You have probably heard it by now, but Apple has announced that all music on iTunes will be free of DRM.
iTunes is still AAC-only, so I won’t be using iTunes, myself. Still, this is a milestone in the fight against the corrupt Digital Rights Mafia.
In a stunning about-face, the Recording Industry Association of America is set to abandon its long-held policy of mass lawsuits against file-traders, opting for deals with ISPs that could eventually result in users’ Internet access being terminated.
The Wall Street Journal reports today that the RIAA has reached preliminary agreements with major ISPs. Under the deals, the RIAA would email an ISP when it detects a user illegally serving up music. The ISP would forward the note and ask the user to stop. After a few follow-ups, the user would notice his broadband service is appreciably less broad, and ultimately would simply be cut off.
Helping to transition the industry to this point has been New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, whose office kept the RIAA and ISPs talking. “We wanted to end the litigation,” said Steven Cohen, Cuomo’s chief of staff. “It’s not helpful.”
But the RIAA will not be dropping the many, many cases still outstanding. Recording Industry v The People, Ray Beckerman asks:
Meanwhile, what about the unfortunates who are presently entangled already in these unjust lawsuits? Why won’t the RIAA drop those cases too? If it was bad business to start them, why isn’t it bad business to keep on throwing good money after bad? I hope consumers will remember this 5 1/2-year reign of terror, and will shun RIAA products, and I hope the legal profession will place a black mark next to the names of those “lawyers” who participated in this foul calumny.
For its part, the RIAA says the litigation strategy was a success. Chairman Mitch Bainwol, said, “Over the course of five years, the marketplace has changed,” meaning people are much more shy about engaging in P2P filesharing.
Is this an improvement? Perhaps, but only if it means that RIAA has decided that suing their customers is now and forever a vile, business-impairing practice. Frankly, I do not give them that much credit. And remember, sharing is not piracy.
More misdeeds of the Digital Rights Mafia…
The Recording Industry Association of America has done a number of distressing, disgusting, and disgraceful things in its never-ending quest to fill its coffers with ill-gotten gains from every American with an internet connection. The news out of Pittsburgh, however, carries what we have to class as the most depraved stunt we’ve seen them pull so far.
According to the Pittsburgh ABC-affiliate, the latest amusement for the vampiric-nitwits in the RIAA’s legal department has been to sue nineteen-year-old Ciara Sauro for allegedly sharing an industry-crushing ten songs online. […] The evil file-sharer they’ve decided to go after is no iPod-toting high school student with a P2P fetish — she’s a disabled pancreatitis patient who has to be hospitalized weekly while she waits for an islet cell transplant. Now, thanks to the RIAA’s steamroll-for-justice campaign, she’s on the hook for $8,000 — in addition to the mounting medical bills she and her mother already can’t afford to pay.
[…]
Although we really didn’t think it possible, we’re left with an even lower opinion of the RIAA than we had before — and a few choice phrases we’re too polite to print. The acrid taste left by their actions is tempered, though, by the knowledge that Ciara Sauro now has an experienced advocate of her own. We wish her a speedy resolution to the matter at hand, a healthy transplant, and a rapid recovery.
(from Linux Journal, RIAA preys on teen in need of transplant)
I am so sick of the Digital Rights Mafia and the media robber barons depicting ordinary consumers as “pirates“. A college student who buys a CD and then shares it with her friends is not a pirate. A single mother who earns $15,000 a year who uses an unlicensed copy of Adobe Photoshop to eke out a living is not a pirate. A gamer who pays good money for Bioshock and then hacks it so that it won’t install a rootkit on his computer is not a pirate. Have they violated a license? Maybe, maybe not — but they are definitely not pirates.
Enough of this “pirate” bullshit. Enough.
Serendipity is a curious thing. I was looking for the video for the Missing Persons song, “Destination Unknown”, (video), when I found a very different “Destination Unknown”, apparently by Crystal Waters and someone named Alex Gaudino. One word before I link to the video: this is not safe for work (NSFW). It doesn’t have nudity, but it is pretty racy (but no more risque than “So You Think You Can Dance”, in my opinion). Okay, you have been warned, here is the video. I did not embed it here, because, as I said, it is not safe for work, and I would hate to surprise anyone who clicked the video before reading this explanation.
I really like this video. The song is catchy, and it is really well arranged — the way it dies down, and then picks up. And the video itself, aside from the cheesecake factor, is really well done. Fading in on the drumming, or the girls in the marching band smacking their fannies in time to the clapping crowd. It really gets my feet tapping. And yes, of course it’s sexy, but it’s sexy without being vulgar (in my opinion). I am pretty easily turned off by vulgarity, but this is just… fun.
That’s my opinion, anyway.
Of course, watching YouTube is like eating M&Ms — you can’t stop at just one (or two). So here are a couple of gems from the Muppet Show that have a special place in my heart:
Amazon is really putting some effort into making DRM-free MP3s commercially viable. They have a “Five for five Friday” deal where five albums are $5 each. That’s not bad at all. You might consider checking them out.
Warning: shareaza.com has been suborned by scammers. For Shareaza updates, always go to http://shareaza.sourceforge.net.
In case you needed more reasons to hate the media robber barons, the Digital Rights Mafia, and their government shills, here’s an article from Crave.
Diamond Dave will be appearing on Late Night with Conan O’Brien Thursday July 13th, 2006. The performance will be in support of the Van Halen tribute album, Strummin’ With The Devil – The Southern Side of Van Halen. Dave will be performing “Jamie’s Cryin'” with his bluegrass friends.
For more information: http://www.nbc.com/Late_Night_with_Conan_O’Brien/
Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq:AMZN –news) said on Wednesday the company will launch a digital music store later in 2007 with millions of songs, free of copy protection technology that limits where consumers can play their music.
(from Yahoo! News, Amazon to sell digital music free of copy curbs)
Way to go, Amazon. Great move.
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