Sometimes I would like to see the Klingon legal rules about the lawyers...
Was Jesus a Klingon? Luke 11:46 - "And he [Jesus] said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers."
The mods are going to lose some karma when I metamoderate, that's for sure. If your post was a troll, who were you trolling? I thought it was both interesting and insightful (and funny).
These are marketers. Polish that turd. It's like the old car commercials, which I have finally decoded.
Pontiac: "We build excitement". The brakes and handling suck. Chevy: "Like A Rock". Damned thing won't start Ford: "Quality is job 1!" They have a lot of work to do in the "quality" department.
It's kind of like the lottery, too - "you can't win if you don't play". You can't lose, either.
These boys are liars. If Zaphod were listening to these bozos, his glasses would go jet black in no time. It makes me feel dirty just listening to them.
Is this Eddie the Shipboard Computer, or Eddie Munster? At any rate, here's a message to Eddie:
Look, dude, you're glass. We see right through you and we're going to break you if you don't get the hell out of our way, and if you don't break yourself first.
We know you know that MP3s should be advertising for CDs. We also know that what you're afraid of isn't people downloading Lars and Gene's stuff, it's downloading your independant competitors' stuff. You control the FREE radio and you know it. You can't control the internet and you know it.
You're shaking in your boots over Radiohead. I'm afraid it's too late; you're cracked. It's too late, but I'll tell you what you should have done.
When Napster, the old Napster you bozos sued out of existance came along, you should have embraced it. You should have flooded it with 56k samples of every tune in your inventory, and gone on a PR blitz telling everyone how superior the CD was to MP3. It worked against vinyl when the CD first came out, despite the fact that there are pros and cons to CD and vinyl (each has its shortcomings), it would surely work with CD vs. MP3 and CD's vastly superior sound.
You blew it.
You no longer matter. A musician no longer needs an expensive studio and even more expensive factory, he can rent a studio even in a small city like Springfield, which has several. He can get his CD professionally mastered and copied with insert and jewell case for a couple thousand bucks, less than the price of a decent drum kit.
Now your only recourse to stay alive is to be a hitmaker.
You're stupid, Eddie, and I'll be glad when your twitching corpse stops kicking over the china and bleeding all over my government. Die, damn you, die, you worthles scumbag!
Edgar Bronfman, CEO of the Warner Music Group, has publicly framed the music industry's failure to accommodate file-sharing as an 'inadvertent' war on consumers
I'm SO sorrry, I got that damned nasty lawyer all over you. Here, let me get you a napkin...
I'm wondering who gave the MAFIAA mod points? The GP you replied to was a flamebaiting troll if I've ever seen one, posted anonymously by a registered user ("extra anonymous modifier"), yet there is no moderation whatever.
Yet in this very same thread, and the Gene Simmosn thread, a couple of people ranted against the government and MAFIAA and were modded flamebait.
Your post wasn't moderated at all, you should have at least gotten a "funny". I have no mod points today, all I can give you is applause.
Findinig a scapegoat for your own failures is very human. But you know what? If you are, indeed, a comic book artist I see no evidence of it. You have no sig. The link to your username only points to a slashdot page. Who the fuck are you anyway? You might as well post AC, because you're a John Doe.
I suspect that your comics are badly rendered and/or unfunny. I hope you can link to one and prove me wrong. But whether or not your comics are well rendered and funny, nobody's going to pay you to draw them if they never heard of you.
The artist's enemy is not the copyright infringer, it's obscurity. I used to keep a Diary and submit stories to K5 until one of the admins pissed me off enough to leave, and had folks there begging me to publish the Paxil Diaries in book form so they could buy copies!
Good art is like good drugs. Give 'em a free hit and they'll be back for more. Why do you think the RIAA labels let their so-called "artists" on the radio?
This is what happens when the voters stop voting, or vote on the basis of strawman issues like abortion, gay marriage, etc. Listen up people: *START VOTING* !!!
The trouble is that we only have one viable party in this country, the Corporate Republicrat Party. This party funds all Republicrat candidates; any Republicrat that doesn't toe the party line loses his or her funding. The two wings of this party are more alike than the various factions of the old USSR's Communist Party.
This party owns all media outlets except the internet, and has been working since its inception to throttle or control that outlet. They have convinced America that if you don't vote Republicrat you've wasted your vote.
People are staying away from the polls in droves precicely because they don't give a shit about gay "marriage", abortion, or any of the other strawman issues the Republicrats talk about. Meanwhile the DMCA, Bono Act, PATRIOT Act ("Cowardly Government Officials are Scared Shitless Act"), Bankrupcy Deform, all pass with a 100% or nerly so margin from both wings of the Republicrat Party.
Half of eligible Americans vote, yet Congress has a 10% approval rating. That should tell you a thing or two. Look, I want marijuana legalized. Do I vote Republican or Democrat? I want copyright stripped from any work that has DRM. Do I vote Republican or Democrat? What does it matter when both candidates want DRM to be protected rather than outlawed, and marijuana to be outlawed rather than taxed and regulated?
I personally split my vote between the Greens and Libertarians. I know I'm tilting at windmills, Don, but at least you can't accuse me of being apathetic.
If only you were right. College age people are the least likely to vote of all eligible age groups, and are the most likely to become disillusioned and disenfranchised.
Witness the last Presidential election where Bush lost in a landslide (sadly, only here in Illinois). Levi is a young man, early twenties (or was when I wrote this in 2004.
We geezers are the ones who show up at the polls. I split my vote between the Libertarians and the Greens, and wish everyone else would stop voting for the Corporate Republicrats. Here is the mainstream (corporate) media take on American Politics
Mainstream media guy A: "Well, you know, theres the Dogshit Party and the Catshit Party. You know they're both so yummy and tasty, but frankly I prefer dogshit."
Mainstream media guy B: "Well, yes Bill, but the Dogshit costs so much. Those on a budget prefer catshit."
Blogger: "But I like the Apple Pie Party!"
Mainstream Media guys (in unison): "Apple pie? If you vote for Apple Pie you're wasting your vote!"
Mainstream media guy A: "Those damned bloggers don't get it, do they?"
I agree with your comment (our grants have also been replaced by loans) but I believe what he's asking is what Constitutional authority Congress has for passing these laws.
I believe Article 1, Section 8 is what SCOTUS says gives them the power: "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States" (emphasis mine).
Feel free to copy your rejection letter to the local media. They love a good story.
The media are corporate. They are not going to print any letter that would receive an "insightful" or "interesting" mod at slashdot (check my comment history). The same people who own your newspaper own Sony and Universal and BP.
-mcgrew (you may find that link amusing... it's a search of the Illinois Times' for my name (the last story listed quotes my daughter). They are an independant weekly here and almost every letter I've written them has been published. The Copely paper, the State Journal Register, has never printed any letter I ever wrote them.
You might also find it amusing that the linked S-JR story is about my roommate's ex-husband, who was on his way to kill his parents when the cops stopped him (yes I have an interesting life.
Except for the time to acheave an insightful comment on Slashdot and put the effort in witting to your Representative you may perhaps beable to stop it.... I already send a message to my Rep... Have you?
No wonder these crap laws always pass, if all the letters to representatives look like your comment.
Wow, your comment was modded "flamebait" as was this guy's. Looks like the MAFIAA lawyers have mod points today.
To answer your question as to how anyone could vote for a Republicrat (the two wings of the Corporate Republicrat party are more similar than factions of the old Communist party in the USSR), the corporations control all media in th eUS except the internet, and they have it in everyone's head that a vote for a "third party" (non-Republicrat) candidate is wasted. So you have people staying away from the polls in droves, while Congress' approval rating is about 10%.
I personally split my vote between the Greens and the Libertarians, as I'm for the environment and liberty, unlike our corporate overlords and their bought and paid for government. The environment and personal liberty goes against the corporates' profit margin.
But how could you do that, since the corporations who finance elections, bribing both major parties with "contributions" to do their bidding are in charge?
The corporations control all media except the internet, meaning that the corporations control both media and government. Witnesss Nader vs Libertarian; Nader wasn't on th eballot in enough states to win even if he'd won every state he was on the ballot on, while the Libertarians were on the ballot in 49 states. But the corporate media slobbered all over the guranteed to lose Nader while completely ignoring the Libertarian. They have it in your head that a vote for anyone but a Republicrat (both major parties are their puppets) is a wasted vote and you don't even question it!
I advocate two reforms that will never ever happen.
You can't contribute to more than one candidate in any given race, as that's a thinly disguised bribe
You aren't allowed to contribute to any candidate you aren't eligible to vote for.
Only when snowball==hell will this happen. We live in a plutocracy. Deal with it.
that and why not the same for anti drug and gun policies
Why anti-gun policies when guns are not only perfectly legal, but protected by the Constitution itself?
Why should drugs be illegal in the first place? Shouldn't I have the right to screw up my life any damned way I please? Where in the Constitution does it say that Congress has the power to outlaw a purely personal activity? (The same goes for prostitution and gambling). If a woman has the right to remove a fetus from her body, why doesn't she have the right to insert a needle full of heroin? It is, after all, her body, her life, her business. If it's my sperm that produced the fetus then removal of the fetus is my business too, isn't it? But not the needle!
That said, universities should be mandated by Congress to ENCOURAGE P2P file sharing, which benefits independant artists and OSS programmers (who are what P2P is really there for).
Of course, the RIAA labels are threatened by their independant competitors, who they could formerly keep out of your ears by keeping them off the radio.
We have the best Federal Government money can buy.
You need suin' You're lookin out for download dance Yeah, it's true You know you got to take your chance When I laugh Well baby don't you know you can cry Cause you ain't enough money to keep the monster satisfied
Well you know I got the kind of suin' that you need I'm so crass That's why the ladies call me Mister Sleaze They call me Mister Sleaze
You try suckin' But gettin' on your knees don't make it You try teasin' But baby you can't even fake it Make it clear But baby you can even see my lawyer So stop those tears 'cause baby you can't even leave
Yeah, you know I got the kind of suin' that you need (The kind of suin' that you need) That's why the ladies call me Mister Sleaze
Well you know I got the kind of suin' that you need I'm so crass That's why the ladies call me Mister Sleaze Mister Sleaze
There is nothing in me that wants to go in there and do new music. How are you going to deliver it? How are you going to get paid for it if people can just get it for free? I will be putting out a Gene Simmons box set called "Monster" -- a collection of 150 unreleased songs.KISS will have another box set of unreleased music in the next year.
2 boxed sets of unreleased music - at best second rate crap that was not good enough to put out the first time - coming. All to just make money as he admitted in the first sentence was his main motivation since making music for it's own sake or attracting new fans isn't enough by itself.
This may be the case with some, but not all. Led Zeppelin's Coda record (they dodn't have CDs back then)* was stuff that wasn't released until Bohnam died from drinking but every track was killer.
Of course, we are talking about the best band to ever make a record here...
But the point is, back when Kiss (and the incomparably better Zeppelin) were making records, you could only fit 45 minutes of music at most on an LP. Invariably there was a song or two that they couldn't fit, and had to decide what to leave out.
They don't really have that problem with today's 72 minute CD. Many new CDs don't have any more than 40 minutes of music on them. These ar ethe guys whose CDs you don't want to buy, because if they can only come up with 40 minutes worth, there are going to be some loser tracks.
There were even ones like that when I was a teenager. After getting burned by bands who had a song I liked on the radio, buying the LP, and finding that it all sucked except the one song from the radio, I started buying ONLY "Best Of", "Greatest Hits", and live albums.
I missed a lot of good music this way. The only song that sucked on Aerosmith's first album was "Dream On" (emo in 1970?) the one they played on the radio. I only bought it after hearing a friend's copy.
The music industry has always been full of fucktards.
* Why did they stop calling them "records" when they became digital? It's still a record of a performance or performances. And why do they still call the tracks "tracks" since, unlike vinyl, thare are no discrete tracks? Why not call the tracks "files"?
1) Many artists these days are not the quality that one would expect. THOUGH, and this is a big THOUGH... There were plenty of garbage artists in the 80's, and 70's.
There were always garbage artists, and most of what you heard on the radio was garbage. That was the one single thing you got right in your comment. However...
Case in point Twisted Sister... I never did get that. Twisted Sister is an example of a band that was marketed with no talent.
Dude, Twisted Sister fucking kicked ass! Are you some kind of emo wuss? I have a live Twisted Sister CD, the lead man (can't think of his name, I think he's a disk jockey now) played that audience like Jimi Hendrix played a guitar.
2) People don't buy music because they can rip it off somebody for cheaper. The reality is that if you can get for free you will not pay for it.
That's just retarded. Good music is like good drugs - give them a free hit and they'll pay for more. If your statement had any validity, every band you hear on the radio would be in dire poverty, because the radio gives music away for free! If you want to have the entire Top 40 in MP3 format, free and legal, is to plug your radio into your sound card and sample a Top 40 station for a couple of hours while you're hitting that crack pipe I see from your comment you must always have handy, and then spend ten minutes cutting and pasting into separate.wav files and let the computer convert them.
The RIAA isn't against P2P because they're afraid you'll download the latest RIAA dreck, they're afraid you'll download one of the far better indie bands, like it, and buy the CD. Face it, the twenty bucks I spend on two (or four) indie CDs is tewnty bucks I don't have for a Kiss CD. Selling MP3s (let alone renting crippled DRM WMA files) is a stupid business decision. MP3s should be seen as advertising.
Of course, for MP3s to work in this manner your music has to actually not suck, unlike most RIAA music these days. Don't any of the new bands know how to play anything in a major key? Jesus but this emo shit you kids listen to is depressing. WTF is wrong with you?
And this is the case in college or university. I remember people used to photocopy entire text books because they were too cheap to buy the text book.
Yeah, paper's free and your photocopiers don't have coin slots. Yeah, you're going to stand in front of a photocopier (why not a scanner? Dumbass kids!) all week. Right. Which record label do you work for again?
I've noticed in my 55 years on this planet that people expect other people to be more or less like themselves. Honest people expect people to be honest, and thieves expect people to steal. I see which side of the fence you're on.
Combine this with a general attitude of "we don't want to pay for anything" and you get a serious revenue problem. I actually don't believe the argument that if you have quality you will buy it.
So tell me, why do bartenders and waiters make more money from tips than from the paycheck? There are very few people with the attitude you are talking about. Most people are more than willing to pay for what they get. Give them something free and they're even happier to pay for more of it; gratitude goes a long way. So does resentment.
Take the Radio Head example. It's not a business model, point blank!
Then why are they making so much money?
There was an author who gave away his book "in the spirit" of community. Well his latest book is not completely available anymore in free format. Why? Easy because people were not buying his book and his sales were hurting.
Bullshit. I see you neglected to name the author - Stephen King IIRC. He said he would keep putting chapters online as long as people kept paying. He was trying to make your point, that people wouldn't buy it if you gave it to them, and they surprised
Slashdot Mirror
Agreed. The fellow I was responding to said college wasn't a right, I said it shoud be.
I'm still boycotting new music purchases.
Don't boycott music, boycott music from the RIAA labels. Buy CDs from local bands, most of whom are every bit as good as teh RIAA-label bands.
Let's lock Gene Simmons in the bathroom with Warner's CEO and
see what happens.
I have a better idea. Lets lock them in a room with Steve Ballmer and a chair.
Sometimes I would like to see the Klingon legal rules about the lawyers...
Was Jesus a Klingon? Luke 11:46 - "And he [Jesus] said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers."
-mcgrew
The mods are going to lose some karma when I metamoderate, that's for sure. If your post was a troll, who were you trolling? I thought it was both interesting and insightful (and funny).
Mod me offtopic.
These are marketers. Polish that turd. It's like the old car commercials, which I have finally decoded.
Pontiac: "We build excitement". The brakes and handling suck.
Chevy: "Like A Rock". Damned thing won't start
Ford: "Quality is job 1!" They have a lot of work to do in the "quality" department.
It's kind of like the lottery, too - "you can't win if you don't play". You can't lose, either.
These boys are liars. If Zaphod were listening to these bozos, his glasses would go jet black in no time. It makes me feel dirty just listening to them.
-mcgrew
Is this Eddie the Shipboard Computer, or Eddie Munster? At any rate, here's a message to Eddie:
Look, dude, you're glass. We see right through you and we're going to break you if you don't get the hell out of our way, and if you don't break yourself first.
We know you know that MP3s should be advertising for CDs. We also know that what you're afraid of isn't people downloading Lars and Gene's stuff, it's downloading your independant competitors' stuff. You control the FREE radio and you know it. You can't control the internet and you know it.
You're shaking in your boots over Radiohead. I'm afraid it's too late; you're cracked. It's too late, but I'll tell you what you should have done.
When Napster, the old Napster you bozos sued out of existance came along, you should have embraced it. You should have flooded it with 56k samples of every tune in your inventory, and gone on a PR blitz telling everyone how superior the CD was to MP3. It worked against vinyl when the CD first came out, despite the fact that there are pros and cons to CD and vinyl (each has its shortcomings), it would surely work with CD vs. MP3 and CD's vastly superior sound.
You blew it.
You no longer matter. A musician no longer needs an expensive studio and even more expensive factory, he can rent a studio even in a small city like Springfield, which has several. He can get his CD professionally mastered and copied with insert and jewell case for a couple thousand bucks, less than the price of a decent drum kit.
Now your only recourse to stay alive is to be a hitmaker.
You're stupid, Eddie, and I'll be glad when your twitching corpse stops kicking over the china and bleeding all over my government. Die, damn you, die, you worthles scumbag!
-mcgrew
Edgar Bronfman, CEO of the Warner Music Group, has publicly framed the music industry's failure to accommodate file-sharing as an 'inadvertent' war on consumers
I'm SO sorrry, I got that damned nasty lawyer all over you. Here, let me get you a napkin...
I'm wondering who gave the MAFIAA mod points? The GP you replied to was a flamebaiting troll if I've ever seen one, posted anonymously by a registered user ("extra anonymous modifier"), yet there is no moderation whatever.
Yet in this very same thread, and the Gene Simmosn thread, a couple of people ranted against the government and MAFIAA and were modded flamebait.
Your post wasn't moderated at all, you should have at least gotten a "funny". I have no mod points today, all I can give you is applause.
[Hanners1979- "OMFG mcgrew gave me the clap"]
Findinig a scapegoat for your own failures is very human. But you know what? If you are, indeed, a comic book artist I see no evidence of it. You have no sig. The link to your username only points to a slashdot page. Who the fuck are you anyway? You might as well post AC, because you're a John Doe.
I suspect that your comics are badly rendered and/or unfunny. I hope you can link to one and prove me wrong. But whether or not your comics are well rendered and funny, nobody's going to pay you to draw them if they never heard of you.
The artist's enemy is not the copyright infringer, it's obscurity. I used to keep a Diary and submit stories to K5 until one of the admins pissed me off enough to leave, and had folks there begging me to publish the Paxil Diaries in book form so they could buy copies!
Good art is like good drugs. Give 'em a free hit and they'll be back for more. Why do you think the RIAA labels let their so-called "artists" on the radio?
Come on out and let us know who you are!
-mcgrew
This is what happens when the voters stop voting, or vote on the basis of strawman issues like abortion, gay marriage, etc.
Listen up people: *START VOTING* !!!
The trouble is that we only have one viable party in this country, the Corporate Republicrat Party. This party funds all Republicrat candidates; any Republicrat that doesn't toe the party line loses his or her funding. The two wings of this party are more alike than the various factions of the old USSR's Communist Party.
This party owns all media outlets except the internet, and has been working since its inception to throttle or control that outlet. They have convinced America that if you don't vote Republicrat you've wasted your vote.
People are staying away from the polls in droves precicely because they don't give a shit about gay "marriage", abortion, or any of the other strawman issues the Republicrats talk about. Meanwhile the DMCA, Bono Act, PATRIOT Act ("Cowardly Government Officials are Scared Shitless Act"), Bankrupcy Deform, all pass with a 100% or nerly so margin from both wings of the Republicrat Party.
Half of eligible Americans vote, yet Congress has a 10% approval rating. That should tell you a thing or two. Look, I want marijuana legalized. Do I vote Republican or Democrat? I want copyright stripped from any work that has DRM. Do I vote Republican or Democrat? What does it matter when both candidates want DRM to be protected rather than outlawed, and marijuana to be outlawed rather than taxed and regulated?
I personally split my vote between the Greens and Libertarians. I know I'm tilting at windmills, Don, but at least you can't accuse me of being apathetic.
-mcgrew
If only you were right. College age people are the least likely to vote of all eligible age groups, and are the most likely to become disillusioned and disenfranchised.
Witness the last Presidential election where Bush lost in a landslide (sadly, only here in Illinois). Levi is a young man, early twenties (or was when I wrote this in 2004.
We geezers are the ones who show up at the polls. I split my vote between the Libertarians and the Greens, and wish everyone else would stop voting for the Corporate Republicrats. Here is the mainstream (corporate) media take on American Politics
Mainstream media guy A: "Well, you know, theres the Dogshit Party and the Catshit Party. You know they're both so yummy and tasty, but frankly I prefer dogshit."
Mainstream media guy B: "Well, yes Bill, but the Dogshit costs so much. Those on a budget prefer catshit."
Blogger: "But I like the Apple Pie Party!"
Mainstream Media guys (in unison): "Apple pie? If you vote for Apple Pie you're wasting your vote!"
Mainstream media guy A: "Those damned bloggers don't get it, do they?"
-mcgrew
Just one question for the government: (Score:0, Troll)
Where's Bin Laden ?
Holy shit, Al Quaida has mod points!
-mcgrew
Not since the Vietnam War ended anyway...
-mcgrew
I agree with your comment (our grants have also been replaced by loans) but I believe what he's asking is what Constitutional authority Congress has for passing these laws.
I believe Article 1, Section 8 is what SCOTUS says gives them the power: "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States" (emphasis mine).
-mcgrew
Feel free to copy your rejection letter to the local media. They love a good story.
The media are corporate. They are not going to print any letter that would receive an "insightful" or "interesting" mod at slashdot (check my comment history). The same people who own your newspaper own Sony and Universal and BP.
-mcgrew
(you may find that link amusing... it's a search of the Illinois Times' for my name (the last story listed quotes my daughter). They are an independant weekly here and almost every letter I've written them has been published. The Copely paper, the State Journal Register, has never printed any letter I ever wrote them.
You might also find it amusing that the linked S-JR story is about my roommate's ex-husband, who was on his way to kill his parents when the cops stopped him (yes I have an interesting life.
Except for the time to acheave an insightful comment on Slashdot and put the effort in witting to your Representative you may perhaps beable to stop it.... I already send a message to my Rep... Have you?
No wonder these crap laws always pass, if all the letters to representatives look like your comment.
Wow, your comment was modded "flamebait" as was this guy's. Looks like the MAFIAA lawyers have mod points today.
To answer your question as to how anyone could vote for a Republicrat (the two wings of the Corporate Republicrat party are more similar than factions of the old Communist party in the USSR), the corporations control all media in th eUS except the internet, and they have it in everyone's head that a vote for a "third party" (non-Republicrat) candidate is wasted. So you have people staying away from the polls in droves, while Congress' approval rating is about 10%.
I personally split my vote between the Greens and the Libertarians, as I'm for the environment and liberty, unlike our corporate overlords and their bought and paid for government. The environment and personal liberty goes against the corporates' profit margin.
Now mod me flamebait too.
-mcgrew
The corporations control all media except the internet, meaning that the corporations control both media and government. Witnesss Nader vs Libertarian; Nader wasn't on th eballot in enough states to win even if he'd won every state he was on the ballot on, while the Libertarians were on the ballot in 49 states. But the corporate media slobbered all over the guranteed to lose Nader while completely ignoring the Libertarian. They have it in your head that a vote for anyone but a Republicrat (both major parties are their puppets) is a wasted vote and you don't even question it!
I advocate two reforms that will never ever happen.
- You can't contribute to more than one candidate in any given race, as that's a thinly disguised bribe
- You aren't allowed to contribute to any candidate you aren't eligible to vote for.
Only when snowball==hell will this happen. We live in a plutocracy. Deal with it.-mcgrew
that and why not the same for anti drug and gun policies
Why anti-gun policies when guns are not only perfectly legal, but protected by the Constitution itself?
Why should drugs be illegal in the first place? Shouldn't I have the right to screw up my life any damned way I please? Where in the Constitution does it say that Congress has the power to outlaw a purely personal activity? (The same goes for prostitution and gambling). If a woman has the right to remove a fetus from her body, why doesn't she have the right to insert a needle full of heroin? It is, after all, her body, her life, her business. If it's my sperm that produced the fetus then removal of the fetus is my business too, isn't it? But not the needle!
That said, universities should be mandated by Congress to ENCOURAGE P2P file sharing, which benefits independant artists and OSS programmers (who are what P2P is really there for).
Of course, the RIAA labels are threatened by their independant competitors, who they could formerly keep out of your ears by keeping them off the radio.
We have the best Federal Government money can buy.
-mcgrew
(No apologies to Stanley/Delaney =P)
You need suin'
You're lookin out for download dance
Yeah, it's true
You know you got to take your chance
When I laugh
Well baby don't you know you can cry
Cause you ain't enough money to keep the monster satisfied
Well you know
I got the kind of suin' that you need
I'm so crass
That's why the ladies call me Mister Sleaze
They call me Mister Sleaze
You try suckin'
But gettin' on your knees don't make it
You try teasin'
But baby you can't even fake it
Make it clear
But baby you can even see my lawyer
So stop those tears 'cause baby you can't even leave
Yeah, you know
I got the kind of suin' that you need
(The kind of suin' that you need)
That's why the ladies call me Mister Sleaze
Well you know
I got the kind of suin' that you need
I'm so crass
That's why the ladies call me Mister Sleaze
Mister Sleaze
(repeat and fade)
Of course, we are talking about the best band to ever make a record here...
But the point is, back when Kiss (and the incomparably better Zeppelin) were making records, you could only fit 45 minutes of music at most on an LP. Invariably there was a song or two that they couldn't fit, and had to decide what to leave out.
They don't really have that problem with today's 72 minute CD. Many new CDs don't have any more than 40 minutes of music on them. These ar ethe guys whose CDs you don't want to buy, because if they can only come up with 40 minutes worth, there are going to be some loser tracks.
There were even ones like that when I was a teenager. After getting burned by bands who had a song I liked on the radio, buying the LP, and finding that it all sucked except the one song from the radio, I started buying ONLY "Best Of", "Greatest Hits", and live albums.
I missed a lot of good music this way. The only song that sucked on Aerosmith's first album was "Dream On" (emo in 1970?) the one they played on the radio. I only bought it after hearing a friend's copy.
The music industry has always been full of fucktards.
-mcgrew
* Why did they stop calling them "records" when they became digital? It's still a record of a performance or performances. And why do they still call the tracks "tracks" since, unlike vinyl, thare are no discrete tracks? Why not call the tracks "files"?
Say hello to tomorrow :D
"Today is only yesterday's tomorrow" - King Crimson
Wrong wrong wrong WRONG.
.wav files and let the computer convert them.
1) Many artists these days are not the quality that one would expect. THOUGH, and this is a big THOUGH... There were plenty of garbage artists in the 80's, and 70's.
There were always garbage artists, and most of what you heard on the radio was garbage. That was the one single thing you got right in your comment. However...
Case in point Twisted Sister... I never did get that. Twisted Sister is an example of a band that was marketed with no talent.
Dude, Twisted Sister fucking kicked ass! Are you some kind of emo wuss? I have a live Twisted Sister CD, the lead man (can't think of his name, I think he's a disk jockey now) played that audience like Jimi Hendrix played a guitar.
2) People don't buy music because they can rip it off somebody for cheaper. The reality is that if you can get for free you will not pay for it.
That's just retarded. Good music is like good drugs - give them a free hit and they'll pay for more. If your statement had any validity, every band you hear on the radio would be in dire poverty, because the radio gives music away for free! If you want to have the entire Top 40 in MP3 format, free and legal, is to plug your radio into your sound card and sample a Top 40 station for a couple of hours while you're hitting that crack pipe I see from your comment you must always have handy, and then spend ten minutes cutting and pasting into separate
The RIAA isn't against P2P because they're afraid you'll download the latest RIAA dreck, they're afraid you'll download one of the far better indie bands, like it, and buy the CD. Face it, the twenty bucks I spend on two (or four) indie CDs is tewnty bucks I don't have for a Kiss CD. Selling MP3s (let alone renting crippled DRM WMA files) is a stupid business decision. MP3s should be seen as advertising.
Of course, for MP3s to work in this manner your music has to actually not suck, unlike most RIAA music these days. Don't any of the new bands know how to play anything in a major key? Jesus but this emo shit you kids listen to is depressing. WTF is wrong with you?
And this is the case in college or university. I remember people used to photocopy entire text books because they were too cheap to buy the text book.
Yeah, paper's free and your photocopiers don't have coin slots. Yeah, you're going to stand in front of a photocopier (why not a scanner? Dumbass kids!) all week. Right. Which record label do you work for again?
I've noticed in my 55 years on this planet that people expect other people to be more or less like themselves. Honest people expect people to be honest, and thieves expect people to steal. I see which side of the fence you're on.
Combine this with a general attitude of "we don't want to pay for anything" and you get a serious revenue problem. I actually don't believe the argument that if you have quality you will buy it.
So tell me, why do bartenders and waiters make more money from tips than from the paycheck? There are very few people with the attitude you are talking about. Most people are more than willing to pay for what they get. Give them something free and they're even happier to pay for more of it; gratitude goes a long way. So does resentment.
Take the Radio Head example. It's not a business model, point blank!
Then why are they making so much money?
There was an author who gave away his book "in the spirit" of community. Well his latest book is not completely available anymore in free format. Why? Easy because people were not buying his book and his sales were hurting.
Bullshit. I see you neglected to name the author - Stephen King IIRC. He said he would keep putting chapters online as long as people kept paying. He was trying to make your point, that people wouldn't buy it if you gave it to them, and they surprised
KISS was never really about music. It was a huge franchise to capitalize on.
That's like saying that Sun isn't about computers, it's a huge franchise to capitalize on.
Gene Simmons is not a musician. He is a businessman.
He's not a businessman, he's an employee. He works for the record company. His employers are businessmen.
-mcgrew