As ye reap...

Howard, you're missing the second part of Godwin's law - that once a comparison to Hitler occurs, all useful debate is over.

However, the situations are not parallel- Hitler is dead and buried, and Nazism is largely a spent force, but Microsoft is still a significant part of most computer users' daily environment.

If MS break binary compatibility for 3rd party applications, then that is bad code, but it can probably be put down to arrogance, hubris or incompetence on their part rather than malice. However, as they are a convicted predatory monopoly that has yet to be sentenced, it is understandable that people are suspicious.

Why Hollywood would care about music (rather than movies) is a bit of a non sequitur too, but insofar as it indicates that people are wary of Microsoft's operating systems becoming judge, jury and executioner for their alleged unauthorised copying, while the company itself so obviously benefits from due process, I take that as an encouraging sign.

Posted 11:56 PM by Kevin Marks

r, K or RIAA?

Janis Ian's clear exposition on the music industry made me crystallize a thought that's been at the back of my mind about the record business - they need to change their reproductive strategy.

Janis says:
Seriously, diversity is something record companies can't afford anymore - not the majors, at any rate. I'd go to this article, posted at Linux Journal, which quotes a Newsweek article (July 15,2002) by Steven Levy saying "So why are the record labels taking such a hard line? My guess is that it's all about protecting their Internet-challenged business model. Their profit comes from blockbuster artists. If the industry moved to a more varied ecology, independent labels and artists would thrive--to the detriment of the labels, which would have trouble rustling up the rubes to root for the next Britney. The smoking gun comes from testimony of an RIAA-backed economist who told the government fee panel that a dramatic shakeout in Webcasting is "inevitable and desirable because it will bring about market consolidation." That's really it in a nutshell. "Market consolidation" means the less artists they have to promote, the less ultimate dollars they'll spend. The smaller the playlist, the greater the chance that audiences will buy something from that playlist alone - because that's all you'll be able to find out there.

If you follow the biology link above, you'll see a clear distinction between r and K reproductive strategies. I'll summarize briefly - K strategies work in a stable, restricted environment that is near to carrying capacity (eg the Billboard chart and radio playlist, or record shop stock). In this case, the successful strategy is to have few offspring, and invest lots of effort on nurturing them and helping them to survive.

r strategies work in an unpredictable environment where you are not near the carrying capacity of the environment (the Internet). Here the successful strategy is to have huge numbers of offspring with a low investment of effort, let them loose and expect that enough will do well and survive to keep your species going.

If you're a K strategist that finds yourself in an less predictable and less closed environment than you thought, you need to move closer to the r model, and spread your seed more widely. It seems the Record Industry is doing the opposite.

Posted 11:48 PM by Kevin Marks

You must remember this...

LOS ANGELES (The Hollywood Reporter) --- The Writers Guild of America West on Tuesday threw its support behind the Directors Guild of America after a pre-emptive legal strike was made against 16 of Hollywood's best-known directors by CleanFlicks over third-party editing of DVDs and videocassettes.

"We are astounded that a company would target some of our country's most esteemed directors in a misguided effort to claim a right to alter artistic work for commercial exploitation,"

"Here in Hollywood, we're shocked, shocked to discover that commercial exploitation of artistic works has been happening."

"Your points of gross, M'sieur"

Posted 11:00 AM by Kevin Marks

Will the BBC allow freedom to edit?

The Grauniad:
...rumours - albeit completely unconfirmed - do come out of Bush House.

For instance, there's the one about a complete change in copyright philosophy: where the idea is that the licence fee payer has already paid for, and in many respects owns, all the content produced by the BBC. Thinking this way, the BBC could then allow anyone who wants to use existing BBC content to do so. The onus then will rest on the commercial operations to take on board both BBC advice, and their content, and create something better. Such a radical plan, if the rumour is accurate, would place the BBC in a unique position.

Hopefully not -the idea that you can freely create derivative works for sale, as long as anyone viewing them purchases the source works too is a strong principle. I belive this is is the rich media equivalent of the implicit right to link on the Web, and could lead to a similar flowering of creativity.

I think this is a solution to the CleanFlicks/MovieMask dispute too - that they can distribute modifed versions as long as they distribute the original uncut one too. DVD's rarely-used alternate edit feature should make this easy, but being able to add your own commentaries or alternative soundtracks is very interesting and exciting, and could help promote films just as 'Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid' or 'What's Up Tigerlily' did.

Posted 10:35 AM by Kevin Marks

Desperation

This has to be the most absurd measure I've ever seen of attempting to prevent illegal distribution of music. Found via Blogdex.

I won't even go into detailing why this is so wrong, because I think it speaks for itself. Suffice it to say, the lack of trust that exists in media companies has arrived at a truly pathetic level.

Edit: On second pass, I'll include a quote, since I remembered belatedly that the NYT requires registration to view articles:

"Writers receiving review copies of two soon-to-be-released albums... are finding the CD's already inside Sony Walkman players that have been glued shut. Headphones are also glued into the players, to prevent connecting the Walkman to a recording device."

Posted 3:06 PM by Andrea James

Artists' Rights Management?

USATODAY: [T]he artists' rights movement has set the stage for combat that could revolutionize the music industry.

What started as a classic David-and-Goliath skirmish over contractual terms could be tilting toward a level battlefield as opposition on a wide range of issues swells against an industry mired in a sales slump.

"The record business is in rough enough shape that something might actually change," says Craig Marks, editor of Blender magazine. "If things weren't so uncertain, so bleak and in such disarray, the industry would be immovable, even with a gun to its head. If there was ever a set of circumstances that could lead to artists making inroads, it's now."

Posted 9:17 PM by Kevin Marks

Studios not pirates are challenge, says IBC panel

EETimes:l
The biggest danger to Hollywood's intellectual property is not Internet video piracy nor the intractable problems of encryption and digital rights management (DRM), but Hollywood itself, according to a panel of experts convened here by the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) and chaired by Brad Hunt, chief technology officer of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

In a Pogoesque paraphrase of "We have met the enemy, and he is us," Johnathan Taplin, chairman and chief executive officer of Intertainer Inc., a Culver City, Calif.-based on-demand video service company, said: "Technology is not the problem. It's the content cartel!"

Taplin claimed that Hollywood operates a de facto monopoly on content that bottles up movies so tightly that piracy becomes the best - and often only -- way to distribute them digitally. "There is a content cartel used to running over networks that it controls," said Taplin, charging that the studios, "want to be able to control the food chain from beginning to end."

He later complains that studios want 60% of the revenue, which doesn't sound all that unreasonable to me.

Posted 9:02 PM by Kevin Marks

Bricklin thinks it through

The Recording Industry is Trying to Kill the Goose That Lays the Golden Egg

As well as pointing out the rise in cellphone use possibly causinga decrease in walkman use while travelling he makes these points:

Gifts
Not all giving others copies of music is to avoid payment. People make mixes of songs for other people as gifts. (PCs make this really easy compared to the cassette tape days.) Those songs are sometimes ones that remind them of times together because they are the main ones they listened to over and over again when working, riding in a car, at camp, etc. Those songs come from CDs, often purchased, that one or both parties own. The "gift" is the compilation -- the mix -- not the music, since they already have the music. (That's interesting, because a compilation can be an expressive thing, maybe even worthy of its own copyright protection.) Our use of music is evolving and it isn't just to save money.

What effects are there that are increasing CD sales?
The one I keep hearing about from people I know who buy many CDs is the learning about new musicians from friends, and sampling their songs through downloads and other means of sharing. Once they find out they like the musicians, they then seek out their CDs for purchase (recent and past) as well as go to their concerts. This is of great importance to the health of the music industry. Another area is buying CDs as gifts. A "real" CD is even more special today, and that makes it an even more special gift. You show you care enough to get the pretty shrink-wrapped copy, not the hand-labeled home-burned one.

Exactly. And exactly whet the promoter model of mediAgora is meant to encourage.

Posted 10:30 PM by Kevin Marks

Someone needs mediAgora

Ready when you are, JT

Posted 9:29 PM by Kevin Marks

MS reveals its real customers

The LA Times on MS's DRM policy
A number of privacy and consumer activists are concerned. More ominous for some are things Microsoft hasn't announced, such as changes in its small-type licensing agreements with those who downloaded a security patch for Media Player in the last month.
Those agreements give Microsoft the authority to disable bootlegged content or software Microsoft doesn't like--such as a peer-to-peer file-swapping application or copying mechanism--on consumers' machines.
That provision has made entertainment executives very happy, a Microsoft strategist said.
Virtually all of the proposals could be used to limit what consumers do, potentially eroding what generally has been considered the fair use of songs, television shows and movies.

Posted 12:32 AM by Kevin Marks