows or Macs using that kind of hardware. And if you won't use pirated software you are stuck paying for decent recording hardware AND software.
So you can spend $200 on a semi-pro quality M-audio USB or Firewire plugin, and $200 for Pro-Tools (and at least $200 for XP), and still run into latency issues that get in the way of multitracking.
Or you can spend $450 for an RME Hammerfall sound card with very low latency that will work perfectly on Linux/Mac/Win.
RME needs to get props, since they've been developing linux drivers since 2000.
If every emergency entrance and exit were turned into a normal entrance/exit with a pull handle and were used in the normal course of entering and leaving buildings, the typical time to evacuate a building in the event of an emergency would drop dramatically.
That's true, but there are a number of reasons to limit regularly-used entrances and exits, for example secured buildings that need to authorize or screen all who enter. The more entrances/exits, the more difficult it becomes to secure a building.
Ah, there IS a musician's union. It's been around for over a century: the American Federation of Musicians.
http://www.afm.org/public/home/index.php/
You're laboring under the assumption that it is in fact, some inherent quality of the music that most greatly influences the music on which you are willing to spend money.
A few years ago I saw an estimate that around 100 CDs were being created per day, every day. It seems like a fairly conservative estimate. Assuming that's in the ballpark, in the time it takes you to listen to one CD, around 3 others will have been created. And you can't listen to music 24/7.
Distribution power has tremendous influence on what music will sell. Great distribution power --physical sales and the airplay, good PR, and buzz needed to push those CDs to the register-- requires a lot of capital. It is the exception for heavily marketed product to completely flop: even the worst will go gold if it's crammed down enough throats (thanks, Clear Channel!) I'm not talking postering, I'm talking about pay for play.
The reason you buy bands --the reason you may even identify with them-- is because you found mention of them in the first place. In a world where you're exposed to thousands of advertisements every day, it is far more likely that you came across them in an ad of some sort; or at least the person who told you about them did.
So your expectation for all your money to go to the artist, at least in the case of the RIAA label bands, is misplaced. Don't fool yourself -- most of the capital that gave them the huge sales did not, in fact, come from their musical efforts. They simply have the gratification of being the faces of the advertising campaign that is their latest CD.
I'm at the point now, of looking into higher end sound cards, I'm figuring that is probably the weak link in what I have now...
RME Hammerfall cards = has ALSA drivers -- if you want the ability to do low latency and/or multitrack recording on a Linux kernel.
http://www.rme-audio.com/english/linux/alsa.htm/
This article is more in the vein of "Windows to Linux Roadmap", another useful article from this group. This is great stuff if you are interested in weaning non-guru users off of Windows. http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/librar y/l-roadmap.html/
And IMO it's certainly more interesting fare than yet another breathtaking article on the implications of taxing linden dollars.
Quick recap: on Feb 23, Assemblyman Leno (Sacramento) introduced this bill, aka AB 1668. It's a short bill so far, but at this point it has not yet been amended.6 51-1700/ab_1668_bill_20070223_introduced.html/
? committee=131
.doc format (the angle here is 'so-called public documents I can't access without paying Msft!')
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/asm/ab_1
The bill has been referred to the California Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economic Development and the Economy. The first committee hearing is scheduled for April 17. Any recommendations from the committee, including modifications to the bill text, have a good chance to be approved by the Assembly at large.
There are six members of this committee. Their names, contact information, and more can be found below.
http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/newcomframeset.asp
Take a minute to read up on each member's district, personalize your message, and keep it short and to the point. It would help if you're a constituent, or at least a California resident.
It may be helpful to point out that this committee's own publications page (linked on above page) is available only in
One convincing argument may be that anything less than an open format will create vendor lock-in, which will remove the possibility for healthy, job-stimulating contract competition for State of California IT contracts. This will have a negative impact on the state budget.
While open formats can be supported by all current proprietary customers (ie, Microsoft), closed formats eliminate competition.
And remember: as tempting as it may be, no swearing, l33t 5p34k, or sending tubgirl links to the Republicans.
Oh it's even worse than that: Tonya Harding has been known to host karyoke night at a Tacoma area bar.
The poll is to test how you would deal with the failure of the poll to include the Kobayashi-Maru test.
whoops... sorry, cut off the last "l"
r y/l-roadmap.html
corrected URL:
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/libra
sort of like a translation of M$-speak to LINUX-speak.
r y/l-roadmap.htm
You can start here, with the "Windows-to-Linux roadmap":
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/libra
There comes a point where it's not a word-per-word translation, mind you.
-The judge also had similar material on the computer in his chambers, which was behind a considerably more secure network.
-After the charges were annouced, a kid came forward to testify that he had been abused by the judge years earlier. He didn't come forward earlier because he thought no one would believe his word against a judge's.
-Finally, the judge admitted his guilt in the child pornography charges (though not the abuse case.)
The material on the hacked computer was enough to raise suspicion to investigate further. Further investigation found more evidence that was unquestionably legally gathered, and consdirably weakens the "it could have been planted!" argument.
This was a person who was very well aware of how to mount an effective defense against criminal charges, and all those mentioned above are about as legally sound as the judge's computer was secure.
Why take great swaths of my life to watch recordings of great swaths of someone else's life? I only have so much time. Sum it up, Bell. There are almost seven billion other people to go through, and they're dying --and being born-- like hotcakes.
Before getting bogged down in discussion of interoperability, because essentially I agree with you:
Condescending? Probably, it comes from frustration at repeatedly witnessing common sentiment at a problem that could be addressed with effort to learn on anyone's part.
Same problem with these poorly-informed librarians relying too heavily on vendors for accurate information. That reliance, coupled with reluctance to obtain expertise, keeps many vendors in business.
Second, do you have no concept of the computer ability of the general public?
Indeed I do, having had the pleasure of working on a daily basis with the general public that comes into a library to use public computers, including people who don't know how to use the mouse, still. Extend this to the current majority of librarians in a position to approve the budget for these kind of projects and you'll begin to get a better picture of the context.
For comparison, I recently had the misfortune of witnessing a catalog librarian being the only input on the purchase of an integrated library system --hardware to client applications. This same person had a few weeks prior sent me a link I'd requested to access some search records with the instructions that the link might not work if you don't "click on it hard enough, or several times in a row." She was absolutely serious.
Expecting someone who probably doesn't own ANY sort of digital music player (most of the librarians w/ the seniority to approve the funding) to understand the difference between mp3 files and WMA files, let alone pre-WMP10 WMA files -vs- post-WMP10 WMA files, is probably fruitless.
The point of my response to the OP was that people in our situation may find it more useful to circumvent the relatively easy obstacles instead of holding out in frustration for the ideal format. Twenty-five years ago, when a lot of current library managers/directors were already several years into their careers, this frustration would have been similar to insisting that the books on tape (if there were any to be found) purchases only use 120 minute cassette tape format for ease of duping.
In the time being the material is there, it can be converted if you want it, and isn't all that difficult.
One side or the other is going to have to learn, and waiting for the other side, well...
"Click harder"
Libraries have to pay closer attention to copyright than the average user (though what their patrons do with it is not their responsibility)
Audiobooks --which you're talking about-- are commercial recordings and as such are faced with the same problems as copyrighted music. Your library can and probably does provide thousands of recorded titles including music and spoken word.
What you're suggesting is the only really useful thing would be like them converting all their audio files to mp3s and making them available online. Personally, I think that'd be great too.
But if you want to subvert copyright DRM, audio or video, you will have to roll up your sleeves and learn how to do so.
In this case, learn how to convert WMA files to a format your player can use (hint: spoken voice recordings will do fine if you use the analog hole.)
Take it from one, the librarians really don't care if you take the books and photocopy the whole thing; nor do we care if you copy the entire CD & DVD collection (as long as you don't sell it: we're big on the "for free" aspect.)
So here's the deal: we won't worry about what you do with the material when it's in your possession, and we'll keep your records out of the hands of Homeland Security at no extra charge. In return just do a LITTLE bit of your own work to get it to play on your fashion accessory of choice for free, m'kay?
As for the people who won't know better how to copy the material -- they probably won't want to use it in violation of copyright, either. And if they want to, we will happily point them to the section that will help them learn how to go about doing it themselves (they'll probably want to start somewhere in the 000's). If they need help we can narrow it down to which titles may be most helpful.
Putting that knowledge to use up to you and grandma.
legitimate advertising? You're in the business of advertising, and as such I assume you've been surrounded by similarly-minded people for quite some time. You may have lost perspective. Advertising, legitimate or 'non'-, is an attempt to sell, solicitation. Chances are very high that I don't actually NEED your product/service, say in the way I need water, air, food, and shelter. It is almost guaranteed you are engaging in these actions for profit; that is you are trying to increase your own wealth by your advertising. Justify it all you want --sure if could be innocuous, beneficial, it may even help me increase my own wealth-- but here's some reality: your behavior is parasitic. If there is any benefit to me it is merely a side effect. Your primary intention is to profit off of your use of my time. When I see a 'legitimate' billboard I see it an appropriation of a view that should be public. At least Hawaii agrees. Similarly, when you slip an ad into your signature it is an attempt to profit off of your encounter with me. It's such a pervasive mindset that millions like you feel it's 'legitimate'.
The biggest challenge facing the .xxx domain is that we lack an easy browser shortcut to append ".xxx" .com? Easy. Ctrl+enter .org? No problem: Ctrl+Shift+enter .xxx? trouble. What's left?
.xxx domain will be a fool's errand.
Until we can standardize an easy shortcut key combination (enter?), pursuit of the
PlanetCCRMA http://ccrma.stanford.edu/planetccrma/software/ is a collection of RPMs intended for audio workstation use that can be added to a Fedora Core 5 install (or 1-4, or RedHat9.) It includes a low-latency kernel, and apps for audio work.
Your hardware matters. RME's Hammerfall soundcards are very high quality, and designed with Linux compatibility in mind (kudos.)
For multi-track recording and work requiring low-latency, I believe you're stuck with Linux; AFAIK the BSDs will not provide real-time kernel access for non-root users.
Lobbying is NOT restricted to paid attempts to influence legislators.
As it currently stands, there is no oversight in place to address persons paid to repeatedly, often annonymously post, write, or speak in support of a specific, always unacknowledged agenda.
Remember "Jeff Ganon"? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Gannon
By virtue of not being required to register his professional backing, he was able to use public resources to manipulate public opinion in the benefit of interests of a small group of interests.
The cost is inconsequential to hire small armies to create the illusion of widespread public support when there is none. Such manipulation of public opinion is obviously possible and widespread (for example viral marketing... or any other marketing that utilizes advertising, for that matter).
It's one thing when it's done to sell products or services. But it is quite another thing altogether when this is done to determine the members of our government.
FTFA:
So, you're probably now wondering, in simple terms, what media do I recommend?
To begin with, I do not recommend CD-RW, DVD-RW, or DVD+RW media in any form for permanent storage. This is mostly a no-brainer, but those discs are meant to be able to be changed after burning, and they are simply unsuitable for long-term archival storage.
Archival storage media --if by "archive" you actually mean, you know, a real archive-- has to be last decades, even centuries. Tape media is the current standard for digital archival storage, and is probably not suitable for over a century: it's still too young to tell. With media an extra difficulty is the access mechanism, and it is very possible that while the tape may last several decades the tape deck will not -- ask NASA.
Ten years and no errors on some discs you've burned is nice, but that's not anywhere close to proving a suitable archival media.