DaveW points to Glenn connecting some of the dots. But Glenn stopped before the entire picture comes into view...

Glenn Reynolds comments on Delaware Senator Joe Biden's new entertainment-industry-friendly bill. "These legislative initiatives aren't just about copyright. They're about building a regime that's hostile to content that comes from anyone other than Big Media suppliers."

Here's Glenn's sentence that follows the one DaveW quoted:

That's because their real fear isn't copied Britney Spears CDs -- it's that people will abandon the crap they're selling for works by independent artists, and cut out the middlemen.

Yeppers. The bootlegged and copied CDs are covered by the inflated prices they are still charging, thanks to the CD manufacturing costs that have plummeted. The hullaballoo over the Internet Radio stations is chump change, and allows them to to be able to keep their payola schemes viable. The legislation to lay waste to any 'potentially copyright infringing files" (without any liability for mistakes or losses caused by this legal hacking) on users' computers is the real trump card to help avoid their biggest fear -- Big Media suppliers are really afraid of losing their signed talent. To do so would mean they couldn't continue to suck their blood.

Having a roving virus destroy all mp3s it comes across sure sounds like an attempt to fire a warning shot across the bow of artists considering going independent, now that their name is known.

Tom Petty and Chuck D have already tasted this real fear that exists, and both were slapped around hard by their own labels' legal beagles for attempting to release their own mp3 files via their own websites. Big name artists routing around the middlemen BS gives the music execs night sweats. Big name artists fulfilling their contracts of indentured servitude, and then going independent (and remaining successful) is what the music execs really fear. Computers have radically changed what it costs (and where you have to be) to record and produce an 'album', and the Internet drives a stake directly in the heart of the distribution vampire that used to lock artists into these insane contracts.

Once one artist makes it a reality, many others will just wait out their contracts, then game over for the Big Media vampires. I'd have to think that being able to stay home and make a living without the stress that touring (primary source of income for most artists) brings with it would have to be mighty attractive to a lot of artists...

Some artists already game the system they are currently bound to -- Prince, unpronouncable glyph, oh, whatever that Minnesota dude's name is now, and Neil Young, to name two. The Purple One has his vault filled with many unreleased tunes, thanks to his vision of owning his own recording studio. He is not bound to the record company advance to be able to record his own art.

Neil released a two CD set a while ago (1991?), Arc and Weld. The former has been described as about 72 minutes of sampled glorious guitar feedback and an occasional lyric, but it counted against his required number of albums he was under contract for. I own Arc, btw, and bought it for two reasons -- one, to support Neil in his artistic rebellion (Had I known the true breakdown of the royalty system then, I might have just copied the damn thing and mailed him a check directly.), and two, to never, ever lose a stereo war again -- which hasn't happened since that purchase, thankyouverymuch :-).

I'm waiting for some big name artist to say the hell with the Big Media vampires, and strike out on their own and succeed, operating from a home studio and an e-commerce site. I don't think it will be a long wait, either.

10:27:45 PM  [] blah blah blah'd on this    [ blinked via Scripting News ]

Mark's great Kit Tool is what helps me keep up with my 60 or so news feed. I can't imagine trying to use the default news page anymore. The Kit news page loads faster having fewer nested tables, and offers better search capapbilities, among other things (category-based colors, and so on).

Actually, I just realized it worked for me since I started using KitSuite.past.permalinkUrl for the permalink. But of course I should still fix the built-in macro.

Thus: Kit 1.1.7.

If you use Radio, you owe it to yourself to use the Kit Tool. I still owe Mark the minor shareware fee he's asking for it, too. It's on my list, Mark, honest. ;-)

7:48:08 PM  [] blah blah blah'd on this    [ blinked via markpasc.blog ]

... you reach into your pocket at work, and find the remote control for your TV in your living room.

Hmm. I wonder if it would work on cow-orkers in the weekly meeting, if it were a universal remote? ;-)

10:19:15 AM  [] blah blah blah'd on this