Saturday, November 24, 2007
Little Eddy Blog #12 Happy Holidays
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Saturday, November 17, 2007
Little Eddie Blog #11, "I'm Back!"
Okay, so I goofed off last week. I let others write my blog. (Stole from others, you mean!) So sue me. I think it was really important to let Jammie Thomas tell her story in her own words. I’m not going to enter the Radiohead, comscore debate, I have never even heard the band Radiohead, my current musical tastes evolved from Bing Crosby and Kay Kyser’s Kollege of Musical Knowledge to folk music which in turn and with age blossomed into The Beatles and Pink Floyd, and in spite of my sons’ earnest attempts to bring me up to date in the realm of music I pretty much cling to what I know and like. But the Radiohead move to offer their album online for whatever the user wanted to pay for it is perhaps one of the most ingenious moves by a band yet. It might have worked better if the user had been able to listen to the album before fixing on a price. Perhaps that was the way it was done, it certainly would make more sense to do it that way. At any rate, any attempt to do away with the established music industry whose RIAA is fighting its ongoing war on music lovers, is certainly a giant step in the right direction.
– • –
I get up at six am each morning, and at the same time my iMac’s energy saver program wakes my computer up from sleep. I go about my business, emptying ye ole bladder, brushing what little is left of my hair, washing my face, turning on the coffeepot, getting dressed and finally cleaning off my glasses. By the time I have finished it is after 6:10 and a handy little program called iKey has opened my Mozilla Mac OS X web brower Camino and taken it to http://www.chron.com and I can sit down and read the morning’s news. There’s only one thing wrong with this. Every time I happen to glance to the top of the page I’m reminded that I am not logged in. Later when I go to the Washington Post and to the New York Times I am greeted with the phrase “welcome eddybad,” and it makes me feel right at home, but every day chron.com nags me to log in. Fellas, logging in is so Yesterday! So Twentieth Century! Chron.com if you’re curious about who I am please put a cookie in my web browser that tells you who I am just like the Post and Times do. Otherwise I’ll log in if and when I have a comment to leave, but otherwise, it’s early in the morning, I haven’t had my coffee yet, and logging in is Drag One. But you run a great online newspaper though, even if you do nag. I am especially enamored with your Tuesday technology section, and Dwight Silverman’s daily TechBlog. And especially I am hooked on his LinkPost columns. I also check out The Tech Chronicles from the San Francisco Chronicle and Todd Bishop’s Microsoft Blog from the Seattle Post Intelligencer both of which have links on the technology page. In his Friday 11-16 Tech Blog Dwight Silverman published the following:
I wanna rock 'n' roll all night, and litigate every day! Gene Simmons: You kids, get off my lawn!
Gene Simmons – the tongue-wagging bassist from the seminal, pseudo-metal hair band KISS – doesn't see much of a reason to release new music in the digital age. In an interview with Billboard by way of Reuters, Simmons blames college students for the downfall of the music business:
IT HAS BEEN NINE YEARS SINCE WE'VE SEEN A NEW KISS ALBUM. ANY PLANS TO GET BACK INTO THE STUDIO? The record industry is in such a mess. I called for what it was when college kids first started download music for free – that they were crooks. I told every record label I spoke with that they just lit the fuse to their own bomb that was going to explode from under them and put them on the street.
There is nothing in me that wants to go in there and do new music. How are you going to deliver it? How are you going to get paid for it if people can just get it for free? I will be putting out a Gene Simmons box set called "Monster" – a collection of 150 unreleased songs. KISS will have another box set of unreleased music in the next year.
The record industry doesn't have a [. . .] clue how to make money. It's only their fault for letting foxes get into the henhouse and then wondering why there's no eggs or chickens. Every little college kid, every freshly-scrubbed little kid's face should have been sued off the face of the earth. They should have taken their houses and cars and nipped it right there in the beginning. Those kids are putting 100,000 to a million people out of work. How can you pick on them? They've got freckles. That's a crook. He may as well be wearing a bandit's mask.
Simmons is right in one sense. The recording industry doesn't have a clue, but not for the reason he's suggesting. He was also asked in this interview about the experimental approach to pricing taken by Radiohead with its In Rainbows album, and Trent Reznor's plan to move to independent distribution.
That doesn't count. You can't pick on one person as an exception. And that's not a business model that works. I open a store and say "Come on in and pay whatever you want." Are you on [. . . ] crack? Do you really believe that's a business model that works?
Apparently, it has worked for Radiohead, which recently dismissed as inaccurate a comSense report that 62 percent of the folks who bought In Rainbows. However, Radiohead is not saying just how many people downloaded the album, nor what they actually paid. Still, in public statements, the band seems pleased.
And why shouldn't they be? Whatever buyers pay, a much larger cut is going to end up in the band's collective pockets. The only losers in this case are the record labels who are cut out of the deal.
It's hard to tell how many Neanderthal musicians such as Simmons are out there, but fortunately many of them do understand the new opportunities that lay before them. One is U2's Bono, who is offering an unreleased song from The Joshua Tree sessions via the iLike application on Facebook. U2 will probably sell more copies of the updated version of that classic CD as a result – and many will probably be snatched up the by the freckle-faced college kids Gene Simmons wants to sue.
Yeah. Somebody doesn't have a clue . . .
Good news: This fellow Sir Paul McSomebody, says, as reported by Billboard Magazine, that the full Beatles catalogue will be available online next year. "[I]t's all happening soon. Most of us are all sort of ready. The whole thing is primed, ready to go — there's just maybe one little sticking point left, and I think it's being cleared up as we speak, so it shouldn't be too long," said sir Paul. "It's down to fine-tuning, but I'm pretty sure it'll be happening next year, 2008."
McCartney adds that any delays in bringing the Fabs' music to the Internet have been due to "contractual" issues, as well as deliberate planning by all parties involved. "You've got to get these things right," he explained. "You don't want to do something that's as cool as that and in three years time you think, 'Oh God, why did we do that?!’"
“And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make!”
“Sort of ready” is perhaps the understatement of the year. It should be pointed out that all of the Beatles’ individual post Beatles solo albums have been available on iTunes for some months now.
Meantime no less than Edgar Bronfman, chief honcho at Warner Music, now faults his industry in it’s ongoing battle with the lovers of its product. Bronfman is from a Canadian Distillery family (Seagrams) a man who loved music and entertainment, and who left the family liquor business to get into the music and entertainment some years ago. Interestingly, on his Wikipedia page Bronfman admits his children have downloaded music from the internet, but feels that their “punishment” should remain in the family, not in the legal system. It’s a shame he doesn’t promulgate that idea among his RIAA partners. What follows reports on a talk he made at a mobile phone convention and is from Mac User online.
The boss of Warner Music has made a rare public confession that the music industry has to take some of the blame for the rise of p2p file sharing. Speaking at the GSMA Mobile Asia Congress in Macau, Edgar Bronfman told mobile operators that they must not make the same mistake that the music industry made. "We used to fool ourselves,' he said. "We used to think our content was perfect just exactly as it was. We expected our business would remain blissfully unaffected even as the world of interactivity, constant connection and file sharing was exploding. And of course we were wrong. How were we wrong? By standing still or moving at a glacial pace, we inadvertently went to war with consumers by denying them what they wanted and could otherwise find and as a result of course, consumers won."
Mobile operators risk the same, he said. Fewer than 10% of mobile owners buy music on their handset, the vast majority of which is ringtones. "The sad truth is that most of what consumers are being offered today on the mobile platform is boring, banal and basic," he said. "People want a more interesting form of mobile music content. They want it to be easy to buy with a single click - yes, a single click, not a dozen. And they want access to it, quickly and easily, wherever they are. 24/7. Any player in the mobile value chain who thinks they can provide less than a great experience for consumers and remain competitive is fooling themselves."
Bronfman suggested that mobile companies have much to learn from Apple, despite being critical of and iTunes in the past. "For years now, Warner Music has been offering a choice to consumers at Apple's iTunes store the option to purchase something more than just single tracks, which constitute the mainstay of that store's sales," he explained. "By packaging a full album into a bundle of music with ringtones, videos and other combinations and variations we found products that consumers demonstrably valued and were willing to purchase at premium prices. And guess what? We've sold tons of them. And with Apple's co-operation to make discovering, accessing and purchasing these products even more seamless and intuitive, we'll be offering many, many more of these products going forward."
And the iPhone and iPod touch shows that approach can be made to work on mobile platforms, he said, "You need to look no further than Apple's iPhone to see how fast brilliantly written software presented on a beautifully designed device with a spectacular user interface will throw all the accepted notions about pricing, billing platforms and brand loyalty right out the window. And let me remind you, the genesis of the iPhone is the iPod and iTunes - a music device and music service that consumers love." Bronfman appears to be experiencing an epiphany when it comes to digital music. From threatening to withdraw from iTunes and suggesting that to drop DRM would be "without logic or merit", he is now heaping praise on Apple and recently opened a DRM-free section on Warner's own Classics and Jazz music store. – Simon Aughton Mac User
At least the man knows how to publicly admit he was wrong. Would that this malady would spread to his brethren in the recording and music industry. Meantime the artist who used to be a Prince after a past of being somewhat sympathetic with music downloading has turned full circle and has brought suit against Pirates Bay, a well known bit torrent search engine website. And Democratic lawmakers in the House have attached legislation to a spending bill that will force colleges and universities to turn in their downloading students, or else have all of their students, even those who don’t download, lose their government funding. What kind of an undemocratic idea is that? Can you say Democratic Corporate Lackeys?
The Wall Street Journal reports on the latest attempt to turn free music downloading into a money making business. It is a website called: Rcrd Lbl (pronounced: Record Label) -- will be a test case. The new venture will give away the music drm free and enlist advertisers to cover costs. It is a joint venture between Downtown Records, an independent label behind Gnarles Barkley and others, and Reter Rojas, a journalist and entrepreneur who founded the respected technology blogs Gizmodo and Endgadget. The company has signed up three sponsors so far: Richard Branson’s Virgin America Airline, Nikon Corp, and PPR SA’s Puma AG sneaker unit. The site will also include short articles, social-networking features and internet radio stations. More is here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119508767828793513.html
And from chron.com’s TechBlog Linkpost 11-15-2007 comes the following comment from a reader: Of course RIAA isn't close to the same epiphany, they are acting as gatekeepers and a conduit for income streams. They are a bureaucracy whose very existence is threatened. They are dominated by bean counters and lawyers.
The main problem is that the RIAA profits from a dying business model. Anything that has the potential to bypass their services is income lost to them. They are running scared and the courts offer the only apparent safe refuge. Alas, they are chewing off their own foot to escape from the trap of change. They may get away for the moment, but they create their own ultimate demise.
Their impetus to change will come from their clients whose royalties they collect and distribute. Every new group or musician or writer that eschews RIAA's services and seeks to profit directly from their customers are the ultimate agents of change. Posted to Chron. com by: David at November 15, 2007 10:37 AM
– • –
After a couple of weeks of sporting slightly ruffled feathers Hillary Clinton got her campaign back on track Thursday night in the CNN Democratic Presidential Candidates debate in Las Vegas. For one thing, it was chaired by Wolf Blitzer, a far more neutral chair than was Tim Russert who in the previous NBC sponsored debate managed to skewer Hillary equally along with Edwards and Obama. The crowd in Vegas reacted to Obama’s and Edwards’ barbs with boos and after about ten minutes of this kind of reaction they wisely began to temper their comments. And virtually every so-called pundit who was heard after the debate conceded that Hillary did herself proud.
And so although it is way to early to predict the outcome of the upcoming Democratic primaries it does begin to look as if there is a possible Clinton in our democratic future. And unlike the Republican take on the situation, real people with true democratic inclinations realize that the eight years of a Bill Clinton administration were truly golden years, eight years of a sound economy, of an admistration conscientiously shrinking the huge Republican deficits of the Reagan and Bush 1 years. It was eight years of no war, of improving, not trashing America’s image on the world stage. And eight years of Truth, not the falsehoods and fabrications of the current Republican Bush Administration. Bill Clinton successfully led the nation through it’s crises, handling things like the bombing of the Cole and African embassies, the burning of black churches in the south, and the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City with skill and charisma. But best of all, unlike Republican presidents who despise the federal government and staff it with incompetents at best and poachers at worst, Clinton had the smarts to put effective people running his government. Under Clinton the government was rolling and was an institution you could be proud of.
The fact was that Bill Clinton was able to lead the country so effectively in spite of the best efforts of a full time Republican Trashing Industry, which poked their highly partisan noses into every part of Clinton’s past, and finally could only settle on his relationship with a young lady who was of age and we presume of sound mind, and who had proudly announced to friends before leaving for her Washington interneship that she was going there to earn her Presidential Kneepads. Come on, how many real men out there would resist a young lady who wanted only to give him oral pleasure. For shame, you Republican hypocrites who chase after Washington’s young male interns and who tap your feet seductively in airport mens’ rooms, also you “lying swiftboater” sleazeballs who wouldn’t know the truth if it came up and hit you full in the face. You assholes think you’re going to have a field day with Hilary, but you just might find that the worm turns, and maggots have been known to feed on the the flesh of Republican liars just fine. All in all, from the perspective of the middle of November, 2008 looks like one hell of an interesting political year.
– • –
Speaking of interesting, ever notice how everything in our educational institutions stresses the necessity for using authority for all extrapolations. This implies that all ideas not reinforced with the citing of authority are somehow suspect and/or invalid. But this flies in the face of logic. It has made the academic community lazy and devious. And it has propagated many false ideas among the populace. It is also an impediment to true progress in areas where there is no prior authority to cite. And as a side effect what it has done is propagate a way of thinking that leaves the drawing of conclusions to others. Thus the popularity of pundits in politics, and so-called experts in legal fields and the military. This voluntary deference of judgement hereby absolves us of the possibility of our having to make a mistake ourselves by inferring that our individual observation is of no consquence in the first place. And it has led us to the position of being led by experts who in all too many cases are not really qualified to lead anyone anywhere.
But the problem with turning our judgement over to the so-called expert echoes the problem the military faces every time it tries to fight the next war in the same way it had successfully conducted the previous one. The fact is each enemy is different. And each army must exchange what is known and what is comfortable for what is new and untested. Generals and war planners must use their imaginations, and that is a subject that is not taught in military college. In fact imagination is a gift which is very suspect in the minds of the military, as it can’t be quantified or verified by past actions. And the same is generally true that each political campaign as well as each legal campaign is different.
What this has meant is that from grade school through wherever our education has taken us, we have been very subtly taught to distrust our own senses, to not value our own perceptions. Instead we have been encouraged to rely on the perceptions of so-called experts. And yet, if we realize and recognize it, each of us is an expert on our own body and our own situation and our own perceptions. We are the master of our own particular piece of the universe. It takes a certain amount of courage to look at a situation and form an opinion of it, but the effort is one that is always well worthwhile.
One needs to resist having opinions force fed into us but instead use our powers of observation and reason to determine for ourselves what is what. If the general population had been encouraged to do this we would never have swallowed the pack of half-truths and out and out lies which were used to ensnare us into that completely futile campaign in Iraq. It is a shame but selling that skewed data to the United Nations has ruined Colin Powell from any further meaningful public service; honorable man as he is, who would buy a used war from the likes of him? I would like to think that Mr. Bush has so poisoned the environment for wars that in the future Republican or Democrat alike will have no success short of an out and out Pearl Harbor type attack on the country. Which of course is as it should be, for with but a few exceptions America has no history of arbitrarily starting wars as we did in Iraq, and before that in Viet Nam and Korea, and which Bush and Cheney seem to be trying to lay the groundwork for in Iran.
And it is high time that we Americans ceased allowing our presidents and the State Department and CIA and armed forces to back every tin horn dictatorship in the world in the interest of “protecting us from the evils of communism.” The primary evil of communism is that it takes the power and resources from the rich, and gives it to those it considers politically relevant. This is not a good thing, granted, but it’s no more unfair than the typical South American type dictatorship in which only the wealthy have all the power as well as the money and which our military helps prop up by giving their military special training. Jimmie Carter is right, we should only back true democracies, even those tilted to the left, but only those whose political structure reflects the aspirations of its people.
And while we’re on the topic as a father and a grandfather, it is a disconcerting to see BushtheFather’s now and again in public agony over the public skewering of his son, but the man needs to face the facts. BushtheSon by shunning in practice the very “bringing together” he professed in running for office and having gone about doing what he pleased with no input from the majority of Americans, has earned every invective a weary, grossed out public can come up with. We would suggest W. try some of the following on for size: dogged, hard, hardened, hardheaded, hardhearted, headstrong, immovable, implacable, inflexible, mulish, obdurate, opinionated, ossified, pat, peevish, pertinacious, perverse, pigheaded, rigid, self-willed, stubborn, unbending, uncompromising, unrelenting, unyielding, willful (or wilful); or if you would prefer, hidebound, narrow-minded; resistant, wayward, wrongheaded; persistent, tenacious; iron, relentless; grim, severe, stern, strict; determined, firm, inexorable, resolved, single-minded, steadfast, sure, unflinching; contrary, disobedient, froward (habitually disposed to disobedience and opposition), insubordinate, intractable, recalcitrant, refractory, uncooperative, ungovernable, unmanageable, unruly; defiant, insurgent, mutinous; indomitable; confirmed, inveterate, unregenerate.
Most of BushtheFather’s advisors in the past have wisely advised BushtheSon against the path he ultimately chose, and he owes his 2000 election victory to James Baker, his father’s Secretary of State who successfully pleaded W.’s case before the Supreme Court, but obviously W. preferred to listen to the Cheney’s and Wolfowitz’s of the world rather than listen to the voices of sanity and reason. I grant you BushtheFather, it’s a damned shame, but it’s no one’s fault but his own. BushtheSon obviously slept through Civics and Government classes, and people elected him because they thought, like father like son, and they were so terribly wrong. – • –
Occasionally I mention the 81 years I have been observing this world, and I do it to point out how our country and its people have changed during all of these years. It has changed in many, many ways, but certainly one way as been our public attitude towards sex. And most particularly sex among children. When I was growing up the really bright and inquisitive children I knew discovered sex frequently at an early age. When I was in elementary school a classmate of mine was regularly having sex with a female classmate. They seemed to really love and care for one another and were going at it so hot and heavy that when her parents found out the father changed jobs and the girl’s family moved to a faraway city so as to break up their tryst. The young man whose name I won’t mention here grew up to become a psychologist and there’s no telling how many young ladies he was able to lead down the path to fulfillment during the many years that followed.
Since the beginning of time children have experimented with other children, and in some cases with sympathetic adults to learn the whys and wherefores of their body and the pleasures they could obtain therein. When I was a child there was nothing particularly wrong with this. Adults never want their children to indulge in sex simply because it can be a force so powerful they are afraid children will be so absorbed they might neglect and let falter other aspects of their lives like their schoolwork. However, it was not the sin and the abuse that today’s society labels it. Bright, inquisitive kids indulged in it to the extent they could find the time and place, and no particular harm was done. After all, when we grow up we will have to live with and have sex with a member of the opposite sex so we that we can procreate and carry on the human race. And how could it be that obtaining prior experience would actually hurt one? Surely you would not want to be flown by a pilot with no training or experience. Nor be cut open by a surgeon who opted out of anatomy classes in medical school. Why embark on a life with a partner with neither knowing what the hell they are doing? However nowadays society is in such a sorry state that a five year old boy who kisses a five year old girl in kindergarten gets himself prosecuted and labeled as a sex offender. Absurd but it happened. And what is even more frightening boys bring automatic weapons to schools to eliminate classmates and teachers. Teenagers have always had problems with suicide, even way back in my time. But teenagers did not use automatic weapons to end the lives of others until recently. Once would be one time too many, but it has happened more than once. And several more cases were nipped in the bud before they happened.
I would like to propose a cause of the problem. It may or may not be correct, what the hell do I know? But it is this. Children grow up these day entangled in a web of lies and unspoken truths by the adults in this world. As I was growing up, it was possible to read about sex in novels. Particularly sexual discovery while growing up. But that changed when publishers began publishing novels with the idea of selling them for films. Films do not deal in sexual discovery when growing up. And of course, the popular media, television, ignores that aspect of life altogether. And so begins what I call the great disconnect. Parents, teachers, etc. pretend that what feels good, sex, is bad, is not done, even doesn’t exist. Abstinence is promulgated as the way to go. Purity (ie ignorance) is worshiped. Now this works with some children, but others are obviously festering in their frustration. And in some, with strong undercurrents of destruction and suicide running through their veins, disaster is just waiting to happen.
I could be full of it. But something in the fabric of our society is frayed, devastatingly frayed. And the solution won’t be in reinforcing the values of our society as they are being taught and practiced these days, for obviously it isn’t working. My solution is to apply some John Lennon to society’s mix: Give me a little truth. See things as they really are for a change, don’t mistake idealism for realism. See life not through some experts or pundits eyes, see life through your own eyes. And convey what you see as honestly as you are able to your child.
I write erotic stories, I’ve explained why before, I’ll not go there again today. To me its neat to use words to bring pleasure to others. And I think bringing sexual pleasure is among the most immediate forms of pleasure words can bring our fellow human beings. Not that erotica pleases all. But we do the best we can, and we write for those who enjoy it.
Uncle Pan’s latest story is called Polly’s Confession for Dr. Throckmorton and is available on his page: http://storiesonline.net/auth/Uncle_Pan It is written in the words of a little girl who discovers how to pleasure herself at age three, at age five discovers how boys are built bathing her two month old cousin, and at age six discovers sex games like doctor with a seven year old neighbor boy. At age nine, her neighbor boy having moved out of town the year before, she begins to seduce another neighbor, this one full grown. When at the age eleven her mother discovers her relations with the neighbor she sends her to a therapist to try and save the child.
Two other previously published stories were also added to Uncle Pan’s page. One, Roxanne and the Artist Next Door dates from 2005 and is a story suggested when my exwife told me of her friend growing up who at 12 learned about sex by seducing the artist who lived next door to her. The other story, Timothy’s Joy, is what I call it a feel good fantasy, which perhaps does not go as far as it might have, but then again how far should a fantasy go anyway. Cheers.
The Real Little Eddy
– • –
I get up at six am each morning, and at the same time my iMac’s energy saver program wakes my computer up from sleep. I go about my business, emptying ye ole bladder, brushing what little is left of my hair, washing my face, turning on the coffeepot, getting dressed and finally cleaning off my glasses. By the time I have finished it is after 6:10 and a handy little program called iKey has opened my Mozilla Mac OS X web brower Camino and taken it to http://www.chron.com and I can sit down and read the morning’s news. There’s only one thing wrong with this. Every time I happen to glance to the top of the page I’m reminded that I am not logged in. Later when I go to the Washington Post and to the New York Times I am greeted with the phrase “welcome eddybad,” and it makes me feel right at home, but every day chron.com nags me to log in. Fellas, logging in is so Yesterday! So Twentieth Century! Chron.com if you’re curious about who I am please put a cookie in my web browser that tells you who I am just like the Post and Times do. Otherwise I’ll log in if and when I have a comment to leave, but otherwise, it’s early in the morning, I haven’t had my coffee yet, and logging in is Drag One. But you run a great online newspaper though, even if you do nag. I am especially enamored with your Tuesday technology section, and Dwight Silverman’s daily TechBlog. And especially I am hooked on his LinkPost columns. I also check out The Tech Chronicles from the San Francisco Chronicle and Todd Bishop’s Microsoft Blog from the Seattle Post Intelligencer both of which have links on the technology page. In his Friday 11-16 Tech Blog Dwight Silverman published the following:
I wanna rock 'n' roll all night, and litigate every day! Gene Simmons: You kids, get off my lawn!
Gene Simmons – the tongue-wagging bassist from the seminal, pseudo-metal hair band KISS – doesn't see much of a reason to release new music in the digital age. In an interview with Billboard by way of Reuters, Simmons blames college students for the downfall of the music business:
IT HAS BEEN NINE YEARS SINCE WE'VE SEEN A NEW KISS ALBUM. ANY PLANS TO GET BACK INTO THE STUDIO? The record industry is in such a mess. I called for what it was when college kids first started download music for free – that they were crooks. I told every record label I spoke with that they just lit the fuse to their own bomb that was going to explode from under them and put them on the street.
There is nothing in me that wants to go in there and do new music. How are you going to deliver it? How are you going to get paid for it if people can just get it for free? I will be putting out a Gene Simmons box set called "Monster" – a collection of 150 unreleased songs. KISS will have another box set of unreleased music in the next year.
The record industry doesn't have a [. . .] clue how to make money. It's only their fault for letting foxes get into the henhouse and then wondering why there's no eggs or chickens. Every little college kid, every freshly-scrubbed little kid's face should have been sued off the face of the earth. They should have taken their houses and cars and nipped it right there in the beginning. Those kids are putting 100,000 to a million people out of work. How can you pick on them? They've got freckles. That's a crook. He may as well be wearing a bandit's mask.
Simmons is right in one sense. The recording industry doesn't have a clue, but not for the reason he's suggesting. He was also asked in this interview about the experimental approach to pricing taken by Radiohead with its In Rainbows album, and Trent Reznor's plan to move to independent distribution.
That doesn't count. You can't pick on one person as an exception. And that's not a business model that works. I open a store and say "Come on in and pay whatever you want." Are you on [. . . ] crack? Do you really believe that's a business model that works?
Apparently, it has worked for Radiohead, which recently dismissed as inaccurate a comSense report that 62 percent of the folks who bought In Rainbows. However, Radiohead is not saying just how many people downloaded the album, nor what they actually paid. Still, in public statements, the band seems pleased.
And why shouldn't they be? Whatever buyers pay, a much larger cut is going to end up in the band's collective pockets. The only losers in this case are the record labels who are cut out of the deal.
It's hard to tell how many Neanderthal musicians such as Simmons are out there, but fortunately many of them do understand the new opportunities that lay before them. One is U2's Bono, who is offering an unreleased song from The Joshua Tree sessions via the iLike application on Facebook. U2 will probably sell more copies of the updated version of that classic CD as a result – and many will probably be snatched up the by the freckle-faced college kids Gene Simmons wants to sue.
Yeah. Somebody doesn't have a clue . . .
Good news: This fellow Sir Paul McSomebody, says, as reported by Billboard Magazine, that the full Beatles catalogue will be available online next year. "[I]t's all happening soon. Most of us are all sort of ready. The whole thing is primed, ready to go — there's just maybe one little sticking point left, and I think it's being cleared up as we speak, so it shouldn't be too long," said sir Paul. "It's down to fine-tuning, but I'm pretty sure it'll be happening next year, 2008."
McCartney adds that any delays in bringing the Fabs' music to the Internet have been due to "contractual" issues, as well as deliberate planning by all parties involved. "You've got to get these things right," he explained. "You don't want to do something that's as cool as that and in three years time you think, 'Oh God, why did we do that?!’"
“And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make!”
“Sort of ready” is perhaps the understatement of the year. It should be pointed out that all of the Beatles’ individual post Beatles solo albums have been available on iTunes for some months now.
Meantime no less than Edgar Bronfman, chief honcho at Warner Music, now faults his industry in it’s ongoing battle with the lovers of its product. Bronfman is from a Canadian Distillery family (Seagrams) a man who loved music and entertainment, and who left the family liquor business to get into the music and entertainment some years ago. Interestingly, on his Wikipedia page Bronfman admits his children have downloaded music from the internet, but feels that their “punishment” should remain in the family, not in the legal system. It’s a shame he doesn’t promulgate that idea among his RIAA partners. What follows reports on a talk he made at a mobile phone convention and is from Mac User online.
The boss of Warner Music has made a rare public confession that the music industry has to take some of the blame for the rise of p2p file sharing. Speaking at the GSMA Mobile Asia Congress in Macau, Edgar Bronfman told mobile operators that they must not make the same mistake that the music industry made. "We used to fool ourselves,' he said. "We used to think our content was perfect just exactly as it was. We expected our business would remain blissfully unaffected even as the world of interactivity, constant connection and file sharing was exploding. And of course we were wrong. How were we wrong? By standing still or moving at a glacial pace, we inadvertently went to war with consumers by denying them what they wanted and could otherwise find and as a result of course, consumers won."
Mobile operators risk the same, he said. Fewer than 10% of mobile owners buy music on their handset, the vast majority of which is ringtones. "The sad truth is that most of what consumers are being offered today on the mobile platform is boring, banal and basic," he said. "People want a more interesting form of mobile music content. They want it to be easy to buy with a single click - yes, a single click, not a dozen. And they want access to it, quickly and easily, wherever they are. 24/7. Any player in the mobile value chain who thinks they can provide less than a great experience for consumers and remain competitive is fooling themselves."
Bronfman suggested that mobile companies have much to learn from Apple, despite being critical of and iTunes in the past. "For years now, Warner Music has been offering a choice to consumers at Apple's iTunes store the option to purchase something more than just single tracks, which constitute the mainstay of that store's sales," he explained. "By packaging a full album into a bundle of music with ringtones, videos and other combinations and variations we found products that consumers demonstrably valued and were willing to purchase at premium prices. And guess what? We've sold tons of them. And with Apple's co-operation to make discovering, accessing and purchasing these products even more seamless and intuitive, we'll be offering many, many more of these products going forward."
And the iPhone and iPod touch shows that approach can be made to work on mobile platforms, he said, "You need to look no further than Apple's iPhone to see how fast brilliantly written software presented on a beautifully designed device with a spectacular user interface will throw all the accepted notions about pricing, billing platforms and brand loyalty right out the window. And let me remind you, the genesis of the iPhone is the iPod and iTunes - a music device and music service that consumers love." Bronfman appears to be experiencing an epiphany when it comes to digital music. From threatening to withdraw from iTunes and suggesting that to drop DRM would be "without logic or merit", he is now heaping praise on Apple and recently opened a DRM-free section on Warner's own Classics and Jazz music store. – Simon Aughton Mac User
At least the man knows how to publicly admit he was wrong. Would that this malady would spread to his brethren in the recording and music industry. Meantime the artist who used to be a Prince after a past of being somewhat sympathetic with music downloading has turned full circle and has brought suit against Pirates Bay, a well known bit torrent search engine website. And Democratic lawmakers in the House have attached legislation to a spending bill that will force colleges and universities to turn in their downloading students, or else have all of their students, even those who don’t download, lose their government funding. What kind of an undemocratic idea is that? Can you say Democratic Corporate Lackeys?
The Wall Street Journal reports on the latest attempt to turn free music downloading into a money making business. It is a website called: Rcrd Lbl (pronounced: Record Label) -- will be a test case. The new venture will give away the music drm free and enlist advertisers to cover costs. It is a joint venture between Downtown Records, an independent label behind Gnarles Barkley and others, and Reter Rojas, a journalist and entrepreneur who founded the respected technology blogs Gizmodo and Endgadget. The company has signed up three sponsors so far: Richard Branson’s Virgin America Airline, Nikon Corp, and PPR SA’s Puma AG sneaker unit. The site will also include short articles, social-networking features and internet radio stations. More is here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119508767828793513.html
And from chron.com’s TechBlog Linkpost 11-15-2007 comes the following comment from a reader: Of course RIAA isn't close to the same epiphany, they are acting as gatekeepers and a conduit for income streams. They are a bureaucracy whose very existence is threatened. They are dominated by bean counters and lawyers.
The main problem is that the RIAA profits from a dying business model. Anything that has the potential to bypass their services is income lost to them. They are running scared and the courts offer the only apparent safe refuge. Alas, they are chewing off their own foot to escape from the trap of change. They may get away for the moment, but they create their own ultimate demise.
Their impetus to change will come from their clients whose royalties they collect and distribute. Every new group or musician or writer that eschews RIAA's services and seeks to profit directly from their customers are the ultimate agents of change. Posted to Chron. com by: David at November 15, 2007 10:37 AM
– • –
After a couple of weeks of sporting slightly ruffled feathers Hillary Clinton got her campaign back on track Thursday night in the CNN Democratic Presidential Candidates debate in Las Vegas. For one thing, it was chaired by Wolf Blitzer, a far more neutral chair than was Tim Russert who in the previous NBC sponsored debate managed to skewer Hillary equally along with Edwards and Obama. The crowd in Vegas reacted to Obama’s and Edwards’ barbs with boos and after about ten minutes of this kind of reaction they wisely began to temper their comments. And virtually every so-called pundit who was heard after the debate conceded that Hillary did herself proud.
And so although it is way to early to predict the outcome of the upcoming Democratic primaries it does begin to look as if there is a possible Clinton in our democratic future. And unlike the Republican take on the situation, real people with true democratic inclinations realize that the eight years of a Bill Clinton administration were truly golden years, eight years of a sound economy, of an admistration conscientiously shrinking the huge Republican deficits of the Reagan and Bush 1 years. It was eight years of no war, of improving, not trashing America’s image on the world stage. And eight years of Truth, not the falsehoods and fabrications of the current Republican Bush Administration. Bill Clinton successfully led the nation through it’s crises, handling things like the bombing of the Cole and African embassies, the burning of black churches in the south, and the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City with skill and charisma. But best of all, unlike Republican presidents who despise the federal government and staff it with incompetents at best and poachers at worst, Clinton had the smarts to put effective people running his government. Under Clinton the government was rolling and was an institution you could be proud of.
The fact was that Bill Clinton was able to lead the country so effectively in spite of the best efforts of a full time Republican Trashing Industry, which poked their highly partisan noses into every part of Clinton’s past, and finally could only settle on his relationship with a young lady who was of age and we presume of sound mind, and who had proudly announced to friends before leaving for her Washington interneship that she was going there to earn her Presidential Kneepads. Come on, how many real men out there would resist a young lady who wanted only to give him oral pleasure. For shame, you Republican hypocrites who chase after Washington’s young male interns and who tap your feet seductively in airport mens’ rooms, also you “lying swiftboater” sleazeballs who wouldn’t know the truth if it came up and hit you full in the face. You assholes think you’re going to have a field day with Hilary, but you just might find that the worm turns, and maggots have been known to feed on the the flesh of Republican liars just fine. All in all, from the perspective of the middle of November, 2008 looks like one hell of an interesting political year.
– • –
Speaking of interesting, ever notice how everything in our educational institutions stresses the necessity for using authority for all extrapolations. This implies that all ideas not reinforced with the citing of authority are somehow suspect and/or invalid. But this flies in the face of logic. It has made the academic community lazy and devious. And it has propagated many false ideas among the populace. It is also an impediment to true progress in areas where there is no prior authority to cite. And as a side effect what it has done is propagate a way of thinking that leaves the drawing of conclusions to others. Thus the popularity of pundits in politics, and so-called experts in legal fields and the military. This voluntary deference of judgement hereby absolves us of the possibility of our having to make a mistake ourselves by inferring that our individual observation is of no consquence in the first place. And it has led us to the position of being led by experts who in all too many cases are not really qualified to lead anyone anywhere.
But the problem with turning our judgement over to the so-called expert echoes the problem the military faces every time it tries to fight the next war in the same way it had successfully conducted the previous one. The fact is each enemy is different. And each army must exchange what is known and what is comfortable for what is new and untested. Generals and war planners must use their imaginations, and that is a subject that is not taught in military college. In fact imagination is a gift which is very suspect in the minds of the military, as it can’t be quantified or verified by past actions. And the same is generally true that each political campaign as well as each legal campaign is different.
What this has meant is that from grade school through wherever our education has taken us, we have been very subtly taught to distrust our own senses, to not value our own perceptions. Instead we have been encouraged to rely on the perceptions of so-called experts. And yet, if we realize and recognize it, each of us is an expert on our own body and our own situation and our own perceptions. We are the master of our own particular piece of the universe. It takes a certain amount of courage to look at a situation and form an opinion of it, but the effort is one that is always well worthwhile.
One needs to resist having opinions force fed into us but instead use our powers of observation and reason to determine for ourselves what is what. If the general population had been encouraged to do this we would never have swallowed the pack of half-truths and out and out lies which were used to ensnare us into that completely futile campaign in Iraq. It is a shame but selling that skewed data to the United Nations has ruined Colin Powell from any further meaningful public service; honorable man as he is, who would buy a used war from the likes of him? I would like to think that Mr. Bush has so poisoned the environment for wars that in the future Republican or Democrat alike will have no success short of an out and out Pearl Harbor type attack on the country. Which of course is as it should be, for with but a few exceptions America has no history of arbitrarily starting wars as we did in Iraq, and before that in Viet Nam and Korea, and which Bush and Cheney seem to be trying to lay the groundwork for in Iran.
And it is high time that we Americans ceased allowing our presidents and the State Department and CIA and armed forces to back every tin horn dictatorship in the world in the interest of “protecting us from the evils of communism.” The primary evil of communism is that it takes the power and resources from the rich, and gives it to those it considers politically relevant. This is not a good thing, granted, but it’s no more unfair than the typical South American type dictatorship in which only the wealthy have all the power as well as the money and which our military helps prop up by giving their military special training. Jimmie Carter is right, we should only back true democracies, even those tilted to the left, but only those whose political structure reflects the aspirations of its people.
And while we’re on the topic as a father and a grandfather, it is a disconcerting to see BushtheFather’s now and again in public agony over the public skewering of his son, but the man needs to face the facts. BushtheSon by shunning in practice the very “bringing together” he professed in running for office and having gone about doing what he pleased with no input from the majority of Americans, has earned every invective a weary, grossed out public can come up with. We would suggest W. try some of the following on for size: dogged, hard, hardened, hardheaded, hardhearted, headstrong, immovable, implacable, inflexible, mulish, obdurate, opinionated, ossified, pat, peevish, pertinacious, perverse, pigheaded, rigid, self-willed, stubborn, unbending, uncompromising, unrelenting, unyielding, willful (or wilful); or if you would prefer, hidebound, narrow-minded; resistant, wayward, wrongheaded; persistent, tenacious; iron, relentless; grim, severe, stern, strict; determined, firm, inexorable, resolved, single-minded, steadfast, sure, unflinching; contrary, disobedient, froward (habitually disposed to disobedience and opposition), insubordinate, intractable, recalcitrant, refractory, uncooperative, ungovernable, unmanageable, unruly; defiant, insurgent, mutinous; indomitable; confirmed, inveterate, unregenerate.
Most of BushtheFather’s advisors in the past have wisely advised BushtheSon against the path he ultimately chose, and he owes his 2000 election victory to James Baker, his father’s Secretary of State who successfully pleaded W.’s case before the Supreme Court, but obviously W. preferred to listen to the Cheney’s and Wolfowitz’s of the world rather than listen to the voices of sanity and reason. I grant you BushtheFather, it’s a damned shame, but it’s no one’s fault but his own. BushtheSon obviously slept through Civics and Government classes, and people elected him because they thought, like father like son, and they were so terribly wrong. – • –
Occasionally I mention the 81 years I have been observing this world, and I do it to point out how our country and its people have changed during all of these years. It has changed in many, many ways, but certainly one way as been our public attitude towards sex. And most particularly sex among children. When I was growing up the really bright and inquisitive children I knew discovered sex frequently at an early age. When I was in elementary school a classmate of mine was regularly having sex with a female classmate. They seemed to really love and care for one another and were going at it so hot and heavy that when her parents found out the father changed jobs and the girl’s family moved to a faraway city so as to break up their tryst. The young man whose name I won’t mention here grew up to become a psychologist and there’s no telling how many young ladies he was able to lead down the path to fulfillment during the many years that followed.
Since the beginning of time children have experimented with other children, and in some cases with sympathetic adults to learn the whys and wherefores of their body and the pleasures they could obtain therein. When I was a child there was nothing particularly wrong with this. Adults never want their children to indulge in sex simply because it can be a force so powerful they are afraid children will be so absorbed they might neglect and let falter other aspects of their lives like their schoolwork. However, it was not the sin and the abuse that today’s society labels it. Bright, inquisitive kids indulged in it to the extent they could find the time and place, and no particular harm was done. After all, when we grow up we will have to live with and have sex with a member of the opposite sex so we that we can procreate and carry on the human race. And how could it be that obtaining prior experience would actually hurt one? Surely you would not want to be flown by a pilot with no training or experience. Nor be cut open by a surgeon who opted out of anatomy classes in medical school. Why embark on a life with a partner with neither knowing what the hell they are doing? However nowadays society is in such a sorry state that a five year old boy who kisses a five year old girl in kindergarten gets himself prosecuted and labeled as a sex offender. Absurd but it happened. And what is even more frightening boys bring automatic weapons to schools to eliminate classmates and teachers. Teenagers have always had problems with suicide, even way back in my time. But teenagers did not use automatic weapons to end the lives of others until recently. Once would be one time too many, but it has happened more than once. And several more cases were nipped in the bud before they happened.
I would like to propose a cause of the problem. It may or may not be correct, what the hell do I know? But it is this. Children grow up these day entangled in a web of lies and unspoken truths by the adults in this world. As I was growing up, it was possible to read about sex in novels. Particularly sexual discovery while growing up. But that changed when publishers began publishing novels with the idea of selling them for films. Films do not deal in sexual discovery when growing up. And of course, the popular media, television, ignores that aspect of life altogether. And so begins what I call the great disconnect. Parents, teachers, etc. pretend that what feels good, sex, is bad, is not done, even doesn’t exist. Abstinence is promulgated as the way to go. Purity (ie ignorance) is worshiped. Now this works with some children, but others are obviously festering in their frustration. And in some, with strong undercurrents of destruction and suicide running through their veins, disaster is just waiting to happen.
I could be full of it. But something in the fabric of our society is frayed, devastatingly frayed. And the solution won’t be in reinforcing the values of our society as they are being taught and practiced these days, for obviously it isn’t working. My solution is to apply some John Lennon to society’s mix: Give me a little truth. See things as they really are for a change, don’t mistake idealism for realism. See life not through some experts or pundits eyes, see life through your own eyes. And convey what you see as honestly as you are able to your child.
I write erotic stories, I’ve explained why before, I’ll not go there again today. To me its neat to use words to bring pleasure to others. And I think bringing sexual pleasure is among the most immediate forms of pleasure words can bring our fellow human beings. Not that erotica pleases all. But we do the best we can, and we write for those who enjoy it.
Uncle Pan’s latest story is called Polly’s Confession for Dr. Throckmorton and is available on his page: http://storiesonline.net/auth/Uncle_Pan It is written in the words of a little girl who discovers how to pleasure herself at age three, at age five discovers how boys are built bathing her two month old cousin, and at age six discovers sex games like doctor with a seven year old neighbor boy. At age nine, her neighbor boy having moved out of town the year before, she begins to seduce another neighbor, this one full grown. When at the age eleven her mother discovers her relations with the neighbor she sends her to a therapist to try and save the child.
Two other previously published stories were also added to Uncle Pan’s page. One, Roxanne and the Artist Next Door dates from 2005 and is a story suggested when my exwife told me of her friend growing up who at 12 learned about sex by seducing the artist who lived next door to her. The other story, Timothy’s Joy, is what I call it a feel good fantasy, which perhaps does not go as far as it might have, but then again how far should a fantasy go anyway. Cheers.
The Real Little Eddy
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Little Eddy Blog #10 The R.I.A.A. and the Rico Racketeering Law
This week’s blog is devoted to p2p, Jammie Thomas, and to all past, present, and future victims of a so-called music industry out of control. Every fall the R.I.A.A. sends out a round of letters to American universities complaining that certain of their students had illegally downloaded copyrighted material using their (the college’s) network. The R.I.A.A. demands that the University identify the students attached to the illegal activities, and when the information is offered it threatens the students with expensive lawsuits unless the students pay outrageous amounts of money to the R.I.A.A. By any stretch of imagination this is pure unadulterated extortion. However, because of vague wording in the Digital Copyright act and the fact that the R.I.A.A. is acting on behalf of the legal copyright owners, the record companies, this out and out arrogant and to my mind highly illegal behavior works in most cases. Only a handful of people are resisting this arrogant example of legal blackmail.
– • –
There follows a p2pnet news special: “RIAA News:- Through their RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), BPI (British Phonographic Industry), IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industry), CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association) and all the other so-called trade organisations strategically sited in major cities around the world, the members of the Big 4 organised music cartel are running a hugely expensive international disinformation campaign (a charitable description) designed to show they’re being “devastated” (their word) by their own customers, whom they’re calling criminals and thieves, even though no crime has been committed and nothing has been stolen.
These people are massive online illegal distributors of copyrighted music causing record industry support workers to be thrown onto the streets, out of work, and who are costing the labels billions of dollars in lost profits, say Vivendi Universal (France), Sony BMG (Japan and Germany), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music (US).
In America, an estimated 30,000 people, some of them very young children, had been subpoenaed by the RIAA, accused of being file sharing criminals. It’s, “no secret that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has responded to the growth of online file sharing with a wave of copyright infringement litigation,” wrote James Alonso, Marc Friedenberg, Michael Nguyen, Shawn Oakley and Sarah Calvert from The Columbia Science & Technology Law Review. “Often, the individuals targeted by the RIAA fear the overwhelming costs of defending themselves in court, and many have agreed to pay large settlements.”
Often, but not always. Now, inspired by the examples of people such as the five very reluctant heroines mentioned below, increasing numbers of victims are deciding not to let themselves be terrorised into settling. The five, courageous in every sense of the word, are:
* Patti Santangelo, a New York mother of five children, two of whom have now become RIAA targets
* Rae-Jay Schwartz, another mother, bound to a wheelchair by multiple sclerosis, the terrible central nervous system disease
* Marie Lindor, a 57-year-old home health aid whose knowledge of computers and computer systems is zero
* Tanya Andersen, a disabled mother living off a disability pension
* Jammie Thomas, a young mother of two from Minnesota
But it’s Thomas, the first of the American RIAA victims to actually appear in court, who’s caught the attention of the international mainstream media for more than just a day or two. Horrified by the negative (for them) PR the case has been generating, using their connections, political power and influence, the labels are doing their best to distort facts and spin Thomas as a cold schemer whose depredations forced the RIAA to take her to court.
Cary Sherman, the organisation’s chief spin doctor, said he was “surprised it took this long for one of the industry lawsuits to go to trial” when in fact, the organisation has done everything it can to stop any of these cases actually reaching a judge and jury.
Thomas has also achieved two other firsts: As far as I know, she’s the first to launch her own forum, and for the first time since she was forced into the limelight, she’s telling her own story, in her own words.” Jon Newton - p2pnet http://www.p2pnet.net/story/13882
– • –
My Story By Jammie Thomas
A lot of misinformation has been printed concerning my case, my family, my living situation, and me personally. I welcome this opportunity to set the record straight. As most already know, I was sued by RIAA (actually by some of the individual recording labels that make up the RIAA) and I lost.
First, I want to tell you all about me before we dissect my case and what went wrong.
‘I never wanted this much notoriety, ever’
I am a single mother of 2 beautiful boys; Tyler who is 13 and Triston, who is 11. These two are my life and they’re the reason why I do anything. It is also because of these two I decided to fight back against the RIAA. After I received the various letters from both my ISP and the RIAA, I made up my mind I was not going to be bullied into paying for something I didn’t do. My father always taught me to stand up and fight for what I believe in and I figured what better way to teach my boys this same lesson but through example.
My family have been my most staunch supporters through this entire situation. My parents even helped me secure a loan for the retainer money for my attorney when this first started. All of my family wanted to be at the courthouse during the trial, but after I saw the news articles that happened the day before the trial started, I asked them to stay away, to try and shield them from what I was about to go through.
After I was contacted by the RIAA, I started researching these cases hoping to find answers to why this was happening and what I could do to stop it. I came across websites that would become one some of the biggest assistant in my own case. These sites are Recording Industry vs. The People, a blog written by an attorney, Mr. Ray Beckerman, who handles similar cases in New York, and p2pnet.net. It is also because of Mr. Beckerman I was able to find Mr. Brian Toder, my attorney in Minnesota.
Mr. Beckerman’s site chronicles cases of everyday people being sued by the RIAA and a lot of these cases are very similar to mine. The first case I read about was Patty Santangelo. She is also a single mother who decided to fight back. Recently, she had her case dismissed with prejudice, granting her the victor and now eligible for her attorney’s fees and court costs.
I’m very excited for her.
Another case I learned of was Tanya Anderson. Ms. Anderson is also a single mother who decided she was not going to be bullied into paying for something she didn’t do. And Ms. Anderson recently won her case against the RIAA just as Ms. Santangelo did. I would love to suggest a pattern is emerging - 3 cases of single moms refusing to pay the RIAA. But considering over 26,000 people received what the RIAA calls ‘pre-suit settlement letters’, I find it highly unlikely all of those are single parents.
After reading about these cases and others more dire than mine, including the suit against a woman with multiple sclerosis who has never even used a computer, many cases against teens and pre-teens, even a case against a deceased elderly woman, I became rather enraged. My initial reaction was how dare they? I also thought how could they get away with this type of extortion here, in America? The more I read, the more sick and disgusted I became. I knew after this I would not ever settle, no matter how bad my situation became.
I never dreamt my case would actually make it to court. I figured the RIAA had run from every case that was even close to going before a jury and they would do the same thing with my case. Yeah, I was wrong. My attorney kept warning me all along I might be the first case to ever go to court, but I was naïve and didn’t want to see the bigger picture. A cold splash of reality wakes anyone up and the judgment against me was that splash I seemed to need.
I also never dreamt how large of a story my case would become. Before I went to court, no one except those close to me knew of this situation I was dealing with. Now, I can Google my name and read articles about me. A very odd and surreal feeling for me as I never wanted this much notoriety, ever. Unfortunately, a lot of the articles I’ve read are full of half-truths, conjectures, and right out lies. I can understand media outlets having a deadline to meet, but I cannot understand media outlets filling the holes in their stories with incorrect information.
‘Best Buy made the decision to replace the hard drive’
I would like to now talk about some of that incorrect information which has plagued news articles and comments. First, I will finally set straight the issue with my computer hard drive, when it was replaced, why it was replaced, who replaced it and what might have happened to the old drive. I have read many comments and articles that I had my hard drive replaced after I learned of my suit. This could not be further from the truth. What most people don’t know, if I did have my hard drive replaced after I was served the initial complaint to this suit, that would be considered spoliation of evidence, which is a criminally prosecutable offense. All the following dates, keep in mind so you can see the timeline yourself.
The day MediaSentry (the RIAAs ‘investigative’ company) said I was caught illegally sharing songs over KaZaa was February 21, 2005. My computer crashed approximately 2 weeks later. The only reason I know why it crashed is this: my boys were playing a video game and in the middle of some epic battle on their game, the computer froze up, then the screen went black, and in my child’s frustration, the side of the computer was smacked. After that, the computer would not load and I would receive error messages.
I brought my computer into Best Buy for repairs on March 7, 2005. Remember, I brought it in for repairs under the extended warranty, not to have the hard drive replaced. And if anyone who has used a large chain electronic store to repair their electrical equipment knows, these companies do not replace hard drives on the whim of the customer if they have to pay for the hard drive replacement covered under warranty. They try to do whatever is cheaper for the company, which normally means fixing the issues with the hard drive. With my hard drive, the issues couldn’t be fixed so Best Buy, not me but Best Buy, made the decision to replace the hard drive.
The RIAA didn’t subpoena my personal information from Charter until late April 2005, almost 2 months AFTER my hard drive was replaced. As with all RIAA subpoenas to ISPs, I was not notified of the court date when the subpoena was issued. I was only notified after Charter Communications was served with the subpoena. This letter came late April 2005, again 2 months AFTER my hard drive was replaced. I didn’t officially hear from the RIAA until late August 2005, almost 6 months AFTER my hard drive was replaced. The lawsuit itself wasn’t officially started until April 2006, over 1 year AFTER my hard drive was replaced.
As you can see, I did not replace my hard drive to hide any evidence of anything. The replacement wasn’t my choice and I would have to be psychic to know 2 months in advance my personal information was going to be subpoenaed and a year later, I would be sued.
Yes, all this information was given to the jury during the trial. The main problem that arose concerning my hard drive was the date I gave my attorney for when the hard drive was replaced. I didn’t check the records for Best Buy before I gave my hard drive to Mr. Toder, so when I told him the hard drive had been replaced, the date I gave was January or February of 2004. Obviously, after we received all the information from Best Buy, we saw that the hard drive was replaced in March 2005. We also found out I didn’t even own the computer until March 2004, one month after the date I told my attorney.
This wouldn’t be the first time I was off by a year on my dates.
During my deposition, I was off by one year on the date I purchased my computer (I said early spring 2003 when it was early spring 2004), the date my hard drive was replaced (I said 2004 when it was 2005) and when I finished ripping all the music to my computer (I said the fall of 2005 when it was the fall of 2006) to only name a few. I was basing everything off my memory, without taking into consideration as stressed as I was, my memory wasn’t what I thought it was. I have learned a hard lesson as the jury was not able to see my deposition transcript. I now know to check and double check everything and if I haven’t, my answer will be ‘I don’t know.’
Another rumor I would like to put to rest is the question why didn’t I buy the music since it is offered for less than a dollar per song on sites like I-tunes? To be completely honest with you, I already own those songs they accused me of ‘making available’ on KaZaa. I own over 240 CDs I have purchased throughout my life, most while I worked at Best Buy when I was in college. Their employee discount is amazing!
Anyway, on these CDs are almost 3,000 songs, which in turn are on my computer right now. I have purchased additional songs from Walmart.com. So in total, I own roughly 3,000 individual songs, all legally purchased.
‘I can look back now and see many things I could have or should have done differently’
Now on to my defense during the trial. A lot of people have said I should not have used a ’spoofing’ defense, especially without an expert to testify and give the details.
First, I did not use a ’spoofing’ defense. That term was not even mentioned during my trial until after the judge himself asked one of the witnesses what spoofing was. I never presented a defense someone spoofed my information. My defense was based around the facts an IP address does not identify a person, there was no trace of KaZaa or any peer to peer software on any computer I owned, not a single witness could testify they could identify who was online making song files available, there was no witness who could testify they ever saw me use or talk about any peer to peer software, and there was not a single person who could identify me as the person caught on February 21, 2005 sharing files through KaZaa. Yes, my attorney mentioned certain computer terms during the trial, but I have no idea what any of those terms are.
Second, I did have an expert. This expert did inspect my computer and was going to testify for me at trial. That was originally the plan, until I couldn’t come up with the money for my expert during the trial. Another thing most people don’t know is the defendant is responsible for paying expert witnesses their hourly rate during the trial and providing for their food and board while at the trial. My attorney was able to secure that expert witness at a very reasonable rate, but I wasn’t able to afford this rate during the entire trial.
As for what’s next, my attorney filed a motion to have the verdict thrown out or to have the judgment reduced based on the constitutionality of the judgment. This is not an appeal, this is a post trial motion. We are currently waiting for the plaintiffs to file their response to our motion. The judge will not make a decision on that motion until after the plaintiffs have filed. The timeline for appeals is we have 30 days after the judge decides all post trial motions before we file any appeals. The legal aspects of this case are questions for my attorney and I will always refer those kinds of questions to him. I do know personally I cannot allow my case to end this way, with this judgment. My case will be used as a sledgehammer by the RIAA to force other people caught in the RIAA’s driftnets to settle, even if they are or are not guilty of illegally sharing music online.
Considering hindsight is always 20/20, I can look back now and see many things I could have or should have done differently. I could have settled before I was even sued. I could have settled many times before the case went to trial. I could have worked harder to find a way to afford the things I needed at trial. But I refuse to live life regretting could haves or would have or should haves.
The one piece of advice I can give to anyone who finds themselves being sued or threatened to be sued by the RIAA is to fight back.
The more people fight back against these cases, the more expensive it will be for the RIAA to bring these suits and the less resources the RIAA will have to use against others.
I was found liable of copyright infringement without the plaintiffs having to prove I downloaded anything, without having to prove I was aware of any file sharing taking place on my computer or within my home, without having to prove I owned a copy of KaZaa, without having to prove any files were shared with anyone from my computer and without having to prove who was on the computer the night of February 21, 2005.
This doesn’t seem fair and it’s what keeps me going in my fight.
Jammie Thomas
http://freejammie.freeforums.org/
– • –
You can visit the above URL to read reactions of Ms. Thomas’ statement, and if you like, make a contribution to her cause. In the meantime you can bet your bippies that the entire music community as well as the recording industry is keeping their eyes peeled on the British band Radiohead’s recent release of their latest album “In Rainbows.”
www.comscore.com vs. Radiohead
RESTON, VA, November 5, 2007 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released a study of online sales of “In Rainbows,” a new record album from the band Radiohead. The album’s release has challenged the music industry’s traditional distribution and sales model by allowing consumers to determine the price they are willing to pay for the album, which consumers are able to download at the band’s official site for the album (http://www.inrainbows.com). Consumers could also choose to purchase the Discbox, which includes a vinyl album, bonus CD, and assortment of other trinkets, at the site for a set price of approximately $80 U.S. The results of the study are based on data obtained from comScore’s worldwide database of 2 million people who have provided comScore with explicit permission to monitor their online behavior.
Approximately 2 out of 5 Downloaders Willing to Pay
During the first 29 days of October, 1.2 million people worldwide visited the “In Rainbows” site, with a significant percentage of visitors ultimately downloading the album. The study showed that 38 percent of global downloaders of the album willingly paid to do so, with the remaining 62 percent choosing to pay nothing. The percent downloading for free in the U.S. (60 percent) is only marginally lower than in the rest of the world (64 percent).
“The high percentage of users actually paying more than a few dollars for this download is actually pretty impressive,” said Jim Larrison, general manager of corporate development at Adify, a provider of online ad network services. “I expected the vast majority of users to download the album for free or at most a few dollars. With 40 percent of consumers willing to pony up real money, this is a true win for the music industry as it shows there is still perceived value in the digital form of entertainment. Of course it does suggest that the marketplace is continuing to migrate and the music industry needs to shift with consumer behavior. There are numerous methods to monetize the music, via shows and concerts, merchandising and box sets, commercial licensing, and even advertising; which is where the industry needs to progress towards, as the 40 percent paying for music might not be sustainable.”
“It is important to note that Radiohead has single-handedly accomplished a milestone that the recording industry has failed to achieve – they’ve eliminated much of the profit attrition related to piracy or illegal copying,” said Edward Hunter, comScore analyst and part-time songwriter. “Moreover, they have garnered good faith with the music consumer at a time when it’s all the rage to bash the industry and the artists who ally themselves with it. And then you have the reduction in cost of sale, cost of promotion and production. I’d call this a resounding success for Radiohead and music fans everywhere – and a fantastic artistic effort as well.”
Radiohead stuck up for its fans on Friday. The rock band denied that 62 percent of those who downloaded the group's new album paid nothing for the music.
Last month, Radiohead announced that it was releasing a digital version of the album for whatever fans wanted to pay. Internet research group, ComScore, on Monday released a report that said only 38 percent paid anything for In Rainbows. In a statement, Radiohead's representatives called ComScore's report "wholly inaccurate."
Radiohead's pay-what-you-want offer is groundbreaking and is being watched closely by fans, music labels and other bands. How it fares could influence whether other acts try and sell their own music via the Web – without the support of the labels.
Andrew Lipsman, a ComScore senior analyst, didn't back down. In a blog posted to the company's site on Thursday, Lipsman said that he was "very confident" in the data. ComScore derived its numbers by watching the Internet behavior of nearly 1,000 people. Several hundred among this group downloaded Radiohead's album. In the blog, Lipsman said that when it comes to statistics, this is considered a large sample. "We observed the actual online spending behavior from a robust sample of hundreds of individuals in order to produce an accurate estimate," Lipsman said in his post. "If we didn't have a reasonable sample from which to extrapolate, we wouldn't have released the data."
But in their statement, Radiohead's handlers said that ComScore's study "in no way reflected definitive market intelligence or, indeed, the true success of the project."
Radiohead has declined to reveal any sales figures.
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9814155-7.html
– • –
Sometimes it is more important to listen to other voices than to expound yourself, and for that reason I have turned this week’s blog over to Jammie Thomas and www.p2pnet.net and to www.comscore.com/blog vs. Radiohead. Something needs to happen to change the course of the so-called music industry before they make criminals out of us all. The real criminal here is an R.I.A.A. whose only success has been in blackmailing p2p users threatening them with legal action and this has not curbed p2p downloading one iota. Somehow the R.I.A.A. needs to be stopped. A resounding kick in the ass for its spokesman Cary Sherman would make a good start. Any volunteers? Good luck, world.
The Real Little Eddy
– • –
There follows a p2pnet news special: “RIAA News:- Through their RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), BPI (British Phonographic Industry), IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industry), CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association) and all the other so-called trade organisations strategically sited in major cities around the world, the members of the Big 4 organised music cartel are running a hugely expensive international disinformation campaign (a charitable description) designed to show they’re being “devastated” (their word) by their own customers, whom they’re calling criminals and thieves, even though no crime has been committed and nothing has been stolen.
These people are massive online illegal distributors of copyrighted music causing record industry support workers to be thrown onto the streets, out of work, and who are costing the labels billions of dollars in lost profits, say Vivendi Universal (France), Sony BMG (Japan and Germany), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music (US).
In America, an estimated 30,000 people, some of them very young children, had been subpoenaed by the RIAA, accused of being file sharing criminals. It’s, “no secret that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has responded to the growth of online file sharing with a wave of copyright infringement litigation,” wrote James Alonso, Marc Friedenberg, Michael Nguyen, Shawn Oakley and Sarah Calvert from The Columbia Science & Technology Law Review. “Often, the individuals targeted by the RIAA fear the overwhelming costs of defending themselves in court, and many have agreed to pay large settlements.”
Often, but not always. Now, inspired by the examples of people such as the five very reluctant heroines mentioned below, increasing numbers of victims are deciding not to let themselves be terrorised into settling. The five, courageous in every sense of the word, are:
* Patti Santangelo, a New York mother of five children, two of whom have now become RIAA targets
* Rae-Jay Schwartz, another mother, bound to a wheelchair by multiple sclerosis, the terrible central nervous system disease
* Marie Lindor, a 57-year-old home health aid whose knowledge of computers and computer systems is zero
* Tanya Andersen, a disabled mother living off a disability pension
* Jammie Thomas, a young mother of two from Minnesota
But it’s Thomas, the first of the American RIAA victims to actually appear in court, who’s caught the attention of the international mainstream media for more than just a day or two. Horrified by the negative (for them) PR the case has been generating, using their connections, political power and influence, the labels are doing their best to distort facts and spin Thomas as a cold schemer whose depredations forced the RIAA to take her to court.
Cary Sherman, the organisation’s chief spin doctor, said he was “surprised it took this long for one of the industry lawsuits to go to trial” when in fact, the organisation has done everything it can to stop any of these cases actually reaching a judge and jury.
Thomas has also achieved two other firsts: As far as I know, she’s the first to launch her own forum, and for the first time since she was forced into the limelight, she’s telling her own story, in her own words.” Jon Newton - p2pnet http://www.p2pnet.net/story/13882
– • –
My Story By Jammie Thomas
A lot of misinformation has been printed concerning my case, my family, my living situation, and me personally. I welcome this opportunity to set the record straight. As most already know, I was sued by RIAA (actually by some of the individual recording labels that make up the RIAA) and I lost.
First, I want to tell you all about me before we dissect my case and what went wrong.
‘I never wanted this much notoriety, ever’
I am a single mother of 2 beautiful boys; Tyler who is 13 and Triston, who is 11. These two are my life and they’re the reason why I do anything. It is also because of these two I decided to fight back against the RIAA. After I received the various letters from both my ISP and the RIAA, I made up my mind I was not going to be bullied into paying for something I didn’t do. My father always taught me to stand up and fight for what I believe in and I figured what better way to teach my boys this same lesson but through example.
My family have been my most staunch supporters through this entire situation. My parents even helped me secure a loan for the retainer money for my attorney when this first started. All of my family wanted to be at the courthouse during the trial, but after I saw the news articles that happened the day before the trial started, I asked them to stay away, to try and shield them from what I was about to go through.
After I was contacted by the RIAA, I started researching these cases hoping to find answers to why this was happening and what I could do to stop it. I came across websites that would become one some of the biggest assistant in my own case. These sites are Recording Industry vs. The People, a blog written by an attorney, Mr. Ray Beckerman, who handles similar cases in New York, and p2pnet.net. It is also because of Mr. Beckerman I was able to find Mr. Brian Toder, my attorney in Minnesota.
Mr. Beckerman’s site chronicles cases of everyday people being sued by the RIAA and a lot of these cases are very similar to mine. The first case I read about was Patty Santangelo. She is also a single mother who decided to fight back. Recently, she had her case dismissed with prejudice, granting her the victor and now eligible for her attorney’s fees and court costs.
I’m very excited for her.
Another case I learned of was Tanya Anderson. Ms. Anderson is also a single mother who decided she was not going to be bullied into paying for something she didn’t do. And Ms. Anderson recently won her case against the RIAA just as Ms. Santangelo did. I would love to suggest a pattern is emerging - 3 cases of single moms refusing to pay the RIAA. But considering over 26,000 people received what the RIAA calls ‘pre-suit settlement letters’, I find it highly unlikely all of those are single parents.
After reading about these cases and others more dire than mine, including the suit against a woman with multiple sclerosis who has never even used a computer, many cases against teens and pre-teens, even a case against a deceased elderly woman, I became rather enraged. My initial reaction was how dare they? I also thought how could they get away with this type of extortion here, in America? The more I read, the more sick and disgusted I became. I knew after this I would not ever settle, no matter how bad my situation became.
I never dreamt my case would actually make it to court. I figured the RIAA had run from every case that was even close to going before a jury and they would do the same thing with my case. Yeah, I was wrong. My attorney kept warning me all along I might be the first case to ever go to court, but I was naïve and didn’t want to see the bigger picture. A cold splash of reality wakes anyone up and the judgment against me was that splash I seemed to need.
I also never dreamt how large of a story my case would become. Before I went to court, no one except those close to me knew of this situation I was dealing with. Now, I can Google my name and read articles about me. A very odd and surreal feeling for me as I never wanted this much notoriety, ever. Unfortunately, a lot of the articles I’ve read are full of half-truths, conjectures, and right out lies. I can understand media outlets having a deadline to meet, but I cannot understand media outlets filling the holes in their stories with incorrect information.
‘Best Buy made the decision to replace the hard drive’
I would like to now talk about some of that incorrect information which has plagued news articles and comments. First, I will finally set straight the issue with my computer hard drive, when it was replaced, why it was replaced, who replaced it and what might have happened to the old drive. I have read many comments and articles that I had my hard drive replaced after I learned of my suit. This could not be further from the truth. What most people don’t know, if I did have my hard drive replaced after I was served the initial complaint to this suit, that would be considered spoliation of evidence, which is a criminally prosecutable offense. All the following dates, keep in mind so you can see the timeline yourself.
The day MediaSentry (the RIAAs ‘investigative’ company) said I was caught illegally sharing songs over KaZaa was February 21, 2005. My computer crashed approximately 2 weeks later. The only reason I know why it crashed is this: my boys were playing a video game and in the middle of some epic battle on their game, the computer froze up, then the screen went black, and in my child’s frustration, the side of the computer was smacked. After that, the computer would not load and I would receive error messages.
I brought my computer into Best Buy for repairs on March 7, 2005. Remember, I brought it in for repairs under the extended warranty, not to have the hard drive replaced. And if anyone who has used a large chain electronic store to repair their electrical equipment knows, these companies do not replace hard drives on the whim of the customer if they have to pay for the hard drive replacement covered under warranty. They try to do whatever is cheaper for the company, which normally means fixing the issues with the hard drive. With my hard drive, the issues couldn’t be fixed so Best Buy, not me but Best Buy, made the decision to replace the hard drive.
The RIAA didn’t subpoena my personal information from Charter until late April 2005, almost 2 months AFTER my hard drive was replaced. As with all RIAA subpoenas to ISPs, I was not notified of the court date when the subpoena was issued. I was only notified after Charter Communications was served with the subpoena. This letter came late April 2005, again 2 months AFTER my hard drive was replaced. I didn’t officially hear from the RIAA until late August 2005, almost 6 months AFTER my hard drive was replaced. The lawsuit itself wasn’t officially started until April 2006, over 1 year AFTER my hard drive was replaced.
As you can see, I did not replace my hard drive to hide any evidence of anything. The replacement wasn’t my choice and I would have to be psychic to know 2 months in advance my personal information was going to be subpoenaed and a year later, I would be sued.
Yes, all this information was given to the jury during the trial. The main problem that arose concerning my hard drive was the date I gave my attorney for when the hard drive was replaced. I didn’t check the records for Best Buy before I gave my hard drive to Mr. Toder, so when I told him the hard drive had been replaced, the date I gave was January or February of 2004. Obviously, after we received all the information from Best Buy, we saw that the hard drive was replaced in March 2005. We also found out I didn’t even own the computer until March 2004, one month after the date I told my attorney.
This wouldn’t be the first time I was off by a year on my dates.
During my deposition, I was off by one year on the date I purchased my computer (I said early spring 2003 when it was early spring 2004), the date my hard drive was replaced (I said 2004 when it was 2005) and when I finished ripping all the music to my computer (I said the fall of 2005 when it was the fall of 2006) to only name a few. I was basing everything off my memory, without taking into consideration as stressed as I was, my memory wasn’t what I thought it was. I have learned a hard lesson as the jury was not able to see my deposition transcript. I now know to check and double check everything and if I haven’t, my answer will be ‘I don’t know.’
Another rumor I would like to put to rest is the question why didn’t I buy the music since it is offered for less than a dollar per song on sites like I-tunes? To be completely honest with you, I already own those songs they accused me of ‘making available’ on KaZaa. I own over 240 CDs I have purchased throughout my life, most while I worked at Best Buy when I was in college. Their employee discount is amazing!
Anyway, on these CDs are almost 3,000 songs, which in turn are on my computer right now. I have purchased additional songs from Walmart.com. So in total, I own roughly 3,000 individual songs, all legally purchased.
‘I can look back now and see many things I could have or should have done differently’
Now on to my defense during the trial. A lot of people have said I should not have used a ’spoofing’ defense, especially without an expert to testify and give the details.
First, I did not use a ’spoofing’ defense. That term was not even mentioned during my trial until after the judge himself asked one of the witnesses what spoofing was. I never presented a defense someone spoofed my information. My defense was based around the facts an IP address does not identify a person, there was no trace of KaZaa or any peer to peer software on any computer I owned, not a single witness could testify they could identify who was online making song files available, there was no witness who could testify they ever saw me use or talk about any peer to peer software, and there was not a single person who could identify me as the person caught on February 21, 2005 sharing files through KaZaa. Yes, my attorney mentioned certain computer terms during the trial, but I have no idea what any of those terms are.
Second, I did have an expert. This expert did inspect my computer and was going to testify for me at trial. That was originally the plan, until I couldn’t come up with the money for my expert during the trial. Another thing most people don’t know is the defendant is responsible for paying expert witnesses their hourly rate during the trial and providing for their food and board while at the trial. My attorney was able to secure that expert witness at a very reasonable rate, but I wasn’t able to afford this rate during the entire trial.
As for what’s next, my attorney filed a motion to have the verdict thrown out or to have the judgment reduced based on the constitutionality of the judgment. This is not an appeal, this is a post trial motion. We are currently waiting for the plaintiffs to file their response to our motion. The judge will not make a decision on that motion until after the plaintiffs have filed. The timeline for appeals is we have 30 days after the judge decides all post trial motions before we file any appeals. The legal aspects of this case are questions for my attorney and I will always refer those kinds of questions to him. I do know personally I cannot allow my case to end this way, with this judgment. My case will be used as a sledgehammer by the RIAA to force other people caught in the RIAA’s driftnets to settle, even if they are or are not guilty of illegally sharing music online.
Considering hindsight is always 20/20, I can look back now and see many things I could have or should have done differently. I could have settled before I was even sued. I could have settled many times before the case went to trial. I could have worked harder to find a way to afford the things I needed at trial. But I refuse to live life regretting could haves or would have or should haves.
The one piece of advice I can give to anyone who finds themselves being sued or threatened to be sued by the RIAA is to fight back.
The more people fight back against these cases, the more expensive it will be for the RIAA to bring these suits and the less resources the RIAA will have to use against others.
I was found liable of copyright infringement without the plaintiffs having to prove I downloaded anything, without having to prove I was aware of any file sharing taking place on my computer or within my home, without having to prove I owned a copy of KaZaa, without having to prove any files were shared with anyone from my computer and without having to prove who was on the computer the night of February 21, 2005.
This doesn’t seem fair and it’s what keeps me going in my fight.
Jammie Thomas
http://freejammie.freeforums.org/
– • –
You can visit the above URL to read reactions of Ms. Thomas’ statement, and if you like, make a contribution to her cause. In the meantime you can bet your bippies that the entire music community as well as the recording industry is keeping their eyes peeled on the British band Radiohead’s recent release of their latest album “In Rainbows.”
www.comscore.com vs. Radiohead
RESTON, VA, November 5, 2007 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released a study of online sales of “In Rainbows,” a new record album from the band Radiohead. The album’s release has challenged the music industry’s traditional distribution and sales model by allowing consumers to determine the price they are willing to pay for the album, which consumers are able to download at the band’s official site for the album (http://www.inrainbows.com). Consumers could also choose to purchase the Discbox, which includes a vinyl album, bonus CD, and assortment of other trinkets, at the site for a set price of approximately $80 U.S. The results of the study are based on data obtained from comScore’s worldwide database of 2 million people who have provided comScore with explicit permission to monitor their online behavior.
Approximately 2 out of 5 Downloaders Willing to Pay
During the first 29 days of October, 1.2 million people worldwide visited the “In Rainbows” site, with a significant percentage of visitors ultimately downloading the album. The study showed that 38 percent of global downloaders of the album willingly paid to do so, with the remaining 62 percent choosing to pay nothing. The percent downloading for free in the U.S. (60 percent) is only marginally lower than in the rest of the world (64 percent).
“The high percentage of users actually paying more than a few dollars for this download is actually pretty impressive,” said Jim Larrison, general manager of corporate development at Adify, a provider of online ad network services. “I expected the vast majority of users to download the album for free or at most a few dollars. With 40 percent of consumers willing to pony up real money, this is a true win for the music industry as it shows there is still perceived value in the digital form of entertainment. Of course it does suggest that the marketplace is continuing to migrate and the music industry needs to shift with consumer behavior. There are numerous methods to monetize the music, via shows and concerts, merchandising and box sets, commercial licensing, and even advertising; which is where the industry needs to progress towards, as the 40 percent paying for music might not be sustainable.”
“It is important to note that Radiohead has single-handedly accomplished a milestone that the recording industry has failed to achieve – they’ve eliminated much of the profit attrition related to piracy or illegal copying,” said Edward Hunter, comScore analyst and part-time songwriter. “Moreover, they have garnered good faith with the music consumer at a time when it’s all the rage to bash the industry and the artists who ally themselves with it. And then you have the reduction in cost of sale, cost of promotion and production. I’d call this a resounding success for Radiohead and music fans everywhere – and a fantastic artistic effort as well.”
Radiohead stuck up for its fans on Friday. The rock band denied that 62 percent of those who downloaded the group's new album paid nothing for the music.
Last month, Radiohead announced that it was releasing a digital version of the album for whatever fans wanted to pay. Internet research group, ComScore, on Monday released a report that said only 38 percent paid anything for In Rainbows. In a statement, Radiohead's representatives called ComScore's report "wholly inaccurate."
Radiohead's pay-what-you-want offer is groundbreaking and is being watched closely by fans, music labels and other bands. How it fares could influence whether other acts try and sell their own music via the Web – without the support of the labels.
Andrew Lipsman, a ComScore senior analyst, didn't back down. In a blog posted to the company's site on Thursday, Lipsman said that he was "very confident" in the data. ComScore derived its numbers by watching the Internet behavior of nearly 1,000 people. Several hundred among this group downloaded Radiohead's album. In the blog, Lipsman said that when it comes to statistics, this is considered a large sample. "We observed the actual online spending behavior from a robust sample of hundreds of individuals in order to produce an accurate estimate," Lipsman said in his post. "If we didn't have a reasonable sample from which to extrapolate, we wouldn't have released the data."
But in their statement, Radiohead's handlers said that ComScore's study "in no way reflected definitive market intelligence or, indeed, the true success of the project."
Radiohead has declined to reveal any sales figures.
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9814155-7.html
– • –
Sometimes it is more important to listen to other voices than to expound yourself, and for that reason I have turned this week’s blog over to Jammie Thomas and www.p2pnet.net and to www.comscore.com/blog vs. Radiohead. Something needs to happen to change the course of the so-called music industry before they make criminals out of us all. The real criminal here is an R.I.A.A. whose only success has been in blackmailing p2p users threatening them with legal action and this has not curbed p2p downloading one iota. Somehow the R.I.A.A. needs to be stopped. A resounding kick in the ass for its spokesman Cary Sherman would make a good start. Any volunteers? Good luck, world.
The Real Little Eddy
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Little Eddy #9: Ghosts & Goblins past, plus natural phenomenon
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