| William H. Magill on Sun, 4 May 2003 16:07:06 -0400 |
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On Sunday, May 4, 2003, at 01:40 PM, zeek wrote: The New York Times, May 4, 2003 Software Bullet Is Sought to Kill Musical Piracy By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN That would be very interesting. The act of illegally (i.e. without PRIOR permission) accessing any computer or database is already a Felony under Federal Law. (As well as Pennsylvania State Law.) Causing destruction of said computer or database, ups the penalties a notch or two. Furthermore, the idea that Hollywood would be willing to accept the idea that one can destroy private or personal property on whim (ie without due process) is one that they might discover would suddenly backfire. I would guess that 90% of Hollywood's computer capacity would go "poof" overnight. Some of the biggest "piracy" folks I know are imbedded in the music business; they don't pay for anything because they believe it is "their right" to get the stuff the produce and sell -- for free. The other problem which the fools in the RIAA fail to recognize is that piracy is NOT the reason for reduced "music sales." Pedaling crap is. Especially in a sour economy, people are a bit more discerning in their musical tastes. They have also "grown up." They don't like the idea of being forced to put up with 58 minutes of real crap in order to get two minutes of enjoyment. Hollywood's A and R people have gotten far to distant from their music buying public. And as has happened with both the Dixie Chicks and Madonna, the era when the idea that an "artist" can shoot off their mouth at the various award events and "nobody will care," is over. "Tude" isn't a winner any more, but the A&R folks haven't figured that out. The music business is changing again, and to quote Bob Dillon, "Something is happening, Mr. Jones, but you don't know what it is. Do you Mr. Jones." Being a long time "Taper" at Dead shows, I applaud Jobs' efforts at Apple. 99 cents a track is a damm good price. ... Funny, but 16 tracks on a CD equals $16.00. Except that the 16 tacks are "good tracks," that is, the ones I want! I think this is a marketing scheme that is going to fly. Coupled with the new "music sharing" features in iTunes, I think that the entire music industry is going to be very upset with Mr. Pixar (what Jobs does when isn't pushing Apples) when he starts making music money off Apple's "less than 10% market share." (You CAN burn CD's with those downloaded tunes.) The "pundits" are speculating that a Windows version of the service will be available "next year." I suspect that once they get the "load bugs" out of the server farm it will be releases. The load has already surpassed expectations, and the service is not even two weeks old yet. Will there be a Linux version (where Linux=Linux on x86)? Interesting question. Obviously, if you run a PowerPC version of Linux, there is much more probability that a version will be made available if the service "catches on." ... of course me ever getting a copy for Linux on Alpha is seriously nil. T.T.F.N. William H. Magill # Beige G3 - Rev A motherboard - 768 Meg # Flat-panel iMac (2.1) 800MHz - Super Drive - 768 Meg # PWS433a [Alpha 21164 Rev 7.2 (EV56)- 64 Meg]- Tru64 5.1a magill@mcgillsociety.org magill@acm.org magill@mac.com _________________________________________________________________________ Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org Announcements - http://lists.netisland.net/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce General Discussion -- http://lists.netisland.net/mailman/listinfo/plug
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