It's easy, it's fair and it's legal?
28 April 2003
Apple has released a new version of its iTunes music player and cd burning software, which now includes an integrated "Music Store" where users can buy and download songs for 99 cents each. Now, of course I'm interested whenever new developments threaten to change how we make, promote, distribute and consume music. But I approach such developments cautiously when big record companies are involved, as they are in this case. I've been disappointed again and again by how groups like the RIAA (as well as certain [formerly?-]big-name-stars, like Metallica) blindly cling to outmoded notions of authorship and intellectual property as they assert what seem to me to be almost embarrassingly self-serving agendas -- such as, for example, when they've fought to control and/or monetize peer to peer file sharing over the internet.
Which is why I hesitate to openly accept Apple's claim that buying and downloading music through their Music Store is "fair." How are the record companies involved, exactly? And the artists? In apple.com's words, "The iTunes Music Store is fast and convenient for you, and fair to the artists and record companies. In a nutshell, you can play your music on up to three computers, enjoy unlimited synching with your iPods, burn unlimited CDs of individual songs, and burn unchanged playlists up to 10 times each."
So. 99 cents per song, plus some strings attached ("up to three computers", "up to 10 times each"). Where does each cent go? What's Apple's share, I wonder? And can new, unsigned artists sell music at the Music Store, by-passing the record companies? So many questions...
Spring
23 April 2003
Yea, bikes -- dot net!
18 April 2003
"Zines lead me to a world of civil disobedience and anarchy..."
Recommended
14 April 2003
Frigid evenings on Alcatraz. That's one powerful view of the City through prison bars.
Fast nights in North Beach, Chinatown. Where better to go for books and poetry and cityscapes and quite-clearly-insane Buddha bartenders?
Boogaloo breakfast in the heart of the Mission. 11am hungover hipsters.
Norcal, 1967
8 April 2003
This sounds to me a bit like what this looks like:
I want to write a song that sounds like what this looks like:
We're neighbors
3 April 2003
My computer's wireless network card tells me it finds the following wireless networks within range of itself:
alaska
cantina
lynksis
963 Page International
Just a few weeks ago, it was just alaska and cantina. Interesting. I may soon know more neighboring computers than neighboring people.