Saturday, October 05, 2002

Another sickening saga in the music industry's jihad against the wired world. The best spin I can put on this is that the music industry's incessant push to control digital versions of artists' content will act like a virus for the Internet - we'll all be sick for a while, but then the immune system will take over and we'll be stronger. The RIAA jerks need to get a clue about network effects. Online access to music increases the potential audience and popularity of artists. The real issue here is that the music labels/studios are about to get disintermediated - online networks can connect the fans/consumers directly with the content producers (artists), leaving the studios with no value in the distribution channel. If the RIAA would get lined up with the interests of artists instead of their own, we wouldn't be having this debate. We'd be talking about how to ramp up online use of music and how many cents per copy the artist gets. comment []8:28:37 AM

This is a sad side note to the tech meltdown. Pretty much all the really great airplane reading - like Forbes ASAP - is gone. I remember seeing a copy of ASAP in 1994, and thinking that the editor had crawled inside my head, found everything in which I was interested and written about it - I guess he hit my demographic. Another crop of rags will emerge over time, but I hate seeing my favorites die. comment []8:14:32 AM

I agree with Bruce Sterling: This toy from NASA is the coolest thing I've seen in a long time! Your tax dollars at work. comment []7:58:48 AM

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