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 Tuesday, March 1, 2005
The backwards music business. According to a story in today's Financial Times, music companies are upset because, get this, customers are flocking to buy legal digital downloads.
For several years, the record companies have complained about unauthorized peer-to-peer file sharing. Now, they are finally generating significant revenues from users paying to receive their songs over the Net. And the labels' response is to complain that prices must be set too low. There were other, higher-priced digital download services around before Apple made 99 cents the standard price on iTunes, and they failed to catch on. That seems to suggest the current prices are in the sweet spot of the market, stimulating demand and luring users away from P2P downloads. The record companies seem to think otherwise.
In most businesses, news that customers are buying your products in droves would be met with jubilation. But in an industry used to controlling distribution chains and prices through rigid oligopolistic practices, that scenario is met with fear. Of course, if prices for legal digital downloads go up, illegal digital downloads start to look more attractive again. The labels may be about to cut off their noses to spite their faces. [Werblog]
The music industry seems to be the most likely to cut its own throat by relying on business models from the last century when its customers have moved on. The movie industry is a close second. The same non-creative types that gave us Britney Spears also want us to pay more. I guess after Apple demonstrated that the download model can work, the music industry has to kill it. Idiots. I have bought more music in the last month than I have the previous year because of iTunes. But they only think about jacking up the prices. Morons. So they will get less people buying, meaning revenues go down, meaning they have to raise prices again. 10:41:11 PM 
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Switching to a Mac - ain't ever going back: "I am finally through with that soul-stomping repository of bad karma known as my PC. And after chucking the machine down the dumpster, I won't ever look back because, folks, I've switched to the Mac." [Universal Rule]
Always nice to greet new frends. 5:57:32 PM
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Long Tail vs. Lessig. David Hornik, a smart lawyer-turned-VC friend of mine who teaches a class on Intellectual Property and Business at Stanford Business School, recently gave his students an interesting assignment: Consider the apparent contradictions between the Long Tail and the work of... [The Long Tail]
This is a very important discussion of copyright. This is a compact between the creators and society. They are given a LIMITED right for their creativity but eventually it must be returned to the public, so the public can repackage it, remix it or otherwise use it to further other creative ends. Making copyright permanent destroys this compact. That is one reason why the extension of copyright to the extent we have today is destructive. 9:10:04 AM
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In fact, if there was anything particularly striking about this year's CPAC, it is to just what extent Republicans have given up being the party of small government and individual liberty. Make absolutely no mistake about it: This party, among its most hard-core supporters, is not about freedom anymore. It is about foisting its members' version of morality and economic intervention on the country. Ryan Sager
The Right's Right
Tech Central Station.com
February 21, 2005
I don[base ']t think there are yet real fascists in the administration, but there is certainly now a constituency for them [~] hungry to bomb foreigners and smash those Americans who might object. And when there are constituencies, leaders may not be far behind. Scott McConnell
Hunger for Dictatorship
The American Conservative
February 14, 2005
In short, what we have alive in the US is an updated and Americanized fascism [that] adores the head of state as a godlike figure who knows better than anyone else what the country and world's needs, and has a special connection to the Creator that permits him to discern the best means to bring it about. Lew Rockwell
The Reality of Red-State Fascism
Lewrockwell.com
December 31, 2004
I remember when conservatives favored restraint in foreign policy and wished to limit government power in order to protect civil liberties. Today[base ']s young conservatives are Jacobins determined to use government power to impose their will at home and abroad . . . From whence came the brownshirt movement that slavishly adheres to the neocons[base '] agenda? Paul Craig Roberts
The Brownshirting of America
October 2004
From the first days after 9/11, the Bush administration created a mythology that would spur reverence for both the president and the government. Bush wrapped himself in a flag drenched with the blood of Americans who died due to the failure of the federal government he commanded, and sadly the people bought it [~] and still continue to buy it. James Bovard
Lie and You Thrive
September 17, 2004
_______________________________
It was the blindness of the conservative Right to the dangers which had been so evident, arising from their determination to eliminate democracy and destroy socialism and the consequent government stalemate they had allowed to develop, that delivered the power of a nation-state containing all the pent up aggression of a wounded giant into the hands of the dangerous leader of a political gangser mob. Ian Kershaw
Hilter: 1889-1936 Hubris
1998 [Whiskey Bar]
It is interesting when conservative voices are saying these things. Quote mining has a long history in political debates. 9:04:22 AM
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How to insult, swear, cuss, and curse in 165 languages!. Swearsaurus is the world's largest resource of multilingual swearing. It will teach you a vast array of swearing, profanity, obscenity, blasphemy, cursing, cussing, and insulting in a massive 165 languages - because it's good to experience cultural diversity!
Over 4,000 contributors have helped compile this Swearsaurus. Their aim is to include all languages. [LISNews.com]
I knew the Internets were good for something. Being able to curse in a language few people speak actually has a nice calming effect. 8:58:17 AM
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