Thought you might be interested in a new music curation project I’ve started.

Home taping is killing music. Just like the old days.

< / self promotion >

Tags: mp3_blog, home_taping, killing_music, music_curation, self_promotion

Well at least, world’s craziest globe that actually purports to be fully accurate. I spent hours of amusement last night looking at this. Cmon, everyone knows that South Korea is really called “Saurla,” Japan is really “Lapan,” Antarctica is just “Tartica,” and Scotland should be “Scotlano.” More wonderful inaccuracies here.

Tags: "world", "globe", "maps", "inaccuracies"

Altanta rappers DJ Drama and Don Cannon, famous for their Gansta Grillz Mixtapes, were arrested last night in a big bust of their so-called “bootleg” CDs. These were not counterfeited CDs as the RIAA claims, but instead freestyle rap mixtapes that were often used to hype new releases.

In the video we see a representative of the RIAA, who appears to have initiated the whole operation in conjunction with law enforcement. These are not criminals—they’re artists doing something that DJs have done for ages. Free the DJs!

(One thing I’m confused about, though, is the supposed release of a Gansta Grillz Mixtape on an RIAA label.. Are they arresting their own?)

Tags: dj_drama, don_cannon, gansta_grillz, hip_hop, bootleg, mixtapes, riaa, copyright

Okay, so I have not yet seen it, but reliable sources tell me it’s excellent. This Film Is Not Yet Rated exposes the MPAA’s rating system, something that they’ve tried very hard to keep under wraps.

The irony, is of course, that the MPAA originally rated the film NC-17. From the Wikipedia entry:

The MPAA gave the original cut of the film an NC-17 rating for ‘some graphic sexual content’, during scenes showing what actions a film would include to garner an NC-17 rating, although the current film is not rated.

Didn’t you always wonder why movies rated “12+” in other countries get R ratings in the US? I sure do.

(Also, apparently the MPAA admitted to making mutiple copies of the single copy provided by the filmmaker to the MPAA for ratings purposes. Can we say “ironic”?)

Tags: mpaa, film_ratings, nc-17, this_film_is_not_yet_rated, censorship

Hey kids, guess what? AOL is entering a new market—that of movie downloads. (Oh wait, they already tried this over two years ago.) Priced at $10-$20 each, no capability to burn to DVD, and Windows Media DRM, it’s sure to be a hit. (Oh wait, that won’t even work on your iPod.)**

First, when will those who wish to sell downloads realize that the cost of digital distribution is virtually zero—that is, to copy an additional file. Sure, there is overhead involved in having a centralized distribution mechanism, but technologies like those of BitTorrent enable the bandwidth costs to be shared by the users. Plain and simply, digital downloads should cost less, because they’re cheaper to produce.

Second, what about the long term viability of DRMed files? At least with an mp3, or even a physical DVD, you know that it will probably work in a few years. The restrictions that DRM impose mean that it’s very likely that after you have a new computer or two, or portable video player, or even re-install your system software, you won’t be able to access the file. And not to mention that the DRM AOL is using only works on Windows Media players, and will only work on Windows-based computers or portable players that don’t use the standard. (No wonder even media industry DRM advocates are now saying DRM doesn’t prevent piracy, but is instead key to consumer lock-in.)

So, I think it’s a safe bet that this will be yet another flop, and users will stick to such things as BitTorrent, YouTube, and even Netflix for their viewing pleasure…

**Also, I realize some people might say that if Apple were to license their DRM to people like AOL (which it has been notorious for not doing), it would work on iPods. Clearly Apple is no better than Microsoft in this sense, and some even claim that Apple could be worse when it comes to DRM and consumer lock-in. Call me completely idealistic, but I have an even better solution for everyone: no DRM! (And even some major players in the media industry are starting to think so.)

Tags: aol, video, movies, download, dvd, drm, mpaa, apple, unreasonable,

Steal this film is a short documentary examining the impact of file sharing on the media industry, and the political movement that has grown out of p2p. Part one is out (streaming: Part 1a, Part 1b; torrents: iPod version, Regular version) and has some great interviews with people from the Pirate Bay, Pirat Byran, and the Swedish Pirate Party. (All covered by a recent Wired news special report here and here.)

You can even contribute your suggestions for the second installation of the film.

Tags: pirate_bay, pirate_party, sweden, piracy, piratbyran, bittorrent, video, steal_this_film

In a recent Forbes article entitled “Don’t Marry Career Women,” you’d probably think it was more likely to come from The Onion:

Guys: A word of advice. Marry pretty women or ugly ones. Short ones or tall ones. Blondes or brunettes. Just, whatever you do, don’t marry a woman with a career.

Why? Because if many social scientists are to be believed, you run a higher risk of having a rocky marriage. While everyone knows that marriage can be stressful, recent studies have found professional women are more likely to get divorced, more likely to cheat, less likely to have children, and, if they do have kids, they are more likely to be unhappy about it. A recent study in Social Forces, a research journal, found that women-even those with a “feminist” outlook-are happier when their husband is the primary breadwinner.

So please, not like this social research is tarnished by the gender societal inequalities itself, so we’ll all be happier if we preserve the status quo and ensure that the men have the power.

And attention all women marrying women: do not marry a career one!

Tags: forbes, feminism, fifties, gender_bias, unreasonable

Slashdot is running an article on the campaign to get rid of the caps lock key. Caps off, as the group is called, assures us that the world would be a far better place with a much more useful key in that position.

Hey, I’m all for it. When was the last time you purposefully used the caps lock key? When was the last time it was on by mistake and no wonder why all of your passwords didn’t work? Enough said.

Tags: caps_lock, caps_off, keyboard, slashdot, unreasonable