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30th of October, 2009

04:07 am - The history of Chap-hop Brilliant! Current Mood: amused Tags: geek, humour, music, weird shit

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25th of November, 2008

02:33 pm - RIAA may finally face someone bigger than them There's a variety of opinions on the ethics of music file sharing. Some are in Teh Intarwebz should B free category. Others are in the "user pays" block. I'm more inclined to go with the free-sample-and-if-I-like-it-I'll-buy-it-group. From my understanding a musician makes more money from concerts and merchandise (t-shirts and things) than actual album sales. I'm aware that this differs depending on the genre but as a generalisation I believe it's fair. But the over-arching bodies like ARIA and RIAA in the US use tactics that are high on the bully boy scale. ARIA has managed to get Music Industry Piracy Investigations some sort of pseudo police status in having it rather than the police carry out warrants and seizures. In the US RIAA is noted for suing those who are easy targets; like grandmothers or 12 year old kids. There was a lot of curiosity as to why RIAA left the known file sharers of Harvard University alone. Seems the University's outspoken professors of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society might have something to do with it. Professor Charles Nesson of the Centre decided he'd waited long enough for RIAA to come knocking on Harvard's Door and went out to see if he could find a case to become involved in. He has. He makes the argument that the Digital Theft Deterrence and Copyright Damages Improvement Act of 1999 is very much unconstitutional, in that its hefty fines for copyright infringement (misleadingly called "theft" in the title of the bill) show that the bill is effectively a criminal statute, yet for a civil crime. That's because it really focuses on punitive damages, rather than making private parties whole again. Even worse, it puts the act of enforcing the criminal statute in the hands of a private body (the RIAA) who uses it for profit motive in being able to get hefty fines: Imagine a statute which, in the name of deterrence, provides for a $750 fine for each mile-per-hour that a driver exceeds the speed limit, with the fine escalating to $150,000 per mile over the limit if the driver knew he or she was speeding. Imagine that the fines are not publicized, and most drivers do not know they exist. Imagine that enforcement of the fines is put in the hands of a private, self-interested police force, that has no political accountability, that can pursue any defendant it chooses at its own whim, that can accept or reject payoffs in exchange for not prosecuting the tickets, and that pockets for itself all payoffs and fines. Imagine that a significant percentage of these fines were never contested, regardless of whether they had merit, because the individuals being fined have limited financial resources and little idea of whether they can prevail in front of an objective judicial body. Looks like there may finally be some interesting viewing going on with copyright laws in the US. Hat tip to Copyfight. Current Mood: curious Tags: copyright & censorship, music

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12th of October, 2008

04:52 pm - New Weird Al song Can't say I'm familiar with the original but with the continuing plummet of the world economy it works well. Current Mood: amused Tags: humour, music

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