Every other post.
I could write about it, but really – just watch it:
Bill O’Reilly Interviewing on Iranian British Capture Situation.
And people consider FOX News an actual news source? What kind of news organization allows even their “opinion” shows to lack such human decency? O’Reilly completely forgoes any rational discussion offered by the guest, instead twisting her words and lashing out direct insults.
This kind of behaviour is absolutely inexcusable.
Either Steve Jobs is a master tactician, or this is the best instance of being at the right place, at the right time, for Apple.
The Apple/EMI deal announced today stipulates that there’ll be new tracks available in the iTunes catalog with no DRM, and twice the bitrate. How anyone would even consider purchasing music encoded at 128kbps had always baffled me. Not everything is glowing, however – that lack of DRM will come at a 30% price increase per track.
Now the consumer rights activists would argue that the removal of DRM should not equate in a price rise. If anything, it reduces the cost by removing the infrastructure necessary to support the DRM platform. To satisfy them, Apple has doubled the bitrate of the songs – inherently increasing their value at virtually no cost. That said, that price hike is only for the single tracks. The cost of an album on iTunes will not change.
EMI wins by getting increased royalty payments. Furthermore, by keeping the cheaper DRMed music in the iTunes catalog, people won’t be turned off by the higher price point of the DRM-less music. They can just go for the restrictive cheaper alternative.
Apple wins because they’re shedding the recent momentum in Europe against the lock-in between the iTunes and the iPod due to their DRM platform. Both Apple and EMI will face little opposition from consumer rights activists for having raised the price, because of Apple’s choice to double the bitrate.
The music listener wins because the music they get is not only at much better quality, but they can now make it work everywhere they want to.
The only ones that might risk getting hurt are proponents of DRM technologies. If EMI becomes succesful on iTunes, it might undermine the case for the use of DRM. Nevertheless, it doesn’t affect the legitimacy of laws surrounding legislative protection of DRM. Those that promote WIPO treaty ratification in Canada won’t lose from this announcement.
This is a positive all around.
University is coming to an end for many of my friends. Some are going to continue their education, others are going to be free to venture out in the great big world. These years have been special, and it’s going out in style.
Thanks to GAAG/OIKOS, we all went to a camp by the name of Awacamenj Mino. It was extremely well organized, and we had a wicked time. My camera caught a glimpse of the fun, but some magic just can’t be caught on film. Check the photos here.
To us, and our future – which has many parties to go yet!
If I were analyzing the situation with the RIAA and it’s suing of filesharers, I’d say that it’s part of their multifaceted approach to reducing current levels of illicit file sharing. I’d say that their approach isn’t so much measured by the number of actual lawsuits, but rather by the impact these have on the general file sharing population. A psychological war, if you will. After all, it is unfeasible for them to sue every single P2P user. But if they can scare enough people into stopping, by appearing to be this ruthless entity – then they are succeeding.
To this extent, I can understand their lawsuits against single mothers, old ladies, and children. Nevertheless, they tread a fine line. The fact that they’ve launched action against people that haven’t even owned a computer has already elicited negative attention. If they aren’t careful, the politicians they haven’t bought might turn against them.
Today comes news that the RIAA is deposing a ten year old child, who would have been seven at the time of infringement. According to RIAA’s previous statements, they maintain that infringers cause damages of $150,000 per song downloaded. The press is going to find this one tough to swallow, and if the RIAA isn’t careful, their efforts may backfire.
I remember speaking to one of the members of a small Canadian contingent dispatched to Russia. He was talking to me about the kind of corruption that was seeping through the system. For instance, all the delegates were staying in hotels exclusively owned by Putin.
One of my favourite authors – Anna Politkovskaya – was assassinated in her Moscow apartment block last October. When the news came through, I already had two of her books in my possession. Her book on Chechnya was perhaps one of the most important political works of the last decade. I found Putin’s Russia flawed, but nevertheless I respected her tremendously for her pioneering work.
And now, the following news:
Russia’s next parliament is likely to have no genuine opposition after a court in Moscow yesterday banned a leading liberal party from standing in elections.
Russia’s supreme court announced that it had liquidated the small Republican party, claiming that it had violated electoral law by having too few members. The party is one of very few left in Russia that criticises President Vladimir Putin.
While one cannot link Politkovskaya’s death to Putin, it is a product of a sick system. A system which is being used to fatten Putin’s pockets, and represented by a morally ambiguous leader. My objection isn’t so much to the fact that the Supreme Court has banned the Russian Republican party from participating in the coming elections. After all, they did only carry 5 of the 447 seats. My objection is that the conglomerate of parties that represents opposition to Putin only hold so few seats to begin with.
Putin is undeniably popular within his home country. But when you have large protests on the streets voicing the position counter to the dominant party, and those voices go unheard in the election polls – it does not speak well of things to come. If not for within the country, then for the relations between Russia and the polarized West.