Science and Technology

Because of the DMCA, the RIAA can literally extort money from “customers” beyond the supervision of the law – it kind of reminds me of the good old days of sharecropping and the company store. Remember what Tennessee Ernie Ford sang? “Load sixteen tons and what do you get? Another …

I’ve been saying this for over a year: digital music is priced WAY too high for it to be either anything close to a good deal, or for it to be appealing vs the price of FREE (not really free – it costs time, the expense of the computer, broadband, …

New Internet speed record announced by scientists: The European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, said the feat, doubling the previous top speed, was achieved in a nearly 30-minute transmission over 7,000 kms of network between Geneva and a partner body in California. CERN, whose laboratories straddle the Franco-Swiss border near …

This very informative run through copyright history and theory since the Betamax decision of 1984 is marred by just one thing: the conclusions are EXACTLY 100% wrong. It isn’t Betamax that needs to be overturned, it is the extensions of copyright over the last century past any reasonable time limit, …

The music industry will have to learn from those already living out its next incarnation.

Only a couple more weeks until Halloween, my second-favorite holiday. We are planning a Halloween Special here at Blogcritics and I’m revved about that. In the meantime, check out this calendar countdown to the big day, called Gothtober – there’s a daily fright, chuckle, amusement, etc. that began October 1 …

The Beatles refuse to license their music for online sales, with their spokesman saying, “I don’t see any reason for it at all.” This is a very neat statement of the recording industry’s attitude toward the Internet in general until file sharing forced them into the new millennium three years …

A strategic management paper [registration required] by a Wharton School legal studies professor says suing your customers is a less than ideal marketing strategy. He also finds a fascinating parallel from exactly 100 years ago: having a strong legal claim on the merits is only one factor in legal strategy …

We received this from the CEO of the Wippet online music service: We’ve all seen EMusic’s model put under pressure to ‘conform’ and end that dastardly unlimited subscription model before too many music lovers used to it and consider it the norm. And without even giving that nice .99c per …

Here is an example of how deeply file sharing has penetrated into society, and a pretty good indication that it isn’t just about money. Consider the words of Canadian quarterback Jesse Palmer, interviewed by the Toronto Star: Q If you want to chill out, what music are you going to …