Culture and Society

Two seemingly unrelated bits of news are focusing attention on the value of physical CDs vs. digital downloads: Universal Music Group announced the reduction of their CD prices effective October 1, and an iTunes customer is testing the legality of reselling a digital music file purchased over the Internet: George …

Can 2000 voting cinephiles be wrong? You decide: This year’s inductees reflect the wide appeal of B-Movies and their ability to stand the test of time and resonate with the popular culture. “Many of this year’s inductees overcame problems of distribution common with B-Movies, yet time was their ally and …

Nearly everyday there is news of the legal, strategic, political and other objective aspects of music file sharing – here is an excellent article from the LA Times on the ethical aspects, which is ultimately the foundation of all other considerations. About half of the Internet users in the United …

The capitalist in me says why not to this – why should brokers and scalpers be able to get what the market will bear but not the venues or the performers? Yet I don’t trust Ticketmaster any farther than Pearl Jam could throw them. I fear it will help drive …

R.E.M. began their six-week North American tour last Friday at Thunderbird Stadium in Vancouver, where they have been working on their next studio album. They have a new collection, In Time: The Best Of R.E.M., 1988-2003, coming out in October. The second show of the tour, tonight in Missoula, Montana, …

The FBI arrested a Minnesota teen for creating a variant of the Blaster internet worm: Jeffrey Lee Parson, 18, of Hopkins, Minnesota, a middle- class suburb west of Minneapolis, was arrested on one count of intentionally causing or attempting to cause damage to a computer, according to a St. Paul …

The RIAA is providing fodder for conspiracy theorists for a generation to come – you think the Blackout of ’03 was caused by a catastrophic chain of grid failures begun in northeast Ohio? Ha ha, duped again!: The recording industry is providing its most detailed glimpse into some of the …

Our friends at the RIAA seem hell-bent on ramming their worldview down every customer, former customer, or potential customer’s throat. I see this as a problem from a marketing, customer service and legal standpoint since their methods infringe upon the privacy and civil liberties of everyone who uses the Internet, …

It’s ALL ambiguous right now. Hollywood asked that the DVD decryption code be declared a trade secret and banned from the Internet – they got part of that: The case has pit freedom-of-speech arguments against an entertainment-industry effort to protect what it says are trade secrets. Hollywood is happy because …

One of the recurring arguments that the music industry makes about its legal campaign against file sharers is that they can’t compete with free. This is, of course, crap, because you can compete with free with a superior product, service, convenience, etc. Now in the arena of DVR’s, TiVo must …