And they’re arguing the point in court. Do they understand that winning this ruling would be worse for them than losing?
I guess not.
Now, in an unusual case in which an Arizona recipient of an RIAA letter has fought back in court rather than write a check to avoid hefty legal fees, the industry is taking its argument against music sharing one step further: In legal documents in its federal case against Jeffrey Howell, a Scottsdale, Ariz., man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his personal computer, the industry maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.
Back when I was a kid learning how to swim at the YMCA, they’d teach us lifesaving techniques. They’d remind us that a desperate drowning person can take you down with them without even realizing they’re doing it.
I think that may be what the music companies end up doing to copyright law.
CEO’s Keynote speeches can often sound like a mash-up of things they’ve heard from their employees, some VC buzzwords, and a heaping helping of misunderstood blog posts.
This post over at Magical Wasteland does a pretty good job of capturing the zeitgeist of those vertically integrated encapsulated mass communication encounters in a humorous context so as to provide concentrated insight.
For our last project we used Scrum, and boy, are we glad we did. There is no way anything we did would have been possible without it. What is Scrum, you ask? It’s a set of new terminology for things that already happen when groups of people work together. For example, instead of a “meeting,” you have a “Scrum,” and so on.
You should use Scrum too, since it will solve all your problems. If I’ve piqued your interest, sign-up sheets for my specially discounted seminars on Scrum can be found clipped to the bottom of your conference program.
I suppose it’s the ability to say it with a straight face that gets you the big bucks.
David Letterman is going back on the air next week, and he’s doing it with his writing staff on-board.
David Letterman has secured a deal with the striking Writers Guild of America that will allow him to resume his late-night show on CBS next Wednesday with his team of writers on board, executives of several late-night shows said today.
Most of television’s late-night shows are scheduled to return to the air that night after being off for two months due to the strike, but it is likely that only Mr. Letterman, and the show that follows him on CBS hosted by Craig Ferguson, will be supported by material from writers.
The reason is that Mr. Letterman’s company World Wide Pants, owns both those shows. The company announced two weeks ago that it was seeking a separate deal with the guild that would permit the two World Wide Pants show to return to the air. The talks seemed to be at an impasse until today when the deal was completed.
Should be interesting to see what happens now the first crack has appeared in the dam. It might also be interesting to find out what the terms of the deal were.
After a year in the business of selling downloads Wal-Mart decides to get out.
Wal-Mart shut down the download site after Hewlett Packard Co discontinued the technology that powered it, Walmart.com spokeswoman Amy Colella said in an e-mail. She added that it will not look for another technology partner.
Wal-Mart will continue offering physical DVDs for sale at its stores and online, but would not continue the online downloads business, said Colella, who declined to disclose the number of downloads sold on the site.
I’ve never really understood what the big box retailers think they’re bringing to the online party other than their ability to market the service to their customers in the brick and mortar stores and Sunday circulars. But having a captive audience for paper hand-outs doesn’t really sound like a strong business strategy to me. But then again, there was a time when K-Mart was trying to become a network provider…
But the Internet just strikes me as too fluid for this kind of customer control. A lot of people who start using your service will quickly become savvy users and move onto something with more freedom and/or better value.
As a bonus to their online customers Wal-Mart also giving their audience free lessons in how DRM makes something that is yours not yours anymore:
A message at www.walmart.com/videodownloads said the service was stopped on December 21 and Wal-Mart offered no refunds for the downloaded videos.
Videos purchased on Walmart.com can be played using the Microsoft Windows Media Player or the Wal-Mart Video Download Manager, but cannot be transferred to a computer other than the one used to download them, according to the site.
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