Culture and Society

David Flanagan mentions an outbreak of blogging by Iraqis as a positive sign of political progress in Iraq. This brings up a point I haven’t seen discussed much: casualties are a bitter pill and should stick in the craw of every one of us. And there is a point beyond …

Heart, the semi-legendary rock and pop band led by singer Ann and guitarist Nancy Wilson, has a new album out, Jupiter’s Darling, their first album of new material in over a decade, which in addition to regular old CD, is available on a try it before you buy it basis …

Apple seems to be serious about holding on to its digital music business: Apple said the new model iPod has up to 12 hours of battery life, compared with eight hours in previous models. Poor battery performance in some iPods has drawn criticism. The 20-gigabyte model, which can hold about …

In the ongoing P2P wars between the RIAA, the file sharing networks, and file sharers themselves, the RIAA has been of late talking up the capabilities of Audible Magic’s “acoustic filtering” technology, urging its adoption upon universities, corporations, and Congress. There are three main considerations: Does it work? How much …

Our own CW Fisher is a poetic soul in an instruction-manual world. Not only is he one of Blogcritic’s most outstanding writers, but he is also a Photoshop artist (did I just make that term up?) of no small talent. Check out his alternately gripping and amusing surrealist portfolio here. …

Anush Yegyazarian, PC World editor, looks at the recent history of copyright law and doesn’t like what she sees. I would say her view and mine are nearly identical: while U.S. courts and Congress have done a lot to help copyright owners defend their rights, they have done comparatively little …

A new digital music service from cable television and telecommunications services company RCN is getting closer to a model that makes sense: a music-over-the-Internet service that offers unlimited computer-based access to 700,000 songs for $8 a month with free song downloads. In deploying the new service with Synacor Inc. of …

Now this is what a musician’s website should look like: bio Billy Taylor encompasses that rare combination of creativity, intelligence, vision, commitment and leadership, qualities that make him one of our most cherished national treasures. The distinguished ambassador of the jazz community to the world-at-large, Dr. Billy Taylor’s recording career …

Because “sampling popular culture is not a crime,” or at least it damn well shouldn’t be. As I have repeated as nauseum here, I want to see creators get paid for their efforts but I also believe that copyright law in America has swung too far in their favor to …

A reader pointed me in the direction of BarterBee.com, saying he was very happy with the system. He was anxious for me to help spread the word as the more people participate, the wider the selection: enlightened self-interest, I approve. Members exchange CDs (movies and games coming soon) the old-fashioned …