While tasteless, in the end this company has always been activist and worked hard to raise money and awareness of important causes. Michael Musto says cut him a break and I think he's right: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/dailymusto/2011/02/kenneth_cole_ca.php
What gets me is that many of these record companies will release tracks they don't own on compilations - a major infringement. They are clearly commercially profiting, they clearly know better, but because they have teams of lawyers they release this stuff in violation of copyright laws. Friends of mine have had their recordings essentially bootlegged by major labels in this fashion - and never seen a cent.
When you get into sample clearance it gets even uglier. The little guy gets sued if he sampled, and ripped off if he's being sampled. And his only recourse are legal fees he can hardly pay on a musicians income.
"A June unveiling that coincided with the actual product launch would have kept customers and Wall Street expectations in line; concealed product details from competitors; given Apple TV the full spotlight when it ships; kept iPod sales robust and would have helped Apple gracefully negotiate the rights to use the name "iPhone." In short, it would have been the traditional Apple home run. Steve Jobs blew it.
The problem isn't limited to the PS3 — many HDTV cable boxes and have the same problem. The fix there? Unplugging the power cable.We then checked with Leslie Chard, president of HDMI Licensing, which owns the rights to the standard, who told us that HDCP is one component of HDMI that has been plagued with interoperability issues. HDCP (high-bandwidth digital content protection) is designed to prevent the interception of data — specifically copyrighted Hollywood movies — between an output component and a display. As Steve Balough, the president of Digital Content Protection, the licensing company for HDCP explains, the two pieces of hardware must exchange a "key," a sort of certificate of authenticity unique to each individual device, to verify a secure connection.
Anyone can make an omelet with eggs. The trick is to make one with none.
