The RIAA is doing itself a grave disservice by calling public attention to its battle against file sharing: by employing increasingly aggressive tactics against sharers they run the risk of inflaming the public at large against them, which may force politicians – heretofore largely in the industry’s pocket – to …

Like Christopher Hitchens, Nat Hentoff is a quirky leftist – for example Hentoff is anti-abortion – and like Hitchens Hentoff is pro-war, or at least anti anti-war: I participated in many demonstrations against the Vietnam War, including some civil disobedience – though I was careful not to catch the eyes …

New tentative deal between RIAA and webcasting reps (Digital Media Association) on webcasting royalties: SUMMARY OF DiMA-SOUNDEXCHANGE PROPOSAL FOR INTERNET RADIO ROYALTY RATES & TERMS Scope: Covers digital audio transmissions of sound recordings by commercial webcasters (“eligible nonsubscription transmission services”) and subscription services (“new subscription services”), subject to the statutory …

Tori Amos is looking for help making her music video for her single “Taxi Ride“: Epic Records, in partnership with Apple QuickTime and RollingStone.com, is pleased to announce the creation of “Tori’s Taxivision”, a new on-line contest in which fans get the opportunity to create a music video for Tori …

An interesting take on the “music as utility” model from Greg Blonder: In the late 1800s, when a tenant sought to warm a cold apartment, she had to buy her own coal from passing coal wagons and then haul it in coal buckets up to her fourth-floor kitchen. This apparently …

Brian wrote very interesting and powerful testimony into the mindset of the Christian fundamentalism in which he was raised, or at least schooled. He also extrapolates that experience onto President Bush, which I would caution against as an exercise in projection. The fire and brimstone imagery of Christian fundamentalism is …

I love living in the Cleveland area – I really do. We have a great house in a safe area, my kids love their schools, we have room, great friends, the city is only about 40 minutes away. I like the woods and streams and farms (not many of those …

Osama: Islamist religious fanatic. Saddam: secular Stalinist dictator. Oil and water, right? Bin Laden would never work with the apostate Saddam, and vice versa, right? Their methods, motivation, beliefs, and language are mutually exclusive, right? Listen to this bilge read Tuesday night by Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf: “jihad is …

20th Century Fox sued a young video company for appropriating old footage from a documentary THAT WAS IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. Amazingly, a lower court agreed and ordered the company to pay Fox $1.5. Now the case is before the Supreme Court: Justices were urged to watch a seven-hour World …

Cynthia Webb has an excellent column in the Washington Post today listing the many and various military websites providing direct access to info on the war: The Internet offers users worldwide an unprecedented amount of news and commentary about the war in Iraq. But unlike the last war in the …