The thing with the records being bundled with magazines (or even CD's as they do these days) is that it was normally industry backed or even released by labels. I've a few polygram showcase records in my collection with a ton of their artists.
Sure it's common for music to be distributed for free with magazines or news papers. But for a single artist to do it entirely on their own? That's breaking new ground.
I've had my pay cheques direct deposited into my bank account since I started my new job. Since most places around here take interac (Bank issued and owned debit cards) or visa, I've not had the need to pay for anything by paper or coin based money, aka cash. If I owe someone money (bought a battery charger off a friend), I paypal or emt (electronic money transfer) them.
It's been about a year since I held paper money in my hand (a five dollar bill), and that was to buy a burger at the local burger stand (seasonal, it's open again, I may have to take out a ten at the ATM) which is not equipped to use Interac or Credit Cards.
It's not inconceivable, nor is it impractical. I find it to be one of the most convenient way of going through my day, and if I could make it faster by going through my phone, or a similar device, then I'd be all too happy to oblige.
Being a musician who makes his money thanks to offerring free music and then selling merch (and signed/ numbered CD's for collectors) I've got a lot of information at my disposal of how corporate commercial music works.
For example:
Tour Costs for an independent band with nothing but a crusty van and old equipment can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $500,000. This includes travel costs, hotels, gas, legal fees, management fees, booking fees, etc.
This is just to travel around, you still have to pay to get your name out there, so advertisement costs can go anywhere from $500 to $5000 per city. Let's say you hit... 10 cities. That's $5000 to $50,000 right there.
Now, on top of this, you'd need an album to backup your tour with. Studio fees generally cost $500/ 3 minutes of music. That cost can go up with the length of a song. So, let's say you have a 60 minute long CD. $500 x 20 (3 minutes x 20 is 60 minutes for those of you not following allong) is $10,000.
Then you gotta drop down another $5000 - $50,000 for CD manufacturing costs. Then there's publishing and legal fees on top of that, so we're looking at another $5000 - $10,000.
Add all that up:
$35,000 to $620,000 for an indie band... Sure there's grants that can cover these expenses. However, if you want to scale that up, it can cost about 6.5 milion to just to get an album out with a tour internationally (The tour returns would cover that easily, album sales would just be a plus)...
Sure I hate Madonna and all her bullshit, but the increased prices aren't as unreasonable as people think (they're still a bit high, but she's a big name, so what do you expect?). There's a lot more behind the scenes than just money grubbing. Especially if you want to make a profit.
Well... I have to say that I've read actual EULA's that were just about as nonsensical, so you may as well apply for a job writing EULA's for companies.:D
There's A Blocklist Available from Tim Buckley
on
Boycott the Gold Farmers?
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· Score: 3, Informative
Tim Buckley of the Ctrl-Alt-Del webcomic made a blocklist available to prevent gold farming sites showing up in google ads.
" A few days ago I talked a bunch about gold farming and its adverse effect on MMO's. This caused the google ads on our page to specifically display the gold selling ads in their inventory, so we could effectively block them.
We've now compiled the list we're using it and made it available to you. If you run a website that used google ads, feel free to use this list to help block these gold farmers. If you frequent a website that uses google ads, email them this list and ask them to use it to block gold farmers.
Like I said, I doubt gold farming will ever disappear, but every one less customer makes the business less profitable for them."
But seriously, it's simple to believe that survival of the fittest rules our world, it's simply self-evident. Whereas our genealogical timeline is a bit shakey, however with each year that passes more gaps are filled with these scientific findings.
Disbelief in undeniable fact that human remains date back far beyond the Biblical "6000 Year History" of our kind amuses me, but what annoys me is the utter disregard for this fact by calling it fallacy and pagan trickery.
If someone slapped you in the face, would you deny it as "The Wind"? I doubt it, so why dispute something so tangible as this obviously tangible evidence?
The thing is that it was for a class project, which means it was going to be viewed publically anyway. So he basically sued people for embarasment he would have brought to himself, except that embarassment was global, and could have been a money-maker (T-Shirts, Cups, Etc.).
Cyber Terror? Is it Really That Terrifying?
on
America's War on the Web
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Not to trivialize anything that the government would say (oh precious politicians, you do entrance me so) but isn't the whole "Cyber Terror" idea a bit absurd. You have websites that issue propaganda, and the like, sure, but it's not as if you're forced to look at them, you can just close the window and/or block the site. The fact that they exist isn't threatening in anyway, as you can simply choose to ignore it.
And really large defacements/ DDoS attacks haven't occured much, if at all in recent history. I understand the fear of DDoS attacks on government electronic infrastructure, but the important stuff shouldn't be accessible from outside sources at any rate.
On top of that, why would one require a whole militarization of what overly zealous and patriotic hackers have been doing for quite some time now? Bankroll their cause if you're so interested in combating an enemy digitally.
Who would want something free when you can pay for it? I mean, how well can something free work when microsoft spends millions in research and development creating that fantastic suite known as Microsoft Office.
Finally, OpenOffice will get all the research it needs to be the best. Maybe Microsoft will smarten up and buy Linux next, I hate that crappy OS.
Any Program or OS that doesn't crash must be a rootkit, that's the only logical explanation!
Finally someone who was knowledgeable enough in these tech law proceedings, and has a stiff grasp of both local and international law issues stepped up to the plate and knocked a superfluous request out.
Now, if only we could have this guy ruling on patent cases, things might look a bit better...
Richard Pryor shot his car... it got the cops on his ass. I don't think shooting a computer will be any better. Especially if you're not a celebrity.:D
I've had IP TV for almost a year now...
on
A Look at IPTV
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· Score: 1
When my telephone company (MTS, here in Canada) decided to offer television, we knew it'd be our way to get out of the cable TV monopoly run by Shaw (also canadian). We didn't like satellites because the quality was determined on the weather, and with our winters, it was not a good idea sometimes.
So we (my family and I) got it and we loved it. It was cheaper prices, great quality and easy to use interface. Also the fact that it ran on linux, has weather info and all the shiney bullcrap that makes things "interesting" was a plus.
That being said, there are some issues with IPTV as I've found out through talking to people. While I don't have these issues since I'm basically sitting right on top of the junction box for this whole section of the grid, other people have told me quite explicitly their gripes of the service.
One major one is artifacting. While I've not experienced it, I know of people who have. This is where the screen gets digitized and cubes show up all over the place if there's a quick change in scenes in a tv show, or inbetween commercials.
Another major issue is bandwith bottlenecking, again, which I haven't experienced. See, since they offer you a delicious package, most people get DSL on top of the TV package (round it out with long distance and you save a decent amount). However, people have noticed that when you're downloading something big (Let's say that new Linux distro just came out and you've gotta get everything to go with it) the menu slows down, and channels take a few seconds to appear.
There's other smaller ones, but they all deal with garbage data (Shows are mislabelled, channel feeds are off by hours if not days, etc.) which is caused by lack of bandwith.
While very the two major issues are minor issues seperately, if you've got both together it can make for a rather frustrating experience. So there's downsides (digital garbage) and plus sides (cheaper tv with the same packaged as other more expensive mediums). All in all, it's a decent service for its cost.
I, for one, welcome our new telephonovision overlords.
I agree that GIMP is a decent application, however it has several drawbacks which are mostly OS related (specifically it has a bad habit of eating memory and crashing quite a bit in Windows). While the features included with GIMP are comparable to photoshop, there are a few things also lacking.
My main issue with the GIMP vs. Photoshop is not of toolsets or functionality (which are decently close to one an other) but rather two simple things. My personal experience has shown that Photoshop is a lot more powerful when it comes to the actual processing of the image that's being edited. Also, the integration with Adobe's other products (Illustrator, for example) is another reason why I use Photoshop.
GIMP's great, but I'm not going to use it for my job until it matches photoshop in the power and integration area, and to be honest, I can see this happening in the near future, as GIMP is a really great example of what GNU can do for powerful applications.
If anything were to come along and kill PS... It wouldn't be that hunk of crap from Microsoft, it'd be GIMP.
I think this assumed guilt thing is a bit "too much" since it doesn't benefit artists that aren't Canadian (with the exception of those paid through the AMF, which aren't that many in comparison to the rest of the world).
My question is why is this such a problem? In many countries (including Canada and *shock gasp* the US) there is a levy applied to blank media. Since this is a levy (not a tax) it goes directly to a group (such as the RIAA) which then is supposed to distribute it to the artists they represent from the CD Manufacturers.
For Our Canadian Friends: Private Copying & The Law Under Canada's Copyright Act, it is legal for individuals to copy recorded music for their own personal use. In exchange, there is a mechanism to compensate those with rights in that music: royalties for private copying. The royalties attach to the types of blank media that are commonly used for copying. But because technologies come and go and the value of copying can change over time, the legislation does not create a static catalogue of specific types of media on which there should be a royalty or fix royalty amounts for all time. Instead, it sets up a framework that allows for periodic review. The Act establishes legal principles and tight procedural safeguards, but gives responsibility for determining the types of media that should qualify for a private copying royalty and its amount to Canada's Copyright Board. The Copyright Board is an economic regulatory body that specializes in copyright matters. The Board's decisions are referred to as private copying tariffs.
(And for the sake of coming argument)
For Our US Friends: US CODE: Title 17, 1004 Royalty Payments (b) Digital Audio Recording Media.-- The royalty payment due under section 1003 for each digital audio recording medium imported into and distributed in the United States, or manufactured and distributed in the United States, shall be 3 percent of the transfer price. Only the first person to manufacture and distribute or import and distribute such medium shall be required to pay the royalty with respect to such medium.
Now since that law is in place, it means that (Although CD-R's are not applicable under that code in the US at the moment) with some simple ammendments could settle this issue. You could apply a small levy (say 5 cents per song) on digital media and save everyone the headache that we're all having. I mean 5 cents a song won't kill anyone's bank account and certainly would be giving the money that is apparently being lost back to the people who are loosing it. Also since CD's aren't on the list of media that has the levy applied to it, a simple 20 cents per CD would resolve this issue as well.
Why sue when a simple ammendment would suffice, especially when it would make most (if not all) parties happy? Just money grubbing and assanine behaviour at its finest.
*sniff sniff* Vaporware to me. It just seems like one of those things that are said, but are never really followed through (Remember the Super-Nintendo CD system that became the PS? Anyone?).
Sure it'd be "neat" and "handy" but at what cost? Will I be forced to pay a premium for this ability (Like the core and "ultra-mega-super-ultra-cool-badass" edition of the XBox 360) or will it be standard and come at no extra cost, if it's even made at all?
I would have to assume it's because you have Ricky Martin mp3's on there... That's really the only explanation. (Oh Minudo, how thou hast failed me...)
They do not have the time or the resources to evaluate everything thoroughly. The enormity of the amount of patents that come in on any given day is so vast that it would be impossible to review each patent thoroughly on its own. At least, from what I've read and experienced, this is what I've seen to be "true".
I don't know about you... But I think that things might actually go this way, which is scarry. So do you think you can give me a winner for the Superbowl? I could use the extra money XD
Slashdot Mirror
The thing with the records being bundled with magazines (or even CD's as they do these days) is that it was normally industry backed or even released by labels. I've a few polygram showcase records in my collection with a ton of their artists.
Sure it's common for music to be distributed for free with magazines or news papers. But for a single artist to do it entirely on their own? That's breaking new ground.
I've had my pay cheques direct deposited into my bank account since I started my new job. Since most places around here take interac (Bank issued and owned debit cards) or visa, I've not had the need to pay for anything by paper or coin based money, aka cash. If I owe someone money (bought a battery charger off a friend), I paypal or emt (electronic money transfer) them.
It's been about a year since I held paper money in my hand (a five dollar bill), and that was to buy a burger at the local burger stand (seasonal, it's open again, I may have to take out a ten at the ATM) which is not equipped to use Interac or Credit Cards.
It's not inconceivable, nor is it impractical. I find it to be one of the most convenient way of going through my day, and if I could make it faster by going through my phone, or a similar device, then I'd be all too happy to oblige.
Being a musician who makes his money thanks to offerring free music and then selling merch (and signed/ numbered CD's for collectors) I've got a lot of information at my disposal of how corporate commercial music works.
For example:
Tour Costs for an independent band with nothing but a crusty van and old equipment can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $500,000. This includes travel costs, hotels, gas, legal fees, management fees, booking fees, etc.
This is just to travel around, you still have to pay to get your name out there, so advertisement costs can go anywhere from $500 to $5000 per city. Let's say you hit... 10 cities. That's $5000 to $50,000 right there.
Now, on top of this, you'd need an album to backup your tour with. Studio fees generally cost $500/ 3 minutes of music. That cost can go up with the length of a song. So, let's say you have a 60 minute long CD. $500 x 20 (3 minutes x 20 is 60 minutes for those of you not following allong) is $10,000.
Then you gotta drop down another $5000 - $50,000 for CD manufacturing costs. Then there's publishing and legal fees on top of that, so we're looking at another $5000 - $10,000.
Add all that up:
$35,000 to $620,000 for an indie band... Sure there's grants that can cover these expenses. However, if you want to scale that up, it can cost about 6.5 milion to just to get an album out with a tour internationally (The tour returns would cover that easily, album sales would just be a plus)...
Sure I hate Madonna and all her bullshit, but the increased prices aren't as unreasonable as people think (they're still a bit high, but she's a big name, so what do you expect?). There's a lot more behind the scenes than just money grubbing. Especially if you want to make a profit.
tl;dr time! (Too Long; Didn't Read)
:D
Well... I have to say that I've read actual EULA's that were just about as nonsensical, so you may as well apply for a job writing EULA's for companies.
Tim Buckley of the Ctrl-Alt-Del webcomic made a blocklist available to prevent gold farming sites showing up in google ads.
http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/news.php?i=1011
" A few days ago I talked a bunch about gold farming and its adverse effect on MMO's. This caused the google ads on our page to specifically display the gold selling ads in their inventory, so we could effectively block them.
We've now compiled the list we're using it and made it available to you. If you run a website that used google ads, feel free to use this list to help block these gold farmers. If you frequent a website that uses google ads, email them this list and ask them to use it to block gold farmers.
Like I said, I doubt gold farming will ever disappear, but every one less customer makes the business less profitable for them."
I found this rather helpful.
Then this would be false.
But seriously, it's simple to believe that survival of the fittest rules our world, it's simply self-evident. Whereas our genealogical timeline is a bit shakey, however with each year that passes more gaps are filled with these scientific findings.
Disbelief in undeniable fact that human remains date back far beyond the Biblical "6000 Year History" of our kind amuses me, but what annoys me is the utter disregard for this fact by calling it fallacy and pagan trickery.
If someone slapped you in the face, would you deny it as "The Wind"? I doubt it, so why dispute something so tangible as this obviously tangible evidence?
The thing is that it was for a class project, which means it was going to be viewed publically anyway. So he basically sued people for embarasment he would have brought to himself, except that embarassment was global, and could have been a money-maker (T-Shirts, Cups, Etc.).
Not to trivialize anything that the government would say (oh precious politicians, you do entrance me so) but isn't the whole "Cyber Terror" idea a bit absurd. You have websites that issue propaganda, and the like, sure, but it's not as if you're forced to look at them, you can just close the window and/or block the site. The fact that they exist isn't threatening in anyway, as you can simply choose to ignore it.
And really large defacements/ DDoS attacks haven't occured much, if at all in recent history. I understand the fear of DDoS attacks on government electronic infrastructure, but the important stuff shouldn't be accessible from outside sources at any rate.
On top of that, why would one require a whole militarization of what overly zealous and patriotic hackers have been doing for quite some time now? Bankroll their cause if you're so interested in combating an enemy digitally.
Who would want something free when you can pay for it? I mean, how well can something free work when microsoft spends millions in research and development creating that fantastic suite known as Microsoft Office.
Finally, OpenOffice will get all the research it needs to be the best. Maybe Microsoft will smarten up and buy Linux next, I hate that crappy OS.
Any Program or OS that doesn't crash must be a rootkit, that's the only logical explanation!
Finally someone who was knowledgeable enough in these tech law proceedings, and has a stiff grasp of both local and international law issues stepped up to the plate and knocked a superfluous request out.
Now, if only we could have this guy ruling on patent cases, things might look a bit better...
Richard Pryor shot his car... it got the cops on his ass. I don't think shooting a computer will be any better. Especially if you're not a celebrity. :D
(LAST LISTED OWNER) DC COMICS, INC. CORPORATION ASSIGNEE OF NEW YORK 666 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK NEW YORK 10103
So it is true... DC Comics are the devil... (That would also explain Hellblazer being turned into a shitty movie called Constantine).
I've given up hope on the big two a long time ago, they don't really care that much about the comics unless they make them a lot of money.
Someone already did.
When my telephone company (MTS, here in Canada) decided to offer television, we knew it'd be our way to get out of the cable TV monopoly run by Shaw (also canadian). We didn't like satellites because the quality was determined on the weather, and with our winters, it was not a good idea sometimes.
So we (my family and I) got it and we loved it. It was cheaper prices, great quality and easy to use interface. Also the fact that it ran on linux, has weather info and all the shiney bullcrap that makes things "interesting" was a plus.
That being said, there are some issues with IPTV as I've found out through talking to people. While I don't have these issues since I'm basically sitting right on top of the junction box for this whole section of the grid, other people have told me quite explicitly their gripes of the service.
One major one is artifacting. While I've not experienced it, I know of people who have. This is where the screen gets digitized and cubes show up all over the place if there's a quick change in scenes in a tv show, or inbetween commercials.
Another major issue is bandwith bottlenecking, again, which I haven't experienced. See, since they offer you a delicious package, most people get DSL on top of the TV package (round it out with long distance and you save a decent amount). However, people have noticed that when you're downloading something big (Let's say that new Linux distro just came out and you've gotta get everything to go with it) the menu slows down, and channels take a few seconds to appear.
There's other smaller ones, but they all deal with garbage data (Shows are mislabelled, channel feeds are off by hours if not days, etc.) which is caused by lack of bandwith.
While very the two major issues are minor issues seperately, if you've got both together it can make for a rather frustrating experience. So there's downsides (digital garbage) and plus sides (cheaper tv with the same packaged as other more expensive mediums). All in all, it's a decent service for its cost.
I, for one, welcome our new telephonovision overlords.
I agree that GIMP is a decent application, however it has several drawbacks which are mostly OS related (specifically it has a bad habit of eating memory and crashing quite a bit in Windows). While the features included with GIMP are comparable to photoshop, there are a few things also lacking.
My main issue with the GIMP vs. Photoshop is not of toolsets or functionality (which are decently close to one an other) but rather two simple things. My personal experience has shown that Photoshop is a lot more powerful when it comes to the actual processing of the image that's being edited. Also, the integration with Adobe's other products (Illustrator, for example) is another reason why I use Photoshop.
GIMP's great, but I'm not going to use it for my job until it matches photoshop in the power and integration area, and to be honest, I can see this happening in the near future, as GIMP is a really great example of what GNU can do for powerful applications.
If anything were to come along and kill PS... It wouldn't be that hunk of crap from Microsoft, it'd be GIMP.
"introducing OrigamiFS, you write it out on paper then fold it in half as many times as you can"
:D
Apparrently it can only be folded 12 times, at most. Unless M$ has created a new form of highly (unstable) foldable OS
I think this assumed guilt thing is a bit "too much" since it doesn't benefit artists that aren't Canadian (with the exception of those paid through the AMF, which aren't that many in comparison to the rest of the world).
CPCC Royalty Distribution Info
I would think that if we're paying that much on CD's it should go to every organization possible instead of a select few.
" Step 2. Deleting all profiles that use the word "like" more than twice
You mean, profiles like: "I like programming very much, esp. with languages like Lisp and Scheme"?"
Silly, MySpace users don't know how to use programming languages.
My question is why is this such a problem? In many countries (including Canada and *shock gasp* the US) there is a levy applied to blank media. Since this is a levy (not a tax) it goes directly to a group (such as the RIAA) which then is supposed to distribute it to the artists they represent from the CD Manufacturers.
.
For Our Canadian Friends: Private Copying & The Law
Under Canada's Copyright Act, it is legal for individuals to copy recorded music for their own personal use. In exchange, there is a mechanism to compensate those with rights in that music: royalties for private copying. The royalties attach to the types of blank media that are commonly used for copying. But because technologies come and go and the value of copying can change over time, the legislation does not create a static catalogue of specific types of media on which there should be a royalty or fix royalty amounts for all time. Instead, it sets up a framework that allows for periodic review. The Act establishes legal principles and tight procedural safeguards, but gives responsibility for determining the types of media that should qualify for a private copying royalty and its amount to Canada's Copyright Board. The Copyright Board is an economic regulatory body that specializes in copyright matters. The Board's decisions are referred to as private copying tariffs
(And for the sake of coming argument)
For Our US Friends: US CODE: Title 17, 1004 Royalty Payments
(b) Digital Audio Recording Media.-- The royalty payment due under section 1003 for each digital audio recording medium imported into and distributed in the United States, or manufactured and distributed in the United States, shall be 3 percent of the transfer price. Only the first person to manufacture and distribute or import and distribute such medium shall be required to pay the royalty with respect to such medium.
Now since that law is in place, it means that (Although CD-R's are not applicable under that code in the US at the moment) with some simple ammendments could settle this issue. You could apply a small levy (say 5 cents per song) on digital media and save everyone the headache that we're all having. I mean 5 cents a song won't kill anyone's bank account and certainly would be giving the money that is apparently being lost back to the people who are loosing it. Also since CD's aren't on the list of media that has the levy applied to it, a simple 20 cents per CD would resolve this issue as well.
Why sue when a simple ammendment would suffice, especially when it would make most (if not all) parties happy? Just money grubbing and assanine behaviour at its finest.
*sniff sniff* Vaporware to me. It just seems like one of those things that are said, but are never really followed through (Remember the Super-Nintendo CD system that became the PS? Anyone?).
Sure it'd be "neat" and "handy" but at what cost? Will I be forced to pay a premium for this ability (Like the core and "ultra-mega-super-ultra-cool-badass" edition of the XBox 360) or will it be standard and come at no extra cost, if it's even made at all?
I would have to assume it's because you have Ricky Martin mp3's on there... That's really the only explanation. (Oh Minudo, how thou hast failed me...)
They do not have the time or the resources to evaluate everything thoroughly. The enormity of the amount of patents that come in on any given day is so vast that it would be impossible to review each patent thoroughly on its own. At least, from what I've read and experienced, this is what I've seen to be "true".
Sorry, but that falls under something that is an obvious idea, as it's been used by many a leech in the past. :D
I think he made the error to keep from being sued by the RIAA for copyright infringement :D
I don't know about you... But I think that things might actually go this way, which is scarry. So do you think you can give me a winner for the Superbowl? I could use the extra money XD