201923
submission
wiredog writes:
From Rolling Stone, an overview of The Record Industry's Decline, with accompanying graph of sales decline.
Some snippets (and [commentary]):
[W]e have a business that's dying. There won't be any major labels pretty soon. [They'll surely not be missed!]
In 2000, U.S. consumers bought 785.1 million albums; last year, they bought 588.2 million [A 25% decline.]
In 2000, the ten top-selling albums in the U.S. sold a combined 60 million copies; in 2006, the top ten sold just 25 million [Ouch!]
More than 5,000 record-company employees have been laid off since 2000. [That /does/ suck.]
About 2,700 record stores have closed across the country since 2003, [Including all the local stores around here.]
Around sixty-five percent of all music sales now take place in big-box stores such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy, which carry fewer titles than specialty stores and put less effort behind promoting new artists. [Rough on the artists, that.]
The Internet appears to be the most consequential technological shift for the business of selling music since the 1920s, when phonograph records replaced sheet music as the industry's profit center. [No! Really?]
[M]any in the industry see the last seven years as a series of botched opportunities. And among the biggest, they say, was the labels' failure to address online piracy at the beginning by making peace with the first file-sharing service, Napster. "They left billions and billions of dollars on the table by suing Napster — that was the moment that the labels killed themselves," [Not that we in the online world didn't realize it at the time...]
In the fall of 2003, the RIAA filed its first copyright-infringement lawsuits against file sharers. They've since sued more than 20,000 music fans. ... there was a 4.4 percent increase in the number of peer-to-peer users in 2006, with about a billion tracks downloaded illegally per month, [Guess that didn't work out too well, did it?]
115633
submission
Nkwe writes:
In order to ease border crossings Washington State is introducing 'Enhanced' (with RFID) driver's licenses.
"They will look much like conventional driver's licenses, but will be loaded with proof of citizenship and other information that can be easily scanned at the border."
The requirement for a passport at all US borders is an issue local commerce between Washington State and Canada, and the new driver's license is less expensive then a passport, but what "other" costs will it create?
115619
submission
BitterOak writes:
Four high school students were arrested in Toronto Friday, charged with assaulting police and obstruction, during a protest over the suspension of students for posting derogatory comments about the vice principal on their private Facebook pages. 60 students showed up for the protest, and only four were charged with any wrong doing. This story raises interesting questions. I'm sure no one condones disorderly conduct at a protest, but should public schools have the right to suspend students over online speech? The article doesn't make it clear whether or not the student used school computers to post the comments.
115425
submission
Da_Weasel writes:
If you followed the YouTube censorship and deletion of of Nick Gisburne's account after he posted quotations from the Quran, here's another slap in the face to freedom of expression. The Rational Response Squad, of Blasphemy Challenge fame, has had their account suspended by YouTube. No explanation yet why the account was suspended.
112091
submission
Naviztirf writes:
Kaleidescape, the maker of those $20,000 DVD servers, is being sued by the DVD CCA for "Breach of Contract". Today, Kaleidescape CEO Michael Malcolm will appear in court to defend his company. From the article: "The DVD CCA, which licenses the Content Scramble System (CSS) for copy-protecting DVDs, sued Kaleidescape in December 2004, claiming the maker of video servers breached a contract by building "a system to do precisely what the license and CSS are designed to prevent ... the wholesale copying of protected DVDs," according to a statement released by the DVD CCA back then."
111889
submission
stephencrane writes:
http://www.joegratz.net/archives/2007/03/16/univer sity-of-wisconsin-stands-up-to-riaa/
A student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison shares what his school is doing in response to the RIAA P2PLawsuit.com campaign. In this campaign, attorneys for Sony, Universal, EMI, Warner Music Group and more sent letters to several colleges demanding that they be forwarded to students. The letter (PDF) threatens students with a lawsuit and instructs them to identify themselves and pay a settlement to the recording companies via the website P2Plawsuits.com.
UW-M has sent an email informing students that although they've been given letters to forward to students, they university will not comply without a written subpoena.