The Devil's in the Details or the Ongoing Saga of Internet Radio and RIAA
It appears someone has grabbed the webcasters and RIAA representatives by the scruff of the neck, thrown them into a conference room and told them to "negotiate a fair settlement or else." Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) who chairs the House Judiciary Committee and sponsored Bill HR5469, has pulled the bill from the voting schedule.
Rumors have it the two groups are finally talking about a deal based on a percentage of webcasters' revenues vs. the per-play model. If an agreement is reached it will over ride the Library of Congress' original webcast royality arrangement, which would virtually run out all internet radio stations out of business and straight into bankruptcy. [More as this is developing.]
Okay back at the ranch... Doc via Kevin, pointed me toward a LA Times article this weekend regarding the use of Plants, Shills, Paid PR Writers (pick a name or make up one,) posing as fans have cropped up on various movie oriented communities online in recent months according to writer, Patrick Goldstein. The article goes into a major explanation of how movie industry plants operate in online communities acting as a fan vs. the employee or agency. Author Goldstein also asks about the ethics of this practice, especially in this new-era of corporate responsibility.
After operating online communities for over 15+ years let me give you my not-so-humble opinion. Online communities who allow Shills to operate in their space are risking the trust of their members and readers. If members can't trust the truthfulness of the idenity and the honesty of the message posters, members will flee a website like lemmings. They will never come back. So the website operator and manager is completely screwed.
If an Online Community operator or manager discovers shills dishonestly hyping their "stuff" on their boards without permission, stating their employment, or noting it's professional publicity, the manager has no option but to remove the messages from the system, block the members from using the boards and fully disclose the facts of what they found. This full disclosure insures the trust of the visitors and members.
Over the years I have allowed professional PR and announcements to be posted on my communities because in many cases their participation was good business for my membership. However, promotion and press releases are only posted by me after reviewing for proper content guidelines and placed in a special section duly noted as promotion and PR. This allows everyone to know exactly what they are reading and its origin. Companies are allowed to participate in the boards and answer questions, when they are officially noted in their Username. (i.e. JohnDoe-Sony) If companies want more coverage and space we offer paid sponsorships and advertising.
Companies and production companies playing this game need to get a clue. Online Community managers are a very small and closed club. Many of us know one another in our specific special interest areas and have absolutely no problem in contacting a competitor directly to check something or someone out. Online Community managers have a virtual nose that can smell a shill or PR-Hack in a heartbeat and once their trust is broken with your company-- you're screwed for life.
So wake up Hollywood and play by the rules of honesty and ethical conduct.
Yesterday two of my long time predictions came to light.
Ted Turner finally has started making major league rumblings Steve Case has to go. [NYT via drudge report] I'm not surprised in the least.
AOL/TW is looking for a CIO to work with the music side of the biz' and the job description reads more like a DOD job description with phrases like: "Builds prototypes and evaluates alternatives for on-line music delivery, P2P warfare, copy protection, etc." Doc has described it as The Job from Hell. I'll second that.
I'm speechless.
Afterthought after reading NYT article: When AOL bought TW, despite the media hype to the contrary, Steve Case did not treat Ted Turner with great respect. In fact many of the AOL management, including Gerry Levin, TW Chief, were very rude to Turner. There were inside rumblings that Turner was going to be "put out to pasture" and Ted wasn't thrilled with that arrangement, especially losing direct control of his babies CNN and TNT. I personally knew that was a major mistake and no matter what Case and Turner did in business, Ted was keeping score. He always does. Turner is AOL/TW's largest single stockholder. Turner's lost 70% of the value of the stock since the merger. For Ted or anyone else with a brain this is reason enough to start asking questions and demanding answers.
I have a Visor Prisms and am looking at putting an expense account software on Doug's PDA for his work expenses. Has anyone had experience with the Pocket Quicken PDA software? Any other suggestions?
"Hey, I've learned a few things in the past few years. First of all, guys aren't babe magnets. No matter how good looking we are." Rob Scoble You're right Rob. It's the power, money, the ability to turn a quick phrase and tight buns we women lust for.
And "Rageboy, Is Sex Necessary?" asks Halley Suitt Halley, do you really need to ask that question? Ah, nebbermind you're still talking about virginity.
I've always wanted to ask Rageboy what he does in his dayjob, but after reading RageBoy's "endorsements" as the real BabeMagnet®I don't think I'll ask. I have a good imagination.
Gretchen Pirillo and I have something in common. Other than being female bloggers and loving to rag on Rageboy, we're both farm kids from Iowa. (No corn and soybean jokes, please.) It appears Chris shot a movie of her folks farm when they were back home, including the pig, geese, cows and a tour of the corn dryer. Other than the fact they have an intact mailbox and I have horses, it looks like home to me.
4:10:11 AM
Fire Embers on the Mountain Part 6 or Smokey says Mr. Rogers May Return Home With Proper ID
The past couple days of rain and cooler temperatures have been a blessing for the firefighters working the Williams Fire in the Angeles National Forest near us. The fire is nearly 85-90% contained, and has slowed down considerably holding at about 40,000 acres. With the exception of Mt. Baldy Village Area, many of the evacuated families were allowed to return to their homes yesterday. Kudos go to the FEMA Volunteers and Home Depot Community Assistance Group who provided many of the families who had lost their homes counselors to accompany them home and assistance from the Home Depot folks in knowing what it will take to rebuild or replace their homes. (Call it a 2nd opinion vs. just taking what the insurance adjuster offers.)
Tonight Mt. Baldy Village residents were allowed to return to their homes as long as they checked in with the fire station, in case of another evacuation. However extra fire protection is still in town just in case the wind or weather picks up.
Starting tomorrow the extra fire teams are being returned to their bases as other teams are mopping up and getting all the remaining hot spots put out. Next comes the long and unglamourous work of determining the total amount of the damage, getting the mountain replanted before snowfall, and helping people get their homes rebuilt.
The Devil's in the Details
Ever Want to See Mary Lu Speechless?
